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Dropbox changed location, now lots of "conflicted copies".

A couple of days ago Dropbox updated itself by moving my Dropbox files to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. Ever since then, I'm seeing all kinds of duplicate folders that have "conflicted copy" in the file name. This wasn't happening prior to this change. Before this, everything was running smoothly and my Dropbox files were always being synced across my two computers.

What's going on here? It seems like Dropbox has broken my file system and I'm unsure of which copy of each folder I should be saving, the original or conflicted copy. What do we do?

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Megan

Hi @Robert F.41, let's jump right into this!

You mentioned that you have some issues syncing files ever since that latest change, and that you have some conflicted copies in your Dropbox folder

Could you hover your mouse over your little Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi on the menu bar, and check both the syncing status and the version of the app you're using?

As for the conflicted copies, and what you can do to remedy them, you can have a look into this article.

Keep me posted!

MitjaBosnic

I had the same issue and it's definitely not a sync thing. Dropbox just moved all the folders that I used to have in my "root folder" or whatever you'd call it into a folder called "Mitja [removed]". I tried moving them back but it seems like I can no longer have any files or regular (non-team) folders there. This just deleted all my shortcuts, many of which were used to share files directly to hundreds of our customers.

Hannah

Hey @MitjaBosnic, sorry to see you're having this issue.

Can you please check the 'sync' tab in your Dropbox preferences and let us know what the location of your Dropbox folder is?

Stuart M.12

We have tons of links, pinned files inside our apps etc. What was the reason that dropbox wanted to destroy all of our links? How do we get back to the old folder structure?

Hannah

Hey @Stuart M.12, sorry to see you're having trouble.

Can you please clarify what you're referring to?

Are you referring to the Dropbox for macOS app update that moves the Dropbox folder to ~/Library/CloudStorage?

Any additional info on the issue would be really helpful.

Stuart M.12

Hi, we use windows. The path to our team folder used to be something like:

c:\company name (dropbox)\company_TEAM

now after the update it is suddenly something like:

c:\company name dropbox\company_TEAM

That small change has caused hundreds of files to no longer be easily accessible. The other change causing problems is for all our files outside of the TEAM folder. For example:

old path:

c:\company name (dropbox)\folderxzy

now after the update it is suddenly something like:

c:\company name dropbox\myfirstname mylastname\folderxyz

Please help!

Hannah

Thanks for clarifying, @Robert F.41.

I understand you're referring to the file system change, due to updating your Dropbox Business team to the newer version.

I do understand your frustration over this and will make sure that your comments are passed along to our team.

I would suggest that you take a look at this article for more info on this update and if you have more questions, please let us know.

MitjaBosnic

Hi Stuart, I spoke to Dropbox support about this exact issue and they said it's expected and unavoidable with the new update to the Dropbox Team system. Now, all files and non-team folders need to be placed in your "member folder" so everything that was directly in the root folder before is affected. It sucks but looks like there's nothing to do.

Stuart M.12

yes; i also read all the checklists before the update. I have also reread it. I have seen no advantages to having changed the paths and ruining all of our existing bookmarks, shortcuts, links, etc.

Stuart M.12

Another item that is affecting us is that the path to many files is very long. Dropbox wants to put the root sync folder into our windows user directory. I suppose there are some advantages to that but I am not sure what they are. Can you please explain? Because from our standpoint it simply makes the path very long. Also the root folder is named "my long company name TEAM" which also makes it long.

Is there any way to rename the root folder to something like c:\db.

The other reason we want this is that it is nice if all of the paths inside our company are the same. Then we can share common links. The reason we like to work in windows explorer instead of the web browser is due to many of the apps we use. We cannot simply open all our files in a "browser." We use special applications. So it is inconvenient to send dropbox links within the company. We can reach the file but in the end we prefer to be inside our windows explorer in the actual OS and not in the browser. Does this make sense why this is a problem for us?

The other problem with the browser is that Dropbox does not show the full path name in the browser. You only get to see part of it and this makes it hard to understand in what folder you are searching or browsing. I am trying to use Dropbox the way it was intended but sometimes I feel that I need workarounds.

Please let me know any advice or helpful tips you can offer.

Hannah

Hey @Stuart M.12, thanks for taking the time to post your feedback about this.

I will make sure your comments are passed along to our team and if you need anything else, please let us know.

elmeida

I have also been experiencing the NIGHTMARE that DropBox has created. All my paths have been altered and software that depends on consistent paths for hundreds of linked files is now unable to open properly due to this change. Talking to support they just brushed it off.

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO CHANGE WHAT WAS NOT BROKEN!!!!

Walter

Hey @elmeida - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you let us know some additional information so that we can assist further?

For example, what is your device's OS version and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app installed there as well?

Also, since you got in touch with our support team too, could you share your ticket ID so that we can look it up in our system?