You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

sixstringbuzz's avatar
sixstringbuzz
Helpful | Level 6
4 years ago

I told Dropbox to not backup an external drive; now I've changed my mind

The subject pretty much says it all! I'm on a Mac and I connected an external drive (formatted HFS+). A popup came up asking if I wanted to backup this drive to Dropbox and I said no. Now I'd like to...
Computer Backup
desktop
Mac
sync
  • sixstringbuzz's avatar
    sixstringbuzz
    4 years ago
    Hello!

    I had reinstalled the app already (though I’m not sure I did a full uninstall first) but in the end I had some spare time and so I transferred the files from one external drive to another then reformatted the drive so it would trigger a new request to backup. This worked. As a suggestion, it seems like there should be some manual way to tell Dropbox to backup a drive after originally indicating not to and not to ask again.

    Thanks!
Megan's avatar
Megan
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
Hey sixstringbuzz, great question there! 

Have you tried removing the external drive from your Mac, then re-connecting while the app is open? 

Here's the relevant Help Center article. If this doesn't work out, let me know. 

Thank you!
sixstringbuzz's avatar
sixstringbuzz
Helpful | Level 6
4 years ago

Hi!

Thanks for the reply. No, that didn't work. 

 

My external drive is a Samsung T5, formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled) which I understand is the same as HFS+ which meets the required formatting.

 

I have opened the Dropbox app (it's always running on my computer but I quit it and reopened it just to be sure) and then connected the drive. No dialog box asking to back it up appeared. 😞

 

I have also made sure that I have not checked "Hide all setup notifications when new external drives are plugged in."

 

Thanks for any other ideas you might be able to offer!

  • sixstringbuzz's avatar
    sixstringbuzz
    Helpful | Level 6
    4 years ago

    Oh - I'm currently on a Basic account if that helps. If I'm able to backup my external drives, that would certainly drive my decision to upgrade though!

      • sixstringbuzz's avatar
        sixstringbuzz
        Helpful | Level 6
        4 years ago

        Correct - I am on the latest 11.5 operating system and made sure my Dropbox app is the latest as well! (v128.4.2870)

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!