Child Item

Tons of 'Selective sync conflict' folders created when migrating to a new Mac M4pro

Device
Mac M4pro
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
MacOS 15.1
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
236.4.5918
Syncing Status
Up to date

There are hundreds of folders with "selective sync conflict" when migrating my dropbox to the new Macbook pro M4pro. Some of them are empty but some are not. I couldn't locate my original files. I found that the folders I saw online didn't appear in my Finder. How do I resolve this and consolidate all my folders and files?

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Comments

Walter

Hey @HBR_HBR - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

As a first step, can you take a look at this help center article and let me know if any of the information there helps?

Also, can you see anything listed in your events page in regards to the selective sync conflicts?

Keep me posted on your findings and we'll take it from there.

Nancy

Hey @HBR_HBR! I wanted to chime in here and check if your issue has been resolved.

Don’t hesitate to give us a nudge though, in case you need any help.

HBR_HBR

Hi Walter, thank you for your reply. The approach mentioned in that article is simply not practical, as I have too many folders with "selective sync conflict". Some of them are empty but some are not. Among those that are not empty, some contain complete files, some contain only a portion of the original files, which prevents me from consolidating them. Most importantly, I lost my original folder structure, which made it impossible to reorder those conflict folders as before.

There is nothing specific on the event page.

Since all my files are fine online on the website, I wonder whether I can simply uninstall and reinstall Dropbox on my Mac to resolve the issue?

Nancy

Hi again, @HBR_HBR. Before taking any further actions on your Dropbox app, can you clarify for me the exact steps that you took in order to migrate your Dropbox files to the new device?

Did you download and install the Dropbox app from scratch on the new computer, or did you use a third-party app to do so?

HBR_HBR

Hi Nancy, I used the default Apple Migration Assistant when transfering everything from my old Macbook pro 2018 Intel Chip to the new Macbook pro M4pro. I don't quite remember whether I could directly open the migrated Dropbox without going through Rosetta or I uninstalled the migrated Dropbox and downloaded Dropbox for Mac (M-chip) to open it. I can confirm with you that I didn't run apps through Rosetta for any of the migrated ones on my new Macbook pro.

Nancy

I see, thanks for clarifying that! What we generally recommend, when you move from one computer to another, is to install the Dropbox app on your new device with these steps. Migrating the Dropbox app using the Apple Migration Assistant can potentially cause some issues and it's not something that we can support.

If you've double checked that everything looks normal on the Dropbox website and you're not missing any files from there, you can try to reinstall the Dropbox app on your new computer and create a new Dropbox folder where all of your files will need to be re-downloaded and synced from your web account.

HBR_HBR

Hi Nancy, I just double-checked my files on the website, and I found that there are some folders with "selective sync conflict" as well, but they are not necessarily those same folders that appeared in Dropbox locally. And they reappeared even if I deleted them on the website. For the reinstallation, should I delete the current Dropbox completely and then reinstall it, or I can just download and install so that the new one will overwrite the old one?

Nancy

How long does it take before the folders re-appear on your Dropbox account? Are those folders synced to your desktop app at the moment, and if yes, are they accessible by any third-party apps?

About reinstalling the Dropbox app, are you referring to deleting the local Dropbox folder that contains your files first, or uninstalling the desktop app altogether?