Child Item

All of my Dropbox files became online-only and I can't move them to another drive.

Dropbox Plan

(Plus.)
Device

(Alienware Aurora. R11)
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)

(Windows 11,)
Dropbox App Version (if using the app): N/A

Question or Issue

My 2TB data disk (D:) was getting full so I decided to upgrade to a 4TB disk. I seemed simple enough to install the larger disk, copy Dropbox files to it, change the disk letter of the old disk to something else, change the disk letter of the new disk to (D:) and done. However, when I started copying files from the old data disk to the new one, I got an error. It seems that Dropbox, without my knowledge, was trying to make more room on the old data disk, which was almost full, by making random files online only. When it tried to download those files so I could copy them, there was not enough storage space to do that. And so my Dropbox nightmare began.

I tried to free up space using the Windows Explorer interface and designating certain folders as online only. I did not use the Preferences method which is accessible through my account. To my dismay, when I woke up the next day, all of my Dropbox files had been deleted from the old data disk. The status on the windows explorer interface showed them cloud icon. I went into the Preferences/Sync menu and none of the selected folders had changed. Dropbox did this on its own. So I’m stuck in a situation where it will take probably weeks to re-download all of the files. This is a disaster. What the hell happened?

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Comments

Nancy

Thanks for posting on our Community, @DropStar.

When saying that you copied your Dropbox files to the new drive, did you do so by following the steps in this Help Center article? In general, this is the only supported way to safely move your Dropbox folder from one location to another.

If you followed these steps indeed, did you get an error that you had to make all of your files available offline first, before changing the location of the Dropbox folder?

Let me know and we’ll go from there.

DropStar

My plan was to copy all of the files to the new drive, change the drive letter to match that of the old drive, and then sync the files. The instructions for moving Dropbox file to a new drive seem to assume the drive letter will change, which it will not. So from the vantage point of Dropbox it should look exactly the same.

Hannah

Thanks for the reply, @DropStar!

Assuming that the new drive meets the Dropbox app's system requirements, the most efficient way to move the Dropbox folder from one drive to another would be through the steps my colleague provided. This process doesn't require the renaming of the drive.

I'm assuming you wanted to change the name of the drive to make sure syncing will work as normal, however, that might not be possible.

Additionally, you'd need to either use selective sync or make some files online-only, to ensure that you won't run our of space, while you're copying the files you've made available offline to the new location.

Can you try the steps my colleague suggested and let us know if they work for you?

DropStar

"Additionally, you'd need to either use selective sync or make some files online-only, to ensure that you won't run our of space, while you're copying the files you've made available offline to the new location."

This is exactly what I did. I designated SOME files to be online-only, but Dropbox made ALL the files online-only. This is the problem. Now I'm stuck where I have to redownload almost 2 TB of data which will take possibly weeks. I did nothing wrong.

DropStar

How does Dropbox keep track of which files are online only and which files are offline?

Nancy

Can you clarify the exact steps you took to make some of your files online-only? Did all of your files become online-only right after that, or is this something that happened much later, without you taking any action on your Dropbox account?

Also, did you check how much hard drive space you had left after making a bunch of your files online-only?

DropStar

I tried to copy some files from the Dropbox folder to another folder on a different drive which had plenty of storage space. I got an error that there wasn't enough room to download the files, even though they had offline status. So Dropbox had changed the status without my input. I changed the status of about five folders from available offline to online-only to free up some space. At that time I had 39.9 GB free space. I let it go overnight, and when I checked for free space the next morning I had almost 2 TB of free space. That's when I realized that Dropbox had changed the status of every folder and file to online-only. I checked my account>Preferences>Sync and the settings there had not changed at all. It still had most of the folders checked, and that is still the case. I don't understand why all my files disappeared. What's going on?

DropStar

I had tens of thousands of photos in my Dropbox folder. I am a professional photographer and I am stuck where I can't do anything. I use the Adobe Lightroom program and all of my photos are cataloged to a specific drive letter and location. If I change the drive letter I cannot access the photos as they are currently mapped. Tell me how I can get the files back.

DropStar

I feel like a made a huge mistake storing my files on Dropbox. Clearly your system is flawed and I feel like I am not getting any support on how to fix it.

DropStar

Tell me if this would work. I made an image of the (data) drive which contains the Dropbox folder before I started this attempt to move to a larger drive. What if I changed the letter of the new drive to and restored the image to it. That would restore all of the files and their status at the time I made the image. Would this then work with the Dropbox system?

DropStar

Is any Dropbox file cataloging information kept on the C: (operating system) drive?

Mark

Have you tried following the instructions to move from one drive to another?

That should work for you: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/move-dropbox-folder

Hannah

Thanks for your patience so far, @DropStar.

Just to address some of the posts you've made during the weekend, I'm afraid that it's hard to say with absolute certainty what might have happened, if we are to assume that the behavior is totally unexpected.

For context, this change happens automatically when the files are 'available' and there's not enough hard drive space.

With the above in mind, if you don't remember your files having the 'available' sync icon and you notice this behavior again, please make sure to let us know right away.

Now, as far as I'm aware, since the files are now online-only, you will need to make them available offline manually, so I am not sure if restoring the image of the D drive would work.

Also, to address your last question, there's no Dropbox file cataloging, unfortunately.

Finally, although this has been mentioned before already, have you given the steps that Mark has highlighted a go, in order to move the Dropbox folder?

DropStar

Using the steps that Mark gave me to move the Dropbox folder will NOT work. To move the files you have to be going to a different drive letter. I have explained over and over that I want to files to be on a new and larger drive, but with the same drive letter. The only way I can see to do this is to uninstall the Dropbox program, change the drive letter so it is now an empty drive, and then reinstall the Dropbox program and point it to the new drive so it will sync all of the online files to the new drive. All I want is for someone to tell me if this will work.

Nancy

Hi again, @DropStar. Just like Rich mentions here, there's no supported way to do this, but you can follow his steps to achieve what you'd like.

DropStar

So what you are telling me is that if you have a hard drive failure and you replace the hard drive with a new one, that you can't restore your Dropbox files onto the new hard drive? Doesn't this defeat the purpose of storing the files online?

DropStar

Actually, what Rich says is exactly what I was proposing and which you said there's no supported way to do. So Rich says it okay. Are you saying it's okay now.

DropStar

can the dropbox.cache folder safely be deleted? it seems to be corrupted or something. It's status shows a gray circle with a white dash in the middle.

Walter

The official way to do this would be the one Hannah mentioned earlier in this discussion @DropStar

What Rich suggested is a workaround and something unexpected might happen in which case you may need to sync everything anew. When it comes to the Dropbox cache folder you noticed on your Windows computer, note that it's not corrupted, it's just not syncing based on the syncing icon you mentioned.

Keep us posted on your progress!