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Dropbox Folder Location in Mac OS Ventura

Unavoidably, with the revised version of Dropbox under Ventura OS, my Dropbox folder was moved as predicted.

After the installation, without giving it much thought, I moved the Dropbox folder (via drag&drop) bad under "Favourites" in my Finder window (so it would always be at the top of the sidebar window). It was only afterwards that I happened to come across the information about the mandatory location of the Dropbox folder.

I had not trouble moving the folder, as described above.

Dropbox is synching to the cloud as usual.

AirDrop no longer works (although I suspect that doesn't have anything to do with the folder location)

I can find the Dropbox folder under /users/<my name>.

Under /users/<myname> I do not have a "Library" folder and therefore also do not have a "Cloud Storage" folder.

My "Library" folder is directly under Macintosh HD/ i.e. the same location as /Users folder

An important point I should stress that I did not move any folder anywhere, other than moving Dropbox under Favourites in the Finder window (which I assumed would not change the actual folder location in the file structure). I do not know why the "Library" folder is where it is and not where Dropbox says they should be and why I don't have a "Cloud Storage" folder at all... I used the Search function in Finder and nothing called "Cloud Storage" shows up i.e. there is none on my Mac.

My looking into this issue was prompted by the fact that AirDrop was no longer working. Otherwise everything seems to works fine. BTW, if I "prepare" my Finder to received an AirDrop (by going to Go\AirDrop in the Finder window menu, the AirDrop works fine...

My questions are:

(1) Should (and can I) move the Dropbox folder back under "Locations" in the Finder window where it was after the Dropbox software update - and will it actually work? Will it fix the other problems mentioned here?

(2) Could/would my moving the Dropbox folder under "Favourites" in the Finder sidebar have caused the "Library" folder (and, with it, the "Cloud Storage" sub-folder) to have been moved or not been created, respectively?

(3) Why is my "Library" folder in a different location (as per above) and could my moving the Dropbox folder have caused the "Library" folder to move - seems improbable to me?

(4) Why is there no "Cloud Storage" folder in my "Library" folder at all? What creates the "Cloud Storage" folder - Dropbox or the Mac OS?

Any advice, suggestions, insights etc would be much appreciated.

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Hannah

Hey @Deek, thanks for reaching out to our Community.

Before we answer your questions, would you mind giving us some more info, so we can make sure that we provide all the correct info on our end?

Which version of the Dropbox app do you currently have installed and what's the sync status of the app at the moment?

You can hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar for this info.

Thanks in advance.

Deek

Hi Hannah,

My Dropbox version is 169.4.5684

The sync status is "up to date" (and I checked that this is indeed the case, and it is).

Cheers

Seek

Jay

Hi @Deek, could you attach a screenshot showing Dropbox in Finder, while hiding any personal info, to fully understand what is occurring.

Regarding AirDrop, is it possible that you've enabled the Dropbox Backup feature? The last section of this article might help out.

highpoint7

Jay, I'm new to this community but have used Dropbox for years. I've got a similar issue that I need help with. I had an iMac 27 running Catalina (?) I think and just got a Mac Mini running Ventura. I've just realized on this new mac mini that Dropbox still has the folder (which I used to run dropbox out of) in Finder and I could use between different computers and work on docs etc. IOW, it was like a cloud so to speak. I could work on a doc, put it in there, and on my office computer it would be there to continue working on. But now, it's like a regular folder and if I put anything in it on the Ventura machine it doesn't go on Dropbox to be seen by any other machine... but now the dropbox in the location area is the one that seems to go to the Dropbox cloud and can be seen with other computers. My question: how to I now sync the dropbox folder with the dropbox location so they have the same docs so that any I put in the folder will now actually be in the Dropbox cloud? I don't know how many docs I put in the folder before I realized Dropbox changed. If I now have to use the dropbox in the location area like I used to use the dropbox folder, that's fine. But how do I sync the too so any docs I inadvertently put in the folder can now be on the Dropbox cloud? Thanks for your help and I hope that I'm clear on it.

Jay

Hi @highpoint7, it sounds like your machine has upgraded to the File Provider version using the CloudStorage location.

If you've been updating files in the old location, then they won't sync normally to Dropbox. You'll need to manually check which files are new and move or copy them to the new, syncing folder.

highpoint7

That's a lot of files I would have to check manually...What if I just selected them all in the folder, and moved them to the Dropbox in the location (which is the cloud) area of Finder would it see the identical files and ask me to skip those only sync the files that are new?

Hannah

Hey @highpoint7, this should depend on the settings you have for this action on your OS, since the Dropbox folder is just like any other folder on your computer.

If you want, you can move a couple of files, as a test, to check and make sure before you move everything.