How to move Files to a Folder Outside Dropbox on Mac

You can definitely do it that way, Diane.

Meaning you can just download the files from the website and then delete them from the account. It will work the same.

All comments

Hey @dianefranklin, thanks for joining our Community.

Do you have the Dropbox application installed on your Mac computer?

If you do, and if all your files are set to 'available offline', you should be able to drag them out of the Dropbox folder in Finder, and drop them to any other location you want.

This will delete them from Dropbox and move them to the location you chose.

If Dropbox space is the issue, you can always make your files 'online-only' or use selective sync, to free up some space, without deleting files from Dropbox.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks for the information. But I could not find anywhere to see the files to be available offline. Can you explain how to set them as available offline?

The closest thing I found that might work was being able to download the files to another place on my computer. But that seemed to require me to download the files one at a time. I'd like to move the entire folder at once.

Thanks.

No worries, Diane!

You should be able to right-click on the Dropbox folder itself and choose "make available offline".

Thanks, but right clicking doesn't work. These are the options I get when I right click on the folder: Screen Shot 2023-08-21 at 9.49.30 AM.jpg

I'm working on a Mac, OS 12.1. Any other suggestions?

Thanks

Jay

Hi @dianefranklin, you're currently using the Dropbox site.

Please could you open Finder instead and locate your Dropbox folder and check the files there?

Hi Jay,

I just did what you requested and "make available offline" is not a choice when I right click in Finder.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks,

Diane

Hey Diane, can you send us a screenshot of how your files appear in the Dropbox folder?

Screen Shot 2023-08-22 at 10.39.44 AM.jpg

I couldn't figure out how to attach a screenshot so I just copied the jpg into the message. This is how my files look when they appear in the Dropbox folder.

I did figure out how to download Dropbox files to another folder on my hard drive. When I then deleted that downloaded folder in Dropbox, however, it didn't seem to reduce the Dropbox usage. I'm not sure why.

Jay

Are you sure that the folders are deleted from within the Dropbox folder? Do the folders still appear on the Dropbox site when you login to your account?

When you click the Dropbox icon once, in the menu bar at the top of the screen, what message do you see on the bottom left?

No, the files no longer appear when I log into Dropbox on the web.

The message I see at the bottom of the screen is 1.75 GB of 2.25 GB used. That's the only message I saw. I believe that that was the same amount of storage that I had left before deleting my files.But they weren't huge files.

Should I just continue downloading files as I've been doing and deleting them from Dropbox since I don't seem to have any of the other options indicated in earlier messages?

You can definitely do it that way, Diane.

Meaning you can just download the files from the website and then delete them from the account. It will work the same.

OK thanks for the help.

Not a problem, Diane!

Let us know if you ever need anything else.

Have a great day!

OK. Thanks for the help.

I'm a casual, residential, non-collaborative DropBox user who is having the same problem as Diane. I've found no useful info from DropBox about how to physically off load some of my DropBox files to my iMac drive. Please advise.

What is the website you are referring to when you say "...download the files from the website...". Do you mean the DropBox app website, or the DropBox Help Center website, or what?
And how would one do such a download from a DropBox website?
What is the account you're talking about when you say "... and then delete them from the account."? I already have a DropBox Basic account. And what guarantee is there that they don't disappear from both DropBox and my iMac drive - I can't risk some of my important private files to that?!?

Because I am getting several DropBox emails that say I'm exceeding my storage quota, all I want to do is physically move some of my larger files and folders on my DropBox to a folder on my iMAC hard drive. I want them physically off DropBox and physically on my iMac drive, so that I can process them directly without further clogging up my DropBox quota. One of my earlier attempts to move a ffile to my iMac seemed to have worked, until I discovered that only the link to file is on my iMac. The original file itself was still in my DropBox.

Walter

Hey @Phlurim - thanks for joining the discussion here and happy Monday.

When it comes to your concerns, note that the website is the Dropbox website at Dropbox.com not the Help Center or this Community and the account is your Dropbox account while you can download your files from the website as outlined here.

