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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 ...
- 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
Dropbox StaffHey 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.
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.
I too have activated PC backup. I do not see a "preferences" tab when I click the upper right icon
I too have been trying to figure out how to know if my files are safe. They were automatically backed up without my asking for that and now (of course) Dropbox is telling me that I'm at my limit and need to pay for more storage. My files on my computer did not need to be backed up and now I cannot figure out how to un-back them up. This is so f*%$ed up!
- Walter
Hey solargirl, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
It sounds like you enabled the computer backup feature upon installing the desktop app on your computer.
Have you tried following the steps outlined in this Help Center article to disable it yet?
Absolutely a mess. I'm losing my files - none seems to know how to stop the backup once started. And yet it doesn't perform well, especially if you had the One drive installed - then uninstalled. Spent over an hour with support - he couldn't figure it out. Higher support is supposed to reach me, but it hasn't happened. It's like they don't know how it works. This link provided above does not show how to disable backup, yet it has a bunch of other features like "rewind" that are not available.!!
Really disappointing - after years of using Dropbox as a paid customer, moving my files to a new computer has been a fiasco!! Sadly!!
When I click on the icon in the system tray, the window that comes up does not have a Backups tab.
- Jay
Here's the obvious, related question:
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT DROP BOX TO DELETE FILES FROM THEIR HARD DRIVE??
Please forgive me if I think drop box is deliberately "culling the herd" with this inanity
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.Clicking on the Dropbox icon on my computer did not get me to this, but clicking on the link you used took me straight to the Dropbox Backup controls, showed my PC linked, and allowed me to delete the connection. THANK YOU!! After sorting through a maze of links, online chat suggestions, and Community advice, yours is the first that took me straight to what I needed. MUCH APPRECIATED!
