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Relinking an old Dropbox location after reinstalling the desktop app

I am a music producer, and store .logic files within dropbox - I've always loved how seamlessly it seems to store everything, and love that every change not only saves, but syncs in the cloud.

Recently, other files within my dropbox (simple mp3s) were stalling when trying to download, so I reinstalled the desktop app, created a new folder in finder, and removed all folder shortcuts in my finder from my old dropbox location.

However, my folder with the .logic files (which I think I've learnt, only show up as logic files on mac, but are stored as folders within dropbox due to a weird incompatibility) are only showing abut 20 files, out of my 200+ that were saved in that location prior. They are still on dropbox browser, but when I download them, they unpack and rename as "download_dropbox" or something, which is just annoying if I do that to all of them.

My old dropbox location - renamed "Dropbox (Old) - is still live, and presents the logic files correctly, however the message at the top of finder saying "This is an unlinked dropbox" shows up.

Is there a way that I can reinstall Dropbox desktop, and use that same old location - so I can keep the logic files still within finder? Because it seems that the only way to have the logic files show up correctly is within the old location. I tried to select that original "Dropbox (Old)" folder when reinstalling, however a message showed up saying something like "Dropbox cannot create a folder at this location blah blah".

Ultimately, I would like to just re-link my original dropbox location, after already uninstalling my original desktop app.

PLEASE HELP!!

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Hannah

Hey @cyrusvill, thanks for reaching out to the Dropbox Community and happy Monday!

Thanks for the very descriptive post as well, and let's see how we can go about this.

What you'll need to do now, is after reinstalling the Dropbox app, instead of choosing "Dropbox (Old)" as the location for the Dropbox folder, you'll need to choose its parent folder.

Dropbox should immediately create a new Dropbox folder there.

Then you'll need to quickly pause syncing on the Dropbox app and move only the content of the "Dropbox (Old)" folder to the newly created Dropbox folder.

Then unpause syncing and the app should reindex your files and then get "up to date".

Let me know how it goes.

cyrusvill

Hi Hannah,

Thankyou for your response, I like your suggestion!

I ran into an issue though, when trying to drag the .logic files from my original "Dropbox (Old)" folder over (these are the only files in my entire dropbox that are having issues reappearing in my new dropbox folder), an error comes up saying "Could not connect to “Dropbox”.

It may be worth noting that these .logic files have the "cloud with a down arrow" on most of them, and when navigating to the original folder location (Libary/cloud storage/dropbox) of "Dropbox (Old) which is an alias / shortcut, the format is a Folder, and the dropbox logo is next to it. It also has an idol download circle with ~5% showing (the symbol that comes up when you click the cloud with a down arrow, and it proceeds to download to finder). And as mentioned earlier in my post, the message "This is an unlinked Dropbox" is showing at the top of finder, as well as a rectangle on the right saying "Delete Dropbox"....

Any suggestions on what to try next?

Hannah

I see, thanks for the update, @cyrusvill.

You're going to have to follow some instructions, they might look a bit much, but should do the trick:

1. Click the Dropbox app icon on your menu bar and on the window that opens click your initials and go to Preferences.
2. From the account tab, please sign out. ( do not sign back in yet )
3. While signed out, please delete the new Dropbox folder that was created after you reinstalled.
4. Please launch Dropbox again and sign back in to your account.
5. During the setup screen, make sure you select Advanced Settings and set the destination to your drive. We want the app to create a new Dropbox folder.
6. As soon as the application starts up, please immediately pause syncing. ( Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and click the text at the bottom of the window that appears. It describes the sync status and has a down arrow next to it. Click that and pause sync for now.
7. Open Finder and find the old Dropbox folder and move everything from it to the new Dropbox folder created. We are doing this to avoid resyncing everything and allow the app to just re index the files.
8. When the move is done, please unpause sync with the same steps.
9. Allow the app some time to process the index stage, and you should be set.

cyrusvill

Hi Hannah, thankyou for your detailed instructions!

Unfortunately again though, the folder containing the .logic files that are having trouble appearing when I do a normal reinstall and sync, cannot be dragged from Dropbox (Old) to the new Dropbox folder, as they are not downloaded. And I cannot download them, as the Dropbox (Old) is unlinked, and not connected with my account anymore. An error message shows (screenshot attached).

Let me know if you need any more screenshots or information from me to help get a clearer picture of what's happening on my end. This is the message that shows when I try to drag the contents of Dropbox (Old) to the new Dropbox folder.These are the .logic files that are not downloaded, and the ones that aren't copying (there are other folders that can't be dragged over also, for the same reason..however these show up if I just do a normal sync. It's just these files that I would like to present how they used to present in my original folder in finder.This is the location of my original Dropbox folder, and the frozen download symbol thats showing to the right of it.

Jay

Hi @cyrusvill, in order to look into this matter, please could you contact the support team directly for them to assist further?