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Relocating dropbox

Love dropbox but due to a mishap (on my part) I ended up with different drive letters assigned to my drives. It's all corrected now but unfortunately I had to relink dropbox in the middle of all this. It didn't ask if I had an existing drive and folder (E://dropbox) but immediately installed itself onto my C: drive.

Surely it should know where it was installed previously? I tried to find how to change the location but it wasn't immediately obvious - so now I have 2 dropbox folders on 2 different drives. Can I just switch back to the original location (E://dropbox)? Will it do it without changing those files that are already there and that haven't changed?

Also, is there any way of getting dropbox not to copy across certain file types? I'd like it to ignore log files etc.

Many thanks

Mike

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Jay

Hi @mbk34, during the installation process of the Dropbox desktop application, there should be an option for advanced settings, and this allows you to have the Dropbox folder in another location.

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Rich

@mbk34 wrote:
It didn't ask if I had an existing drive and folder (E://dropbox) but immediately installed itself onto my C: drive.

That option is available during install, usually under Advance Options just after you sign in.

Surely it should know where it was installed previously?

How? You're reinstalling or relinking. That means your settings no longer exist so it won't know about your previous installation. The only thing it looks for is an existing Dropbox folder, and it can only look in the default location unless you tell it to use a different location during the install.

Can I just switch back to the original location (E://dropbox)? Will it do it without changing those files that are already there and that haven't changed?

Uninstall Dropbox. Reinstall and use the Advanced Options during the install to specify a different location for your Dropbox folder. Be sure to specify the folder ABOVE the existing Dropbox folder. If your old Dropbox is E:\Dropbox make sure you select E:\ for the new one. If you select E:\Dropbox you'll end up with E:\Dropbox\Dropbox.

It should detect the exiting folder and ask if you want to use it. Once the install is done it will need to re-index all of your files. Be patient and LET IT WORK.

Also, is there any way of getting dropbox not to copy across certain file types? I'd like it to ignore log files etc.

https://help.dropbox.com/sync/ignored-files

mbk34

Thanks for the info and a very prompt reply!

mbk34

Unfortunately that didn't work 😞

It sounded fairly simple reading your solution but wasn't in practise. After uninstalling I went to the dropbox download page and it wanted to download something called capture. I assumed this was the new version of the app but instead it tried to connect to all my files which I didn't want. I uninstalled that. I finally found the correct app in a google search rather than via the dropbox home page (go figure). It installed itself, tried to get hold of my phone number and wanted to install itself on my phone. On the PC it immediately linked to the C: drive which I didn't want.

I'll admit I've been really impressed with dropbox over the years and sang it's praises to anyone who'd listen but I'm not too impressed by the app's current behaviour. All I want to to is just have my dropbox folder in it's current location on E:

Jay

Hi @mbk34, during the installation process of the Dropbox desktop application, there should be an option for advanced settings, and this allows you to have the Dropbox folder in another location.

mbk34

Thanks. Sorry for sounding a bit ratty but nothing seemed to be working before. Perhaps I was panicking too much.

Possible suggestions for Dropbox:

Allow users to change the location of their folder.
Allow users to ignore certain types of files (log files etc).
Have a simple differences function between any two versions of a text file (bit like unix diff command).

Jay

Thanks for the feedback, the first option is already available in the Dropbox desktop application during installation, and afterwards when the app is running.

For the other two features, feel free to suggest them on the Ideas page.