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Forum Discussion
How can I cancel my computer backup?
I apparently selected pc backup when I installed Dropbox and naturally I'm out of storage on my Dropbox account now. I don't want and have no need to have my pc backed up to it. I have the desktop app but am not able to find the preferences section to stop it from backing up. I did try just deleting My PC from Dropbox but a message comes up and says if I delete "My PC" it says it will be removed from my Dropbox and from the computer. If I delete it in Dropbox, does that mean I'll lose everything on my laptop too? Sorry if it sounds like a newbie question but I am. 🙂 Any help stopping the PC backup would be greatly appreciated.
- Hey timq, welcome aboard our Community!
Indeed, with computer backup, if you delete your desktop files from Dropbox, they will also be deleted from your computer.
If you want to disable the backup feature, you can follow the steps here.
You'll find the Dropbox app's preferences, if you click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
Let me know if you have any questions.
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey timq, welcome aboard our Community!
Indeed, with computer backup, if you delete your desktop files from Dropbox, they will also be deleted from your computer.
If you want to disable the backup feature, you can follow the steps here.
You'll find the Dropbox app's preferences, if you click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
Let me know if you have any questions.What an absolute fiasco!
These instructions are UNCLEAR and AMBIGUOUS.
I've wasted my time on this, and now I have NO IDEA if my files are safe from being deleted by drop box.
i agree! i'm computer savvy and i have spent a long time trying to figure this out and i'm still baffled. I vaguely remember being prompted by Dropbox to backup my PC, but the notification was an interruption to what i was doing and i just clicked "OK" to get rid of it....now i regret that. I can not figure out how to simply say "stop backing up everything." I've gone to the Backups tab in the Preferences setting of the desktop app but there's no obvious way to just turn it all off. When i open the tab everything is checked. If i uncheck the choices, the Save button is disabled. My only option now is to pause syncing, but that pauses everything! Please help.
When I click on the icon in the system tray, the window that comes up does not have a Backups tab.
If I click on the Dropbox icon on my computer desktop, it brings up an empty file since I don't have any files stored in Dropbox. I have been through all settings online and can not find where to disconnect back-up, yet Dropbox says that my storage is nearly full because of back-up. I can't see anything being backed up and yet keep getting messages that my storage is nearly full.
- Rich
Super User II
OVYM wrote:
I have been through all settings online and can not find where to disconnect back-up, yet Dropbox says that my storage is nearly full because of back-up.
It's not the settings online that control this. You need to look in Preferences within the Dropbox application on your computer.
I can't see anything being backed up and yet keep getting messages that my storage is nearly full.
Hi, as said my Desktop is on Dropbox and I do not want that !
/Users/philippePM/Dropbox/Mac/Desktop is how it is now but I would like to supress the Dropbox in the middle. I surely did something wrong but I do not know what. Can you help ? Thanks.
- Rich
PhilippePM wrote:
Hi, as said my Desktop is on Dropbox and I do not want that !
You activated the computer backup feature, which MOVES your key folders into your Dropbox folder. Disable the backup feature and choose the option to keep content in folders on your Mac.
Thanks for your help. It worked. PhilippePM
I do not need dropbox for much so, for years I've had the basic. I recently saw that it has a new folder that I think is a backup of my complete PC and has obviously, exceeded my capacity. It asks for an update that I do not need. How do I get rid of the new folder? How do I go back to how it was? Thank you!
- Hannah
Hey felixthecat, thanks for reaching out to the Dropbox Community!
I moved your post to this thread, which is relevant to your case.
It sounds like you have enabled our backup feature. If you want to disable it, you can follow the steps here.
- Solution:
1) Backup your dropbox files on your computer
2) Create a new dropbox account under a new email.
3) Copy files from old dropbox to new one. Hi,
I've recently added my Documents (Windows 11) folder to my Dropbox account. It turns out that this wreaks havoc with a critical piece of software I use in my business. How can I disconnect only the Documents folder from Dropbox, leaving the files in the Documents folder on my local PC, while continuing to back-up my other folders to the cloud?
Thanks!
Thanks, Hanna! That did the trick.
I don't need backup on dropbox. Saw the same question being posted, but couldn't find the answer!
- Walter
Hey Mariia Simonsen, could you have a look at your backups page and let us know if you're able to delete or disable your backups from there?
I have a similar problem. A while ago I created a backup of my Windows 10 C-drive folders Pictures and Documents. Now I want to stop that backup happening so I stopped sync, deleted the backup, (that is, disabled it). When I resume syncing it announces that it has almost 200,000 files to sync which will take over 2 days. I have removed the folder for the C drive from the Dropbox folder also. And renamed at least one of the very large folders of files (for Lightroom) on the C drive. Still it tries to attempt to sync a disabled backup. What can I do?
I use Mac OS 14.3.1
I cannot select the correct desktop when trying to "save as..."I have suddenly found that I cannot move a photo from Photos to the desktop.I was able to yesterday.
I do not want Dropbox to sync to my desktop. It causes issues.
How do I stop that sync?
Thank you very much
- Hannah
Sorry to see that you're having issues with the backup feature, BobBurgess.
If you'd like to disable the feature, you'll need to follow the steps in this article.
Let me know if you run into any issues.
Those instruction are for setup and enabling DropBox backup. The question is how to disable Dropbox Backup. I am also using Time Machine and read that this is incompatible with Dropbox Backup, so I just want to completely disable the DropBox Backup function.
I got it sorted, thanks. The way to disable backups is unnecessarily confusing. If I click on a drive to enable it, I should just be able to disable it. I can only pause it. Thanks to Google is discovered how, but it seems to be intentionally unintuitive. Just look at how many people are asking how to do it and you have to know there is something poorly designed.
