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How to move the Dropbox folder in the computer

I have a Dropbox account.

I installed Dropbox in my new computer and installed without errors.

The Dropbox folder was placed in \Dropbox\Dropbox folder by accident.

I tried to move the folder to \Dropbox folder as it is in my other computer. I receive a message that the folder already exists.

How do I move it to the \Dropbox folder?

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Frank H.25

I tried exiting the Dropbox app, then moving the active Dropbox folder to the \Dropbox. That went fine but launching the app it complained that there was no Dropbox in the required location and suggested exiting and loging in again.

I did that and of course it does not give the option to set the location it just defaults to C:\Users\....\Dropbox and starts downloading the content there straight away again.

The only solution I found was to exit Dropbox.

Rename the \Dropbox folder.

Launch Dropbox and login again, let is start the download to C:\Users\....\Dropbox.

Straight away launch preferences/sync/move. Now since there is no Dropbox folder in the root of , it accepted the setting and did indeed start moving and downloading the whole contents of my Dropbox in the the \Dropbox folder.

Now I have 2 copies one at D\Dropbox and the original at \Dropbox1 folder.

Then I deleted the \Dropbox1 folder.

What I was trying to do was to copy all the folders from the old machine to the new machine. I don't think this is unusual for those purchasing a new machine.

Since I already had a Dropbox folder I wanted to connect that folder to my existing Dropbox account. I don't believe that this would be unusual for someone with a new computer.

Then I came up with the problem that this cannot be done. The rest of the story is above.

There is no option in the installation process of Dropbox to specify where to locate the Dropbox folder. This has been overlooked by the developers. It appears that the developers don't use Dropbox, otherwise they would have come up with this problem themselves over the years. The solution would be so simple as most installer apps give the option of where to install the program. This is overlooked by the Dropbox developers (why?).

Sorry for the long comments.

My system is now working fine and thank you for trying to help.

All comments

Hannah

Hey @Frank H.25, thanks for posting to our Community.

Is the second Dropbox folder (the \Dropbox\Dropbox) the one that has all your files and is actually syncing?

If that's the case, try renaming the first Dropbox folder to something else, to see if that helps.

Let me know how it goes.

Frank H.25

Yes, Dropbox is syncing in that second folder.

Tried to rename the first folder but receive message stating that it cannot be renamed because a file or folder is open. I assume it is Dropbox itself because I don't have anything else running.

Hannah

Thanks for the update, Frank.

Did you try to restart your computer, to see if that helps with this error?

Frank H.25

Rebooting doesn't help.

I also tried to move the active Dropbox to the root \ in the application but said that a folder by that name already exists.

If I exit Dropbox, try to rename the root Dropbox folder, and move the active folder to the root folder. When I launch Dropbox app, will it find the new location or will that break sync?

Megan

Hi @Frank H.25, you can try to quit the app, move the content from the \Dropbox\Dropbox path into the \Dropbox path, and then open the app again.

Can you give this one a go?

Frank H.25

I did that and of course it does not give the option to set the location it just defaults to C:\Users\....\Dropbox and starts downloading the content there straight away again.

The only solution I found was to exit Dropbox.

Rename the \Dropbox folder.

Launch Dropbox and login again, let is start the download to C:\Users\....\Dropbox.

Now I have 2 copies one at D\Dropbox and the original at \Dropbox1 folder.

Then I deleted the \Dropbox1 folder.

What I was trying to do was to copy all the folders from the old machine to the new machine. I don't think this is unusual for those purchasing a new machine.

Since I already had a Dropbox folder I wanted to connect that folder to my existing Dropbox account. I don't believe that this would be unusual for someone with a new computer.

Then I came up with the problem that this cannot be done. The rest of the story is above.

Sorry for the long comments.

My system is now working fine and thank you for trying to help.