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How to sync my files locally on my Mac, after they've been syncing as online-only?

I have a m1 mac and longstanding free dropbox account and noticed almost all my local files were gone. It looks to me like some update to the desktop app seemingly turned on selective sync (ugh) and now all my files are online only.

I'd like to set it back to local files present 'and' synched to online as it has been for many years.

I found and (re)set the sync=>default sync state for new files to 'available offline' but do not see a way to tell it to catch up that setting for existing files already moved online-only. There is no 'sync back the other way FROM dropbox' option that I can tell.

Again, I want local copies of everything, and online copies sync'd copies of those.

I am very reluctant to try SelectiveSync unselect all -> update -> select all -> update or something like that. I also don't want to use the 'download' option to grab a second copy of many GB of data. I just want the app to resync and get local copies again like I had it from the earliest days of dropbox even existing.

How do I do that without risking losing my data ? Right now I think I'm in a position where a dropbox server disk crash loses everything. That would be bad.

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vinceskahan

ok - lets call it resolved. For others who search for the right buzzwords, the way to sync 'from' dropbox back 'to' the local disk is to open your dropbox folder in Finder on the mac, then right click (or trackpad equivalent) and select "make available offline" and dropbox will pull the data back into your local disk dropbox folder.

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Megan

Hey @vinceskahan, let's jump right into this!

Just to make sure we're on the same page: are you able to see your files inside your Dropbox folder, or not?

I'm just trying to realize if you're using the online-only feature, or selective sync.

Have you tried out these steps by any chance? If you right click on a file/folder do you have the option to make the content available offline?

Let me know more!

vinceskahan

See them how ? In the Mac Finder ? Under Selective Sync via Preferences ? In the Dropbox 'Open on web' pick ?

Mac Finder - see the folders and files therein. Files are marked with a cloud icon indicating (to me at least) that they're online

Selective Sync via Preferences - I see folders but no files therein. All folders are checked. Update button is greyed out unless I 'uncheck' (which is backwards from what I want)

Open on Web - I see folders and files therein.

I see the 'unselect and update' can REMOVE them from my local disk. I'm trying to do the opposite.

Right click in which of the three methods above ? Finder ? Selective Sync ? Web ? I see no way to do that in any of them.

Walter

Hi from me too @vinceskahan - and thank you for the additional information.

Can you try right clicking on the files and/or folders you see with the cloud icon within your Dropbox Folder in Mac's Finder?

What options are you getting there?

vinceskahan

Make available offline 'does' work, but there is no way I'm going to hunt and pick through many hundreds of folders and files and do this one-by-one....that would be ridiculous.

(update - it 'does' appear I can right click on a folder and get the contents to download. Is that the expected method that you haven't documented anywhere ?)

Walter

You could try selecting the whole Dropbox folder and set it to be available offline @vinceskahan

And from there, you can also adjust your syncing settings through the app's preferences.

Let us know if anything else comes up!

vinceskahan