Let us know if you have any follow up questions.

Is your reply equally valid when attempting to download from DropBox mobile app as well as from DropBox desktop app?

Also, I notice that downloaded files (to my desktop) are copies of the originals on DropBox. That being the case, how does this type of download suppose to solve my DropBox storage quota violation - it doesn’t seem to physically remove the file from my DropBox storage?? And what would happen to the copy on my desktop if I deleted the original from my DropBox storage - will the copy get deleted too?

BTW, I only use Apple devices.

@Phlurim wrote:
BTW, I only use Apple devices.

Hey @Phlurim, just to clarify, do you currently have the Dropbox desktop app installed on your computer?

If you have it, you should have a folder named "Dropbox" in your Finder, which should have all your Dropbox files.

This would allow you to simply move the files out of the Dropbox folder, to a location you prefer, to free up Dropbox space, since moving files out of the Dropbox folder, deletes them from your Dropbox account.

Let me know if you don't have this app, so we can find an alternative way to free up your space.

I do have DropBox app on my Mac (Intel, Sonoma). I did a drag&drop of one of the folders in DropBox to my Mac Finder. The folder and its contents appears in my Mac, but it also still appears in my DropBox app on the Mac. The same seems to happen if I try to drag&drop justva single file on DropBox. In other words, it seems the dragged&dropped folder/file now exists in the 2 locations simultaneously. One particular confusion is that it doesn’t say whether or not the Mac one is simply a link to the DropBox one - which one holds the physical item, and which holds the link?! I did a Get Info on both of them, and there’s also no indication that the one that’s still in DropBox has been deleted following the drag&drop to Mac. (It also appears that I can’t reverse the drag&drop and “put” the folder back into DropBox only.) What would happen if I tried deleting the folder from DropBox? Would it then also disappear from my Mac? For someone who “grew up” doing straight-forward drag&drop actions over several years, I’m totally in the weeds when trying to self-manage my DropBox files/folders in today’s new integrated cloud environment! The end results always seem to be counter-intuitive to my non-cloud days. Is there anything you could tell me that could help me better understand how to manually interact my Mac (and iPad) file management with my DropBox content. I appreciate this might be a big ask, but I have personal, private files on DropBox that I’m worried about losing if I make a mis-step! Thank you.

Further, would there possibly be real-life examples available that demonstrate the steps of what a successful DropBox-to-Mac download actually looks like?

Hi again, @Phlurim.

From what you're describing, it seems that the drag & drop action on your computer is copying the file in question, instead of simply moving it.

This is an action that's controlled by your OS, not Dropbox.

Additionally, if you copied the file from Dropbox to the other location in your Finder, these two files are not linked to each other; they are considered two different files.

If you delete the one in the Dropbox folder, the one in your Finder will not be affected.

However, before you copy or delete anything, I would first suggest checking that the file in your Dropbox folder is locally available (or "available offline").

You can confirm this from the sync icon next to it; does it have a green check mark or maybe a gray cloud icon?

If it has a cloud icon, first right-click on it, choose "make available offline" and allow it to sync.

Once it's fully synced, you can move/copy it anywhere you want and are free to delete the original in the Dropbox folder.

If you have any questions about any Dropbox lingo used, feel free to ask as well!

Owing to an initial DropBox message that I was about to exceed a file storage limit in my free DropBox account, I have been trying to permanently move some of my DropBox files to my iPad and Mac. I subsequently deleted this particular set of files from my DropBox account. But some of these files on my Apple devices only seem to be links back to DropBox. Since I had deleted them from DropBox, I only get an error message - from DropBox I think - that the files couldn't be found. My main concern is that DropBox's procedures, for moving and transferring my files out of my DropBox account, is very confusing for casual, non-business DropBox users such as me. I need a detailed user manual specifically for casual users like me. Please advise?

Jay

Hi @Phlurim, could you clarify what exact steps you took to move and delete files from your Dropbox account?

In addition, could you attach a screenshot showing the error message you're getting about the files not being found?