Dropbox wants to upload all my files

Question

I got a new laptop. After a week or two I noticed that Dropbox was not initiating upon starting my computer. Once I discovered this and started Dropbox, it wants to upload all 92,000 files in my Dropbox folder. Why will it not just upload the new files? Everytime I start my computer the 92,000 file upload restarts. My files will never get uploaded at this point. What do I do?

Hannah · Answer

Sorry to jump in here as well, @Lawjamesq.

Can you please confirm that you've followed these steps?

And once you do, does it help at all?

Also, you should be able to send us a screenshot, by clicking on the camera icon right above the reply box, after clicking on "reply".

Lawjamesq · Answer

When I got my new laptop I left the old one at the Apple Store and they transferred all of the content from the old one to the new one. As far as I know I didn’t download anything from scratch. So the Dropbox desktop app and my Dropbox folder were transferred to the new laptop. It was several days befroe I noticed that the Dropbox desktop app was not initiating upon stating up the laptop and when I noticed that I manually started the desktop app. That’s when I noticed that all 92,000 files were syncing and also that no process was being shown. My Dropbox folder and desktop app were both transferred from the old laptop to the new laptop. If you can tell me how to upload pictures I’ll upload screenshots of what I see when the cursor hovers over the Dropbox icon.

Megan · Answer

Hi @Lawjamesq, don't worry about the rant, it's more than okay and I can understand where you're coming from.

Now let's try to understand why this might be happening, and get to the bottom of this. You mentioned that you got a new laptop.

Is it safe to assume that you downloaded the app from scratch to the new device? If so, that would explain why all the files are syncing. Upon the initial installation, all the content needs to sync to the device.

Unless you had already copied your Dropbox folder from your old device, to the new one. Let me know how you went about this.

Even if you had newly installed the app to your computer, it's a bit odd that the number of files isn't decreasing. Could you check the app's precise syncing status, and version that you're using?

You can do this by locating your Dropbox icon on your task bar, next to your WiFi and hovering your mouse there. Let's make sure that you're not using a beta version, and we'll go from there.