Child Item

Transferring files from my account online, to my desktop app.

Device
Dell Inspiron 3480 AOI
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Windows 10
Dropbox App Version (if using the app) On my phone it is 448.2.2; I can't find an app version in my computer settings.

Question or Issue
My computer was going into the shop so I moved all of my important, personal files from my Desktop to Dropbox.com. When I tried to move them back, I got a message telling me to select the file folders I wanted to be on my hard drive. (I assume the rest of the folders will be hanging out on Dropbox.com and the cloud.) After selecting the relevant folders, they totally disappeared! They were not on my hard drive and no longer on Dropbox.com. I finally found a little box to check "see hidden files" on Dropbox.com. When I clicked that, they reappeared on Dropbox.com but they are nowhere to be found on my hard drive or desktop. So, I started trying to copy the relevant folders one at a time to my Desktop. I've been using DB for 10-20 years and now I can't even figure out how to transfer my files from Dropbox.com to my Desktop! I used to be able to just right click on the folder, hit copy, and hit paste on my desktop. Now it says it will only copy the link, not the actual folders. I want the actual folders! I've tried everything I can think of. I have transferred some of the folders to my email and then saved them to my Desktop. Other folders say "some files cannot be transferred" but does not give me any indication of which files can't be transferred!Specific questions:

1: I don't know how to transfer files from Dropbox.com to my desktop.

2. I can't figure out how to sync -- the instructions provided in Help do not work. I have the Dropbox app on both my computer and my phone. All of the files I have been able to move back to my Desktop do appear in my phone app.

Thanks for your help!

Christine

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Comments

Megan

Hi there, @ibaphd, let's jump right into this!

If you're using our desktop app, that means that you have a local folder Dropbox in your File Explorer, and this folder is a mirror of your account online and vice versa. This means, if the app is 'up to date' what you see online should sync on your device, and vice versa, unless you opted to prevent some folders from syncing locally.

Now, you mentioned that you moved your content from your Desktop to Dropbox.com. How did you do this? Did you enable our computer Backup feature and what do you see when visiting this page?

Also, would you mind clarifying which app version you currently have installed, along with the app's syncing status? You can find both by hovering your mouse over the little Dropbox icon in your taskbar next to your WiFi.

Do you have any step-by-step screenshots of the situation you explained? You also mentioned "all of the files I have been able to move back to my Desktop do appear in my phone app" so is the issue resolved now or not?

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there!

ibaphd

The problem is not solved, so let me see what I can answer.

I don't know which app version I have on my computer. There is no Dropbox icon next to my WiFi icon and I cannot find it in the Dropbox settings.

I don't remember how I originally copied the folders to Dropbox.com from my computer. Now that I think about it, I probably did not copy them because they were already on Dropbox.com. I probably just deleted the folders from my computer. I don't think I deleted the Dropbox app from my computer either.

I have Dropbox on both my phone and on my computer. On my computer, it's in Windows Explorer and I have a shortcut to the icon on the Desktop itself. What I'm trying to say is that all of my folders (including the ones I'm trying to copy to computer app -- that is, Explorer and my Dropbox shortcut on the desktop) show up on my phone app, so it is okay. However, none of the files I'm trying to copy show up on my computer or the computer shortcut.

I wanted to copy only some personal folders from Dropbox.com back to my computer. Let's call them Folders 1,2,3. I want all of the remaining Folders and Documents to remain on Dropbox.com as well as Folders 1,2,3. (There are probably over 100 folders and documents on Dropbox.com, but I'm using 1,2,3 as an example of what files I want to transfer back to my computer).

I can tell you step-by-step what has happened (or at least most of what has happened) but I can't give you screen shots because the screen that caused the problem is one that popped up when I first started trying to copy folders back to my computer. Once I clicked which folders I wanted to copy back to my computer, the pop-up-screen disappeared. Folders 1,2,3 (the ones I want on my computer) disappeared from Dropbox.com and are not on my computer either. I finally found the folders on Dropbox.com by clicking a little button that said "Show Hidden Files" so now the folders in Dropbox.com are all there. (I have since found and clicked on "Show Hidden Files" on the Dropbox app as well, but Folders 1,2,3 still do not show up).

So now, the only Folders missing from my computer are Folders 1,2,3. I used to be able to right click the folder, hit "copy", then drop the copy into my computer by hitting "paste." If I can still do that, I do not know how because the right click does not work on Dropbox.com.

I tried everything I could think of to copy Folders 1,2,3. Finally I was able to move Folders 1 and 2 to my computer using the "transfer" function. Specifically, I hit "Transfer." That gave me a screen that asked where I wanted to transfer to. There were two options, one of which was "email it." I entered my email address and sent them to my email (one folder at a time). Then I downloaded them to my computer from my email.

However, when I tried to download Folder 3 to my computer using my email, I received an error that said there were files that cannot be transferred. It did not tell me which files could not be transferred. So, Folder 3 is still not on my computer.

I still don't know how to copy my Folders from Dropbox.com to my computer and vice versa.

Update from this morning.....I've been working on this since Saturday. When I started my computer this morning, all of my folders that I want were still only on Dropbox.com. When I look at my activity screen, it said "Your files are up-to-date." Obviously, that was not true because the Dropbox app was empty. However, a couple of hours later, my folders popped up on Windows Explorer and in my shortcut folder -- EXCEPT Folder 3 -- they are still not there. Unfortunately, all of the Folders I don't want on my computer have been transferred from Dropbox.com to my computer as well. The sync says "Your files are up-to-date", which again is not true because Folder 3 is still sitting in Dropbox.com.

A couple of other strange things happened but I don't think they will be a problem if I can fix this.

Sorry this is so long. Dropbox is my personal program now (it used to be part of the programs that were paid by the University I worked for. Now that I'm retired, they do not pay for it). Because of this, I cannot call customer support -- that would be easier.....

Thanks again!

Christine

Jay

Hi @ibaphd, thanks for the information. In order to look into this matter in more detail, I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for them to investigate further.

ibaphd

How can I do that? I can't call in....

If all I can do is chat, they won't be able to solve it better than you can, will they?

Jay

There could be some device-specific issues which could be preventing the files from being copied across.

The support team should be able to provide more specific instructions for you in this instance.

ibaphd

Jay,

I tried the chat support and it doesn't work. So, I was going to submit a request, but Dropbox.com crashed and now won't come up. What else can I do? Support will be closing in 2 hours and won't open again until Monday. I've been working on this since last Saturday!

Christine

ibaphd

Help!!!!!

Jay

Could you try switching browsers to see if the same behavior occurs again?
Otherwise, you can try using incognito/private browsing mode without any extensions running, clearing your cache and even resetting your browser entirely.

ibaphd

I'll try switching to Google. I don't know how to do your other suggestions. I used to be able to do all of this, but it's just been made so complicated.....