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Move large sub-folder within Dropbox Family

I have a sub-folder in Dropbox Family containing 180Gb of family photos. I would now like to promote it from being a sub-folder to being a root level folder. If I make that change on the Dropbox website, will each PC in our family then synchronise by deleting all files from the sub-folder and then downloading them all again (will take a very long time)? Or will each PC simply move the files without deleting/redownloading (much quicker)? What is the quickest and most effective way to make that change?

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Walter

Hi there @PD99, thanks for using Dropbox and welcome to the Community!

You should be able to achieve what you had in mind in no time since the desktop app would only be re-indexing the structure of your account and not deleting and re-downloading your files anew.

You could also do this on your computer while using our desktop app. Just make sure to give the app enough time to sync your changes and state that it's up to date before you can expect to see the new folder structure on your other devices and/or the web.

I hope this helps!

PD99

Thanks for your advice Walter, I did what you suggested but unfortunately ran into two issues.

(1) When I moved the sub-folder up to become a root folder it changed from being available offline to being online-only. As a result, all the files were removed from my PC, and I have now had to download them all again (180Gb) which is exactly what I wanted to avoid. That might have been because the default setting for new files was online only, so Dropbox might have applied that setting to the folder when it was moved as if it was a new upload. With hinsight, I should probably have moved the sub-folder in File Explorer on my PC rather than moving it on dropbox.com, as that might have kept the downloaded files on my PC and just reindexed them on dropbox.com. This is something that you should consider addressing - if a user is moving a sub-folder that is available offline then you could have a pop-up asking if they want to contine having the files available offline in their new location

(2) The original sub-folder was in a root folder that was shared with my wife, but when I moved the sub-folder up to become a separate root folder, she was removed from the share and the files were removed from her PC. As a result, I've had to add her again as a share on the new root folder, and she has also had to download all the files again (180Gb ...). This is something that you should consider addressing - if a user is moving a sub-folder out of a shared folder then you could have a pop-up asking if they want to contine sharing the files in their new location

Mark

Hi @PD99

In regards to the issue of downloading again you actually wont need to - because Dropbox has a local cache that all files move to when deleted etc. for about 7 days. That is to save this exact issue.

So (annoyingly!) the app will say its upload/downloading but it actually isnt.

To turn off Smart Sync doing what it did you need to disable it. Go in to Preferences, go in to Sync and then 'New files default 'Available Offline'.

However, you will need to right click on all the ones with the little cloud and set that to 'Make appear offline'.

PD99

Thanks Mark, it's helpful to know about the local cache which as you say should avoid this issue. My PC has spent the last 5 hours telling me that it was downloading the files again, but perhaps they were simply being reindexed out of the local cache - impossible to tell. It's now finished and I have all the files saved offfline in the new structure so I'm all set, but hopefully this will help others with the same question.