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Forum Discussion

carlosr27's avatar
carlosr27
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

how do I eject my external hard drive without deleting everything

I recently synced my dropbox to my external hard drive. However, I have heard that if you remove your external hard drive from your macbook then everything on your dopbox will be deleted. How do I eject my external hard drive without deleting everything? is that possible? if its not possible, then how do I just remove dropbox from my hard drive without deleting everything?

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    2 years ago

    Thanks for the info. If the Dropbox folder is on the external drive, then you need to ensure that you fully quit the Dropbox desktop application from your machine prior to removing the drive to prevent any deletions.

     

    Likewise, when you next want to run the app, make sure the drive is connected and mounted under the same drive or name to prevent deletions.

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi carlosr27, thanks for messaging the Community!

     

    Just to clarify, do you mean that your Dropbox folder is on the external drive, or you used the Dropbox Backup feature to backup the external drive on the site?

     

    This will help me to assist further!

    • carlosr27's avatar
      carlosr27
      Explorer | Level 3

      Hey Jay!

       

      I believe my dropbox folder is on my hard drive. I just recently downloaded dropbox and when it asked which folder to sync to I chose my external hard drive.

      • Jay's avatar
        Jay
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Thanks for the info. If the Dropbox folder is on the external drive, then you need to ensure that you fully quit the Dropbox desktop application from your machine prior to removing the drive to prevent any deletions.

         

        Likewise, when you next want to run the app, make sure the drive is connected and mounted under the same drive or name to prevent deletions.

  • carlosr27's avatar
    carlosr27
    Explorer | Level 3

    Hi! So I accidentally began syncing my entire dropbox to my hard drive. My dropbox is using 40TB and my hard drive only has 12TB. How do I stop the syncing without deleting everything from Dropbox that I downloaded? I've paused it at 500GB. Also for context, this is not a back-up.

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