You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
This folder already contains a Dropbox directory. (Dropbox 3.03 on Fedora 21 (x64)
Is this some kind of a joke? I keep my dropbox folder on a separate partition to simply redirect the dropbox daemon to that location and not have to go through the whole download process all over aga...
- Uninstall Dropbox if it's installed. Rename your existing Dropbox folder to Dropbox_OLD or similar. Reinstall Dropbox and select the location that you want for the Dropbox folder. Keep in mind that external drives are NOT recommended as data loss can occur under the right conditions. When the installation is finished, Dropbox will immediately start to sync. Pause syncing or exit Dropbox. Move the content of Dropbox_OLD into the newly created Dropbox folder. When the move is complete, and not before, resume syncing or re-launch Dropbox.
At this point Dropbox will begin indexing all of your files. This process will take a while, especially with 700GB of data to go through. During this time it may say that files are uploading or downloading, but it's only transferring comparison data and any changes that it find. be patient and LET IT WORK.
Dear Dropbox:
I see this has been a problem since 2015. Sorry, I read the others and I dont see any helpful answer.
If however there is an answer after 2 years, can Dropbpx be more clear about this, please.
I recently HAD to delete and reinstall my Mac, threfore I had to re-install all my hardware. Dropbox Desktop app. included. This I guess is a very common thing in this world.
When I select my Dropbox location to my previous location ( an external hardrive Ive been succesfully syncing for a whole year) I get ERROR: This folder already contains a Dropbox directory.
Over 700 Gb of data that its very painfull to Sync again. With the fatal implications this might have.
Any solution for this?
If However there is NO answer to this, I will appreciate if you let us know please, and I´ll re-sync everything and stop killing myself trying to figure out.
Until then Im pausing my sync.
Thanks.
- Rich
Super User II
Uninstall Dropbox if it's installed. Rename your existing Dropbox folder to Dropbox_OLD or similar. Reinstall Dropbox and select the location that you want for the Dropbox folder. Keep in mind that external drives are NOT recommended as data loss can occur under the right conditions. When the installation is finished, Dropbox will immediately start to sync. Pause syncing or exit Dropbox. Move the content of Dropbox_OLD into the newly created Dropbox folder. When the move is complete, and not before, resume syncing or re-launch Dropbox.
At this point Dropbox will begin indexing all of your files. This process will take a while, especially with 700GB of data to go through. During this time it may say that files are uploading or downloading, but it's only transferring comparison data and any changes that it find. be patient and LET IT WORK.I actually thought about something like that but I was scared to try.
Thanks SO much, Rich, for taking the time to answer in such a clear message!!!!
Im on it right now.
WARNING: the accepted solution is NOT the correct solution.
This will not work in cases where synching was not working before reinstallation. Specially now since we reached a phase where the still available installer on dropbox website is too old to update itself and therefore will NOT sync.
If there is any file out of sync on local machine from previous installation it will overwrite the data on dropbox cloud storage. also if folders were renamed or moved you will end up with duplicate data.
If you are sure that all files are at sync, then simply download all files again. this takes longer but is safe.
