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This folder already contains a Dropbox directory. (Dropbox 3.03 on Fedora 21 (x64)

Is this some kind of a joke? I keep my dropbox folder on a separate partition to simply redirect the dropbox daemon to that location and not have to go through the whole download process all over again. Now, after a fresh install of Fedora 21, installing this new version of dropbox prevents me from pointing it to the previously installed location stating 'This folder already contains a Dropbox directory.'.... THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW!

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Accepted answers

Rich

Uninstall Dropbox if it's installed. Rename your existing Dropbox folder to Dropbox_OLD or similar. Reinstall Dropbox and select the location that you want for the Dropbox folder. Keep in mind that external drives are NOT recommended as data loss can occur under the right conditions. When the installation is finished, Dropbox will immediately start to sync. Pause syncing or exit Dropbox. Move the content of Dropbox_OLD into the newly created Dropbox folder. When the move is complete, and not before, resume syncing or re-launch Dropbox.

At this point Dropbox will begin indexing all of your files. This process will take a while, especially with 700GB of data to go through. During this time it may say that files are uploading or downloading, but it's only transferring comparison data and any changes that it find. be patient and LET IT WORK.

All comments

John L.2

Hi Nathanel,

This is a known issue that we are working on fixing. Can you download 2.10.52 for now?

https://d1ilhw0800yew8.cloudfront.net/client/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-2.10.52.tar.gz

Thanks!

John

Nathanel T.

Awesome John, thank you for the prompt response - Other than that the new app looks great.

Dave G.

Hello,

What's the sketch with this? I needed to uninstall and reinstall dropbox but now I cannot use it because it wants to download all my files again to a new location (300gb worth). I need to be able to point the new installation to it's previous location. This is an urgent issue.

The link to v2.10.52 below does not contain a setup.exe file.

Thanks,

Dave

Nathanel T.

Dave, that specific link is for Linux based distributions, hence the 'Fedora' in the title... it's an unpacked version of the DB daemon for 64 bit linux-based distributions....

Dave G.

Hello. Thanks for the note Nathaniel - I was a bit out of my depth opening that then!!

My fix for this for anyone else coming across this was to copy both my dropboxes into a new folder, re-install dropbox, and then copy all my files back into the specified dropbox folders again. Didn't take too long and all synced up nicely again now.

John L.2

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the report! This issue should have been fixed in 3.0.4. Were you still experiencing problems on that build?

Best,

John

Dave G.

yes

Dario S.

I also have the same problem. I have Dropbox 3.05 and use Windows 7 Professional.

I renamed the original folder to DropboxOld and used the same process to begin the move. I planned to pause it as soon as it started, delete the new folder created by the application, and rename DropboxOld to Dropbox, but it has been stuck at "Moving Dropbox..." for a few minutes and when I look at the destination, it didn't even create a new Dropbox folder to begin copying files into.

The website is also remarkably inflexible. When I go to the download page, I only can download version 3.05 - not any older versions and not the 3.1.274 development version, which I need to use a search engine to find on another website.

Matthew C.5

Also having problems

On v3.0.5 of dropbox using Mint 17.1 x64

Emiliano S.

Same as another user

Dropbox 3.0.5 in Mint 17.1 x64

My Dropbox folder is in another partition (in another disk, really), and I can't use it because I can't pair the new client with the old Dropbox folder.

John L.2

Hi Emiliano,

Are you trying to use the Dropbox folder from just Linux or both Windows and Linux?

--John

Tim F.2

I'm experiencing the same issue on Windows 8.

John L.2

Hi Tim,

Can you tell us some more about what is happening? Is this happening when you initially link / install Dropbox, or when you try to move the folder via preferences?

--John

Tim F.2

Interesting point John, I was in the middle of downloading 2.10.52 from some random website to test and decided to try the other option of specifying during the installation page than via the preferences.

It works during the installation page rather than the preferences page.

I would have assumed it's the same code path, guess not.

John L.2

Hi Tim,

Good to hear that it is working. The reason it is different is that on fresh install you don't have a Dropbox folder yet (so we try to merge with the previous one) whereas in Preferences you already have a Dropbox folder so we will just try to move it to the new location (and we won't move it if one already exists there).

--John

Matthew C.5

Hi John,

Is this a feature or bug?

Shirazi I.

I first installed the Dropbox client on Windows. Assume it uses the directory C:\Users\joe\Dropbox in my NTFS partition.
Boot into Ubuntu. Edit /etc/fstab so that the NTFS partition which contains the Dropbox directory on Windows is mounted automatically at boot. I assume it is mounted at /media/my-c-drive
Install the Dropbox client for Ubuntu. During installation, let it pick its default directory as /home/joe/Dropbox
You can see the Dropbox client running in the Panel. Quit it.
Delete the Dropbox directory and replace it with a symbolic link to the Dropbox directory on the NTFS Windows partition:

$ rm -rf /home/joe/Dropbox

$ ln -s /media/my-c-drive/Users/joe/Dropbox /home/joe/Dropbox

Start the Dropbox client again and you are done. It will use the same directory as that used by Windows for syncing.

