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Set up new computer and now I have tons of "selective sync conflict" folders and my account is full

Hi all... I just migrated to a new computer. I thought Dropbox would know what to do, but now there are tons of "selective sync conflict" folders and my dropbox is suddenly full?! Now that this is happening, how to get out of this situation without it becoming a horrible mess (if it isn't already?). I really wish Dropbox would have some kind of protocol / warning that goes into effect when it notices it's installed on a new computer, this is nuts! Very appreciative of any help!!

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Hannah

Hey @Jeremy K.8, thanks for reaching out to us.

A selective sync conflict will happen when you remove folders from your Dropbox folder through the selective sync feature and then create another folder in the same location as the folder you previously removed. Is this something that might have happened here?

Also, can you let us know the exact steps you followed to set up your new computer?

Any additional info would be really helpful.

Thanks.

Jeremy K.8

Hi Hannah,

Thanks for the reply. I didn't create any folders in the way you're describing. With my new computer, I used the standard Mac OS migration app to migrate my data from my old computer to my new computer. Other than that, I think I just signed into dropbox on my new computer (I didn't do anything to dropbox on my old computer). I can't remember doing anything else dropbox-related to either computer... Unfortunately, now I have hundreds of folders labeled "selective sync conflict." (probably my entire Dropbox of nearly 3 TB, I'm guessing?). What do you think?

-Jeremy

Jay

Hi @Jeremy K.8, when you used the Mac OS migration app, did you also migrate the Dropbox folder using that method?

This could be the reason for what you're experiencing, as we don't recommend using other systems of migrating files to a new machine in case of situations like this one.

Jeremy K.8

Hi Jay,

I used Apple's Migration migrated my whole hard drive to the new computer, including the dropbox application and any dropbox files that were synced to the old computer... I had some very large media files that I needed to work on the same day, so I couldn't wait to download them unfortunately. What do you suggest I do now to clean everything up? Is there any documentation as to how to correctly use Dropbox with Apple Migration Assistant, if I did it incorrectly? I may have to migrate another couple computers very soon as well.

-Jeremy

Jay

Currently, there isn't any documentation on using Dropbox with any other migration software, as it generally isn't recommended due to the different permissions involved with the files.

As you now have selective sync conflicts, you would need to check each folder manually and see which files are newer in both folders (as some folders maybe contain different versions of files), and then consolidate them into one folder.

Jeremy K.8

Hi Jay,

Thanks for your reply. I am a bit surprised that there is no documentation on how to use Dropbox with the standard Mac OS migration... Or, if the recommendation is to never use it (not sure if that is the case either?), a simple alert from dropbox at any point in the process would have been very helpful.

Since I migrated to the new computer, I have only been making changes to one folder for one project, out of the thousand+ folders I have in my Dropbox. However, there are approximately two hundred new "selective sync conflict" folders now in my root Dropbox folder, from a variety of projects. I'm trying to understand what this means - did Dropbox indeed try to merge / compare the data that was copied over to my new computer from my old computer via thunderbolt, and does it think that the folders it's labeling "selective sync conflict" don't match what's in the cloud? (In this case it's hard to imagien that that many folders would not have been copied correctly because Mac OS migration is supposed to be very solid in terms of transferring data). Or, did it perhaps try to duplicate the entire 3 TB of data, labeling everything "selective sync conflict," but it only got so far in the process because I ran out of data as it tried to duplicate 3 TB of data? Or perhaps there's another explanation of what is occurring?

When I look at an overview of my Dropbox data using the 3rd-party app Daisy Disk (not sure if you are familiar with it), it appears that much or perhaps all of my "old" data is still there in large folders (hopefully intact), FYI.

Please advise...

Hannah

Hey Jeremy!

We appreciate your feedback regarding the migration assistant usage with the Dropbox desktop app; I'll be sure to pass your comments along to our team.

As for your issue, you mentioned earlier in our conversation that your Dropbox account is currently full. As a first step, please check your account online, if you haven't already, to see if any of the conflicted folders have synced there too.

If so, as long as you have Dropbox Rewind available to your plan, you can use that to try to undo the changes that happened ever since the migration took place.