Child Item

Dropbox is making me re-download everything every time I reinstall the desktop app.

Every time that there is some issues with dropbox or I need to reinstall macos, I have to go through the painful experience of re-downloading all files stored on dropbox locally, because I want to have them available offline, as well as online. I am talking about files that are already on my local drive, but are not going to be recognised, when Dropbox is re-installed. This last re-installation — due to a bug in the desktop app — was particularly nasty, because the sync interface of the desktop app is dysfunctional, it suddenly stopped showing newly created files in the sync session, as a large file was being uploaded. Not sure whether the app was still performing as expected, I had to stop sync altogether, and use the app on the browser to upload files that I will then need to download again on my machine, once I reinstall dropbox. This is absurd!

This is really annoying. Dropbox should be able to recognise folders and files that are offline and match the online content, if the online files used to be managed using the desktop app. I don't know much about the technology behind the scenes, but it should be possible to mark each entity in the file system with a unique tag/token and metadata that tell dropbox what its status is. The identifier used on my local machine for files available offline would match the one used online and unless changes are made, the two would coincide. So upon reinstallation, dropbox would check the stored index of all files and see which one have to be downloaded again, because they don't match the last version online (source of truth).

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Sync

Insightful

Closed - Partially Delivered

Accepted answers

Megan

Hey @Lucben!

All right, let's take a step back to ensure that we're on the same page every step of the way:

Since you mentioned that this happens every time, can you clarify if the Dropbox desktop was uninstalled before you re-installed it again?

Also, when you re-install the app, are you prompted to set it up anew? Do you see a new Dropbox folder created each time? If not, you should see "Advanced settings" upon setting it up, as described in this article (step 9).

Finally, can you confirm whether the files on your desktop belong to the same account you want to re-install the Dropbox app for?

All comments

Mark

Lucben wrote:
Dropbox should be able to recognise folders and files that are offline and match the online content, if the online files used to be managed using the desktop app

You can do that.

Just point it to the directory and it will index and resync and index it exactly as you said which would index what is already on your machine.

Lucben

Are you sure that's the case? It would be a great hack, but… how does dropbox know which is to be considered the source of truth, since the offline version and the online version have been disconnected?
I also tried to ask GPT and it says that in theory this hack could work, but in practice:

Dropbox may treat the folder as new—even if it already exists locally—especially after a clean reinstallation or OS upgrade.
Internal file metadata or Dropbox’s hidden database often gets reset. Dropbox then re-indexes everything as "not seen" and proceeds to re-download virtually all files.
Community reports confirm this is common: indexing phases often lead to full downloads despite existing local files, especially if Dropbox can't verify identical metadata or checksums.

Nancy

Hey @Lucben. I can also confirm that there should be an option to select your existing Dropbox folder upon signing back in to the desktop app (so, you shouldn’t have to re-download all of your Dropbox files from the start each time).

Just bear in mind that this may not work if you were previously using the Dropbox app on File Provider, or the Dropbox for Windows update and you switched back to the legacy version, or vice versa.

If that’s not the case though, then while logging back in to Dropbox, and before you choose the option to create a new Dropbox folder, there should be an “Advanced Settings” link. If you click on it, you can select the parent folder of the already established Dropbox folder. For example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path "D:\OtherDrive\Folder\Dropbox", you'll want to select the folder "D:\OtherDrive\Folder".

Lucben

Thanks @Nancy , I am just not sure what you mean by suggesting that there "should" be an option. There "should", or there "is"? I thought that if you are on macOS, there is no alternatives to the Dropbox app on file provider. As a Dropbox customer, not sure what that means. I installed the latest version of Dropbox, and File provider is now the new configuration of macOS (latest release).

Rich

Lucben wrote:
I am just not sure what you mean by suggesting that there "should" be an option. There "should", or there "is"?

There is. But saying "should" is also appropriate and is just a turn of phrase.

Lucben wrote:
I thought that if you are on macOS, there is no alternatives to the Dropbox app on file provider.

For the moment you can still opt out of the File Provider update, though everyone will eventually be forced to update to it.

Megan

Hey @Lucben, let me jump in here too!

If you end up trying the steps that @Nancy provided, let me know if you come across any questions.

Or, if you have trouble with anything else, I'm here to assist, and guide you.

Lucben

Thank you Megan. As I said, I did not fully understand Nancy's comment. This sounds too complicated. The next time I am going to install dropbox, I would like it to give me the option to sync files that are already stored locally, without any hacks. As an end user, I should not have to worry about whether I am using File provider or not. And opting out is not an option, if this is going to not be a long-term solution. With the current implementation, it looks to me like there still is no solution to this issue.

Megan

Hey @Lucben!

Lucben

Thank you @Megan. Just to clarify, I am not looking for a solution that can work for me now, since I already re-installed Dropbox and re-downloaded everything (customer support did not even mention this method, I am learning about it for the first time). I just wanted to post a suggestion so the product can be further improved.

It looks like you are saying that there is, indeed, a way to re-install Dropbox on a mac and make sure that all the local folders from the previous installation are retained and recognised. Is that correct? And one more question if you don't mind, how does Dropbox decide whether the source of truth is the online version, or the local version? Cheers

Walter

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this with us @Lucben - we've noted your feedback in our system and you can let us know if you have anything else to add.

When it comes to your last question, note that the Dropbox desktop application doesn't decide based on a local or the online version of your files as a source of truth. It will always check for changes on your files during the 'indexing' phase and based on modification timestamps, file-hashes (from within your Dropbox cache folder), and version history (when needed) and will then sync your files accordingly.

Lucben

Thank you all, I really appreciate that the Dropbox team reads these threads and gives us a clear response. Please keep doing this! I am going to mark this as solved.

Walter

I appreciate your kind words and I'll be passing your feedback on to the team as well @Lucben

See you around the Community and take care!