3 Ways to Transfer Files from Dropbox to Computer

How do I copy files from Dropbox to my computer or PC without data loss? Look at the following contents and you will benefit from three solutions presented in this article. The clear steps in solutions can assist you perform data migration more easily.

Why Need to Transfer Files from Dropbox to Computer?

Usually, you need to put your all kinds of files like work documents, family photos/pictures, favorite videos, etc., on cloud drives (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and so on) when you do not have enough local storage to save them. However, sometimes, you also want to move your online files back to local devices such as computer, PC, iPad, phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, etc., for the following reasons:

• You plan to move certain files from Dropbox to another cloud and take local as a transfer path.
• You are going to switch from Dropbox to other cloud drives, like moving files from Dropbox to Google Drive.
• You have to do some work on the docs shared by your colleagues to your Dropbox.
• You want to transfer some movies from Dropbox to local to watch on your trip in case there is no Wi-Fi connection.
• You want to have a local copy of very important files for double insurance.
• More…

But there comes a question on how to move files from Dropbox to computer? You will find three solutions from following parts.

How to Transfer Files from Dropbox to Computer?

As you may know, you can directly transfer pictures from Dropbox to computer and you may also know how to move photos from Dropbox to computer making use of sync feature of Dropbox desktop app.

Way 1. Transfer Files from Dropbox to My Computer by Directly Downloading?

1. Go to Dropbox homepage and sign in with your Dropbox account.
2. Select the check box in front of the file or folder, and then click the Download button.

Download from Dropbox Page

3. Wait for it finishes. The time it takes to finish the downloading depends on how large the file is and how fast your network is. Finally, you can find the file on your local computer.

Tips:

• If you have set a default location to save downloaded files from web, you can find the file you download there; if not, you may be asked to decide where to store the downloading file.
• You can only download one file or one folder for one time. If you have many different kinds of files to be downloaded, you can create a temporary folder and put all target items in. Then, you just need to select “Download” for the temporary folder.
• Folder downloaded from Dropbox to PC is a compressed file. To view its contents, you need to firstly decompress it.

Way 2. Transfer Files from Dropbox to PC Using Dropbox App?

If you have already installed Dropbox desktop application and set to sync target files from cloud to local, you can find what you want in Dropbox folder on your computer directly. If not, you have to, first of all, download it from its official webpage, install it on your computer and sign in your account to open it.

Dropbox Sign in

Then, click on its icon on the right of the taskbar. A window will pop up; click Settings (gear icon) on its top right and choose Preferences.

Dropbox Preferences

In Dropbox Preferences window, go to Sync tab. Click Selective Sync button to find the files you want to transfer to your computer.

Dropbox Preferences Selective Sync

Tips:

• If you have been using Dropbox app but have not synced the target files before, you can select them to sync now.
• If you do not want these files to keep synced to local in the future, you can unselect them when they finish.

Way 3. Transfer Files from Dropbox to Computer on MultCloud Platform?

Except for methods above, you can also transfer files from Dropbox to PC on a platform provided by a FREE third-party cloud file manager, MultCloud.

Why Need to Rely on MultCloud?

• In case you cannot enter Dropbox webpage for some reasons.
• Dropbox desktop APP selective sync feature is unable to connect.
  
  Dropbox Selective Sync Unable to Connect

• If you download files to PC just for transit and you will then upload them to another cloud, you can directly transfer these files from Dropbox to target cloud through MultCloud without downloading and uploading.

How to Make Use of MultCloud?

1. To make use of MultCloud, first of all, you need to create an account of it. Then, sign in your account to its platform.

Create an account

2. Next, add your Dropbox to its platform. On its Add Cloud tab, in the list of common cloud drives, select Dropbox. Then, just follow the guidance to finish adding Dropbox.

Add Dropbox

3. After successfully adding Dropbox, go to choose Dropbox in the left menu. Then, you can do what you can just like in Dropbox webpage including download/upload files, create new folder, delete an item, rename a file/folder, copy/copy to or cut (move), share a photo/picture, etc.

Dropbox in MultCloud

Tip: MultCloud only allows you to download single file. You can’t download single folder with it.

If you want to migrate files from Dropbox to another cloud drive, you can directly transfer them from Dropbox to destination using “Cloud Transfer” utility on MultCloud platform without first moving them to computer. Here take migrating from Dropbox to Google Drive as an example.

Transfer Dropbox to Google Drive

• If you do not want to transfer whole Dropbox to Google Drive, you can select folders you want to migrate as the source while creating the task. Besides, MultCloud supports selecting multiple folders as the source.
• As long as the task starts, you can close the page and even shut down your PC because MultCloud can process your task at the background.

Summary

It is not difficult to see that your problem about how to transfer files from Dropbox to computer is getting resolved easily following any ways mentioned above. You could select one way that suits you most to perform the operation. 

If you prefer to use the third way with MultCloud, you can make full use of its “Remote Upload”, “Cloud Transfer” and “Cloud Sync”. To learn more about how they work, click the product page to get the information.

Tip: If you are a big fan of Dropbox and you want to use Dropbox better, here are top 12 tools to improve your Dropbox experience.