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In Dropbox for MacOS, the Dropbox folder appears two places

I have MacOS Ventura 13.3.1 and the new Dropbox for MacOS has shifted my Dropbox folder to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. However, it left in place my previous Dropbox folder at ~/Dropbox. In Finder, these are apparently synced, in that I deleted a file from one and it disappeared from the other. However, the cloud-only symbol appears for one subfolder under the new ~/Library/CloudStorage folder, but the one under ~/ shows up without the cloud-only symbol. Are these in fact two stored copies of the Dropbox files, and can I somehow avoid this ambiguity and maybe have the files appear only in one place? I'm not about to delete the old location if that might also delete the files from the Dropbox account and the new location. But I don't want to clutter my disc with two copies of everything in Dropbox.

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Accepted answers

Jay

Hi @camsul, as your Dropbox folder is now in the CloudStorage location, the other Dropbox folder, which looks like an alias to that location, is only a shortcut.

If you wish, you can delete that shortcut, so that only the CloudStorage folder remains in Finder.

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Hannah

Hey @camsul, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Can you please hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar, to check if the migration has finished?

If so, is the sync status of the app "up to date"? And which version of the Dropbox app do you have installed?

Keep me posted.

camsul

I have version 172.4.7555, and it says it is up to date. There is no mention about the migration.

Megan

Hi @camsul, could you send me some screenshots of the folder as it appears in your Finder?

camsul

Here are screenshots of the two folders.

Screenshot 2023-04-28 at 4.42.47 PM.png Screenshot 2023-04-28 at 4.41.17 PM.png

If I use "get info", the one at ~/Dropbox says it's an alias, so it shouldn't be taking up double the space. So I guess that answers my question.

camsul

Oops. That was two identical screenshots. Here's the other one.

Screenshot 2023-04-28 at 4.49.43 PM.png

Jay

Hi @camsul, as your Dropbox folder is now in the CloudStorage location, the other Dropbox folder, which looks like an alias to that location, is only a shortcut.

If you wish, you can delete that shortcut, so that only the CloudStorage folder remains in Finder.

Dan H.10

I have the same problem, but the files are different. In comparison they are not the same in file size.

I did not know this and was working on the sidebar dropbox files. They will not upload. Very messy.

I do not think they are synched to each other and the old one is not a shortcut.

Dan H.10

That is not true. They are different folders and the Cloud Storage Dropbox file is "online only" The entire folder. Over 500 GB I have to download?

Dan H.10

New MAC has the sidebar full of my shortcuts to the dropbox folder on my drive.

I worked for a few days and then discovered my files were not being updated on the other computers.

The sidebar folder is not linked to the dropbox app anymore.

The Library in CloudStorage folder file called Dropbox is all online only!

Over 500Gb of files now marked online only in hundreds of folders.

This is a technical memo that should have gone out to all users.

What a mess. What do I do?

Dan

Megan

Hi @Dan H.10, let's jump right into this!

If I understand this right, it seems you're having issues with your Dropbox folder showing in two different paths.

As a first step, you'd need to identify which folder is syncing, and which isn't. Please check your app's preferences, and specifically under your Sync tab, in order to check the path of your Dropbox folder, please.

Feel free to also let me know your app's syncing status at the moment.

Also, do you see Dropbox icons next to the files in both places?

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

Dan H.10

I spent a hour with apple figuring this out and how it happened.

A serious technical note needs to go out to people.

Folder A is linked, but all files are online only. It has the icon and is in the CloudStorage library. This was done by the app I am told.

Folder B is the folder that came over with the migration. It is not linked, and does not sync. No checks or cloud arrows.

I am backing up the orphan file to an external drive now. 9 hours.

Then I will commence to downloading all my online only folders. TimeTBD.

I cannot work until this is done.

NateVee

I have the exact same problem. The previous dropbox alias folder randomly stopped syncing or could have been result of running CleanMyMac - MacPaw and it accidentally scrubbed some program files? But pretty sure it was an issue before running the clean up.

I uninstalled and reinstalled dropbox (204.3.5321-Up To Date). Now I got the dropbox icon with the cloud symbols and can see team's files that were missing for weeks.

However, ALL my file changes in the old alias folder have not synced or migrated or whatever. So now I have no idea of know what changes were made and how to meld the two opposing file structures. If I override all of the files on the new install icon cloud symbol one...it's going to screw my entire team's changes for many weeks.

Now what?

Also executed the Preference > Account > Option > "Fix Hard Links".

However, "Fix Permissions" Errors Out.

Location Path: /Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox