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Can I safely delete ~/.dropbox/instance1/dfc/ after migrating to File Provider on macOS?

dontokyo

Hi everyone,

Dropbox recently appears to have migrated to File Provider on my Mac. My Dropbox folder is now located under:

~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox-<company name>/

After this change, I noticed that the following folder contains approximately 25 GB of files:

~/.dropbox/instance1/dfc/

Could someone clarify what this folder is used for and whether it can safely be deleted?

Specifically:

Is it temporary migration data, a cache, or data still required by Dropbox?
Will Dropbox automatically clean it up?
If manual cleanup is supported, what steps should I follow to avoid losing files or causing sync issues?

I have not deleted or modified the dfc folder.

Thank you for your help!

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Jay

Hi @dontokyo, thanks for posting today!

As you mentioned that you have 25 GB of data, it's likely that this is a temporary folder used for migrating your data into the CloudStorage folder to be used with File Provider.

It should be automatically deleted after the files have all successfully migrated and been re-indexed by the Dropbox desktop application.

How long has it been since you've migrated to File Provider? Could you attach a screenshot showing the 'Sync and storage' dashboard in the Dropbox desktop application, as shown here?

Feel free to drop any relevant details below. The more I know upfront, the sooner I can zero in and find a solution for you.

dontokyo

@Jay

Thanks for your reply. It has been about 1.5 hours since Dropbox finished syncing, but the dfc folder currently occupies 26.87 GB.

I've attached a screenshot of the “Sync and storage” dashboard. Sorry that the interface is in Japanese.

Could the migration or re-indexing still be running in the background even though Dropbox shows that syncing is complete?

Jay

Does the text on the bottom left under the 0 mean that the desktop app is still syncing?

Could you attach a screenshot showing the Dropbox folder itself in Finder, showing the syncing icon next to the folder?

dontokyo

@Jay

The text in the bottom-left corner says:

“Sync issues: 0”
“Syncing”

So yes, the desktop app is still showing “Syncing.” Sorry for the confusion in my earlier message.

Jay

Thanks for the update. Please let me know once the app says that it's completed syncing on your machine.

After that, we can check to see if that folder ~/.dropbox/instance1/dfc/ has been deleted from your machine.

dontokyo

Dropbox now shows that syncing is complete, and it has been about an hour since it finished. However, ~/.dropbox/instance1/dfc/ still contains just over 26 GB of files.

Should I wait longer for this folder to be cleaned up automatically, or are there any additional steps I should take?

Jay

Yes, I'd give it another few hours, just to be certain that the system has processed the changes, as we don't want anything to happen to your existing data if we delete this too early.

dontokyo

@Jay
It has now been about 12 hours since your last reply, but the files are still in ~/.dropbox/instance1/dfc/.

Should I continue waiting, or is there anything else I should do?

Nancy

Hi @dontokyo, hope it’s alright if I jump in.

If you add a new file to your Dropbox account online and check your desktop app after that, you don’t see the file in this directory ~/.dropbox/instance1/dfc/, correct?

I just want to make sure that your files are only syncing to your ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox, as they should.

dontokyo

@Nancy

Yes, that's correct. I tested this as follows:

I uploaded a new file through the Dropbox website.
The file appeared in my local Dropbox folder under ~/Library/CloudStorage/.
I searched for the filename within ~/.dropbox/instance1/dfc/, including its subfolders, but found no matches.

Megan

Hey @dontokyo!

In that case, since the ~/.dropbox/instance1/dfc/ path doesn't seem to be syncing with your Dropbox account, it should be okay for you to delete this older/inactive path.

Just to be safe, you can do a test run and delete some files first. Once you've confirmed that everything is working and syncing as it should, you can delete the rest. I'll be waiting for your updates!