Note: As you might have suspected, there is a small problem with this technique. Every time you switch between Windows and Ubuntu, the Dropbox client will re-index the contents of its directory. This will happen in the background, but it will consume CPU, disk and network bandwidth. How irritating this is depends on the size of your Dropbox directory. If your Dropbox directory is large, then this type of sharing can only be a temporary solution for these reasons.

nchk13

My problem is the same as Emiliano's. I use Dropbox 3.2.9 on Windows 8. My dropbox folder is in another partition. After dropbox update I can't pair old dropbox folder (D:\Dropbox) with new client. So can't use it now.

Gabor P.

$ rm -rf /home/joe/Dropbox

$ ln -s /media/my-c-drive/Users/joe/Dropbox /home/joe/Dropbox

Thanks, that helped me (avoid syncing 30Gb of data)!

Every time you switch between Windows and Ubuntu,

the Dropbox client will re-index the contents of its directory.

Win/nix switching takes place between different PCs, but every time I boot my Ubuntu, HDD keeps scratching for 10-20minutes or so.

Peter D.19

Same issue. Cannot merge the old dropbox folder with the new old. The method of copying the old into new doesn't work as well. It duplicates the 2 folders and said "Selective Sync Conflict". I'm going to download the old version of Dropbox that allows me to merge.

John L.2

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the report. It sounds like your problem is that you have told Dropbox to not sync any of those folders before copying in the folders from the old location. If you like, you can try the following:

Uninstall Dropbox.

Install Dropbox.

Make sure that Dropbox is set to sync all of your folders in selective sync settings (the folders should start being downloaded).

Quit Dropbox.

Copy in the files from the old location.

Restart Dropbox.

That should help you 'merge' in the files from the old location. The 'Selective Sync Conflict' folders are created when Dropbox is told not to sync certain folders but then files appear at those locations.

--John

Georgi G.3

the same problem - reformatted C drive (I have dropbox folder on a separate HD), reinstalled windows and tried rienstalling dropbox and directing it to the previous folder (I do not want to sync 20gb worth of data). New version tels me that there is already a dropbox foleder there, and refuses to sync. I tried the older version which I have, and which did work well in similar situation before, but now I am getting the message that this is an older version and I need to download the new one, and that's after the program has already been installed!

If there is no solution, then I guess I should cancel my paid dropbox account and try some other option for cloud storage

any help?

Afdhal T.

My local Dropbox folder is in separated partition (non OS).

I just recently change to different OS and I can't make my Dropbox to be synced with the folder. It gives me "This folder already contains a Dropbox directory." error.

Making new folder is not practical as my current account has large files in it.

Any workaround?

George R.7

So dropbox where is your reply? Too hard?

Eddy Q.

I have a similar problem. I'm using Windows 10. In my case I had Dropbox on my 2nd partition (W:) but reloaded my system from a backup (C:). Then installed the latest Dropbox (3.16.1). Then renamed W:\Dropbox to W:\Dropbox.old. Then tried to Move C:\Users\me\Dropbox to W:\Dropbox but it says "This folder already contains a Dropbox directory" ... but it doesn't. So I went into Dropbox.old and deleted desktop.ini figuring that is how it "knew". But that didn't help. So I renamed Dropbox.old to old.old ... same error. I don't have enough room on my system to Dropbox.old to the recycle bin and I don't want to delete the content.

Does anyone know what I should try next?

Eugene P.3

Similar - if same - problem. New installation of Windows 10 on primary partition/drive. Secondary drive/partition is where both my personal and work dropbox files are. Installed Dropbox. Couldn't select folder on different partition so decided to selectively sync nothing for now and change in settings later on. Linked to work dropbox account. Changed work dropbox folder to one on secondary. When I tried to do the same for my personal, it gave me the error that there's a dropbox folder already. I tried turning off select sync, I tried unlinked and relinking account - to no avail. In the end, I just decided to resync everything. Rather inconvenient given how much I had to sync... this must be fixed.

Robert V.12

Same here. Windows 10. I had to uninstall Dropbox. Reinstalled, and now I can't point it to use my existing files, for the reason others have listed here.

This worked in previous versions. I'm in a hotel with a very slow internet conection, and do not have time to re-sync 180Gb of files.

Marcelo R.6

I just had the same issue. My Dropbox folder is located in an external USB Hard Drive, I bought a new Notebook, installed the Dropbox app but could not sync the folders because it says "This folder already contains a Dropbox".

Do you know whether there is a solution for tha or not? If not I'm gonna cancel immediately my subscription.

George R.7

There's no solution. None of the competitors have a solution either. Amazing!

Marcelo R.6

George R., is there any workaround for that?