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Dropbox and Parallels

My Mac (iOS 10.12.6) is running Parallels (v15.1.4) so I have a Virtual Machine of Windows 10 Home.

I have Dropbox installed and it shows like this on my Mac:
Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 5.20.09 PM.png
but it shows on the PC side like this:
Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 5.23.19 PM.png
That is, there are two folders on the PC:

Dropbox (\\Mac) (B:)

Dropbox

Only the second one has the Dropbox icon on it.

I'm not sure what's going on. The contents of the two folders on the PC don't seem to be completely identical and files don't always sync between them (or maybe I'm not waiting long enough?). Sometimes a file is visible on the Mac side and sometimes it isn't unless I manually copy it from one Dropbox folder to the other on the PC.

I worry about the folders not being in sync (and what is being saved on Dropbox.com and what is not??) but I mostly want to know - am I using twice as much space on my local hard drive than necessary?

Any help to understand what is happening would be appreciated.

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Comments

Walter

Hey @bobv; thanks for posting on our Community!

I don't see any syncing icons on your files on any of your screenshots. Could you take a look at the system tray (for Windows) and menu bar (for Macs) and let me know what the desktop app is reporting at the moment?

Thanks!

bobv

Thanks for your response.

On the PC side, the system tray icon says "Dropbox 111.4.472" and "Up to date".

On the Mac side, the menu bar icon says "Dropbox 111.4.472", "uploading 100 files..." and "Downloading 5,192 files..." Several hours later these number have not changed. (!)

-Bob

Daphne

For the Mac side, can you try these steps to fix any incorrect file permissions that could be causing the stuck sync?

Also, before switching between the setups, I would recommend always checking that the desktop app is showing "up to date", to make sure everything is synced.

bobv

Thanks for your response.

>> 5. While holding the Option/Alt key, click "Fix Permissions".

>> If the syncing is still stuck after allowing a short time for the changes to take affect,

>> please follow through the steps again and choose "Fix hardlinks"

I don't have "Fix Permissions" or "Fix hardlinks" options on that tab. The only buttons that I have are <Sign Out> and <Add team account>.

-Bob

Walter

Have you made sure that you're holding down the 'Option/Alt' key when on your account's tab in the app's preferences, Bob?

bobv

Yes, holding down the Option/Alt key does not have any effect on what is visible on the Accounts tab. Screen Shot 2020-12-16 at 5.53.12 PM.png

Walter

If you're on the Windows side, try 'Alt+H', Bob.

Otherwise, send us a screenshot of what you see in order for us to have a visual as well.

Walter

Quick follow up here as the screenshot wasn't visible at first @bobv.

Could you reboot your machine and let me know if you still can't get the mentioned buttons to show up?

Is the app installed on this machine with admin privileges?

bobv

See screenshot of the Mac side above.

Alt-H brings up the options on the PC side, thanks. But "Fix permissions" runs C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\icacls.exe which opens a blank DOS window and it doesn't go away. At least, not after several minutes. Hmmm....but when I forced that window closed, it said that permissions were fixed. But the Mac side says that it is still syncing the same number of files.

Thanks for your help.

bobv

No change after rebooting. Option/Alt has no affect on the Accounts tab on the Mac side.

It still says that it is syncing the same number of files.

I installed many moons ago but I have only had this syncing problem in the last few months. Is there a way to tell if it is installed with admin privileges?

-Bob

Daphne

If you're not sure if the app was installed with admin permissions, I'd suggest doing a simple reinstall of the desktop app to make sure this is the case.

Before uninstalling, you can also unlink the app from your account as this is another step we can take to try resolve the syncing issue.

Once you've unlinked and uninstalled the app on the Mac side, you can then go ahead with reinstalling the app with admin permissions, as outlined here.

bobv

I appreciate this advice but I've held off implementing it because it scares me. But now I'm finished with some major projects so now seems the time to do it.

Are you suggesting that I uninstall Dropbox from both the Mac and PC sides?

What risks am I taking that I'll lose something? That is, in the 5000+ cases that the two sides are not exact mirrors of each other, what will the reinstall do when it encounters two different versions on the same file?

Thanks again.

Daphne

I see, I completely understand @bobv!

Since the Windows side is showing that it's "up to date", this would mean that the files there would be the ones synced to your Dropbox account online.

As we don't know how long the files haven't synced from the Mac side, we don't want to potentially overwrite the synced data with older versions.

Before reinstalling on the Mac, I would suggest keeping/making a copy of any recently edited files that you edited from the Mac (that aren't synced with your Dropbox account online).

Then, you can remove the Dropbox folder from the Mac or rename it, so that when you reinstall you can setup the app as new, and sync the data down from your account online.

If you have enough space on your computer, you can keep the whole "old" Dropbox folder on your computer and just rename it before reinstalling the app.

That way, after the app has finished syncing your files down to the Mac side, you can copy over any files that you have a more recent version of from the "old" Dropbox folder.