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We need an official Dropbox data migration app for faster migration to new machines.

Hi There,

Even with a 200Mbps up/down internet connection and a gigabit ethernet connection to a Mac on the same network, it still takes days to migrate Terabytes of data to a new Mac.

I've read the instructions about not migrating data via disk copy/migration apps but it's unacceptably slow to login to Dropbox, and wait for a sync to transfer data.

REQUEST:
Create a Dropbox migration app that properly copies Dropbox data from one disk to another.

That way, we could connect two Macs via thunderbolt, copy the data via the app and only wait for a sync/check, no copying of actual data.

Hope that makes sense. If that doesn't work then please, there has to be a faster way.

Cheers, Ben

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Comments

Megan

Hey @Ben S.31, thanks for posting here!

Your feedback regarding this has been very valuable and I will endeavor to make sure your voice is heard.

Keep in mind that Dropbox is primarily a syncing service however I will pass on your comments to the relevant departments.

In the meantime, feel free to have a look and try these steps when copying files from one machine to another.

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

Mark

Ben S.31 wrote:
copy the data via the app and only wait for a sync/check, no copying of actual data.

You can do that now. Its how I've always done it and it works fab.

The only thing to be careful of is to either do it before you install Dropbox, or, install Dropbox, let it log on and then immediately pause it, replace all of the files on it and let it start indexing. IT DOES TAKE TIME - the database takes ages to build, and it often gives worrying messages like 'left share, deleted files' etc. BUT it will sort itself out eventually

Rich

Ben S.31 wrote:
copy the data via the app and only wait for a sync/check, no copying of actual data.

To echo what @Mark said, this is what I do already with every new computer. I'm on Windows but the process is the same. Install Dropbox on the new computer, exit the application when it starts to sync, copy the data over and launch the application again. Then you must wait for it to work as it need to index all of your files and build the database.

The one thing I would caution is to make sure all of your data from the old computer is marked as Available Offline first, so you're copying ALL of your data to the new computer, and not just the marker files for any that were marked as Online-only.