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Can I link the desktop app to my existing Dropbox folder and not overwrite my team's updated files?

I recently reinstalled Windows on my PC, and after setting up the Dropbox application again, it created a new Dropbox folder on my desktop instead of linking to the existing one from my previous installation.

Now I have two Dropbox folders:

The old folder: contains all my files synced before reinstalling Windows.
The new folder: created by Dropbox after reinstall, currently empty or partially syncing.

I want to avoid re-downloading all my files again, as I already have them locally in the old folder. My concern is:
If I manually move the files from the old folder to the new one, will Dropbox treat them as "new" files and re-upload them? That could potentially overwrite changes made by my team during the two days I was offline.

Could you please advise the safest way to reconnect my local files without triggering unnecessary uploads or overwriting my team’s recent changes?

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Comments

Nancy

Thanks for your post, @AhmedMoein! Welcome to our Community.

One workaround that we usually offer in cases like this is to unlink your Dropbox app and then sign back in while clicking on the “Advanced settings” link this time (before selecting the option to create a new Dropbox folder). This link should allow you to choose your existing Dropbox folder, instead of creating a new one. For example, if your Dropbox folder is located at “D:\OtherDrive\Folder\Dropbox”, choose “D:\OtherDrive\Folder”.

However, since you mention that there have been updates to your shared content in the meantime, I’d recommend syncing everything to your new Dropbox folder from scratch instead. The previous workaround could cause the updated files to be overwritten indeed by the old ones and I understand that you wish to avoid that, so syncing everything again would be the safest option here.

If you have any other questions though, please let me know.