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Forum Discussion
How Do I stop Dropbox from syncing the external drives
I'm in my fifth day of a sync after having to do a clean install of a new OS on my mac. 206000 files to go according to the download. What happens is Dropbox sees a file with an * or ! and stops and I have to go find that file and rename it. Okay, that's annoying enough, but I see that Dropbox is indexing and syncing my external drives. I don't need that or want that. How do I STOP THIS MADNESS now.? I don't mind finalizing the sync but the HD has 660GB on it and each External has over 500. Right now. Do I just remove the external drives? I'm sure DROPBOX will just stall and wait for them to be plugged in again. So, what do I do? Thanks.
Thanks, Hanna. I read another comment on another thread where the person said "you can delete the external" and I went into my Dropbox and lo and behold. There it was. I disconnected it first, to be on the safe side, then deleted from Dropbox. Of course I got the message "Dropbox can't continue to backup (sync) without the External." Good. 🙂 And that worked. It also made the issue that was causing the sync to stop on and off for five days to finalize. I then checked the box to just save local (and got the cryptic message "if you move this file you won't be able to access on any device" which I finally figured out that doesn't mean my computer, it means phones, pads, etc. So after five days all is finally back to where I can actually move a file into a folder on my computer without being asked if I'm sure I want to put a file in a folder on my computer. So, I'm done for now. The folders I want in Dropbox are there. The folders that I don't want there, aren't.
I'm in my fifth day of a sync after having to do a clean install of a new OS on my mac. 206000 files to go according to the download. What happens is Dropbox sees a file with an * or ! and stops and I have to go find that file and rename it. Okay, that's annoying enough, but I see that Dropbox is indexing and syncing my external drives. I don't need that or want that. How do I STOP THIS MADNESS now? I don't mind finalizing the sync but the HD has 660GB on it and each External has over 500. Right now. I need the steps, seriously, not "go into preferences" because I see nothing that indicates Dropbox. (I'm on Big Sur Mac 11.6.)) Please. ... This all started because I had to do a reinstall on an upgrade to Big Sur ... I removed the Externals for now and of course Drop box says "We need the externals so we can continue to sync the 1T of files on those externals that you don't want synced." 🙂 All the advise is great if the process hasn't started. How do I stop it? Do I just remove the external drives? I'm sure DROPBOX will just stall and wait for them to be plugged in again. So, what do I do? Thanks.
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey Jamesgangcc, thanks for posting on our Community today!
If you enabled the backup feature for your external drives, but don't need it, you should be able to delete the backup folders from your Dropbox folder.
See more about this here.
However, can you please send me a screenshot of the message you saw, when you unplugged the external drives?
Thanks!Thanks, Hanna. I read another comment on another thread where the person said "you can delete the external" and I went into my Dropbox and lo and behold. There it was. I disconnected it first, to be on the safe side, then deleted from Dropbox. Of course I got the message "Dropbox can't continue to backup (sync) without the External." Good. 🙂 And that worked. It also made the issue that was causing the sync to stop on and off for five days to finalize. I then checked the box to just save local (and got the cryptic message "if you move this file you won't be able to access on any device" which I finally figured out that doesn't mean my computer, it means phones, pads, etc. So after five days all is finally back to where I can actually move a file into a folder on my computer without being asked if I'm sure I want to put a file in a folder on my computer. So, I'm done for now. The folders I want in Dropbox are there. The folders that I don't want there, aren't.
PS There's no way to send you a screen capture of the message because it vanishes immediately unless you know to do that by reading into the future.
- HannahThanks for the update, James and I'm happy to see that all is well.
If you need anything else, make sure to give us a shout.
Have a great weekend!
Left Click on Dropbox > Your Image top right > Preferences > Backups > You will find some options in there like turn off the auto-backup of external drives or what to do when you plug in a new disc etc. About the ongoing sync i shift delete NOT the folder but the content inside. It deleted everything and asked me to remove it from dropbox. I pressed Yes and it was done.
