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Forum Discussion
sixstringbuzz
4 years agoHelpful | Level 6
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...
- 4 years agoHello!
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!
Pedrohko
4 years agoNew member | Level 2
I was battling to solve same issue and solution that worked for me:
1. Control Panel> Hardware and Sound>Devices and Printers
2. Remove External Hard Disk
3. Eject Hard Disk
4. Plug it back in
All done with dropbox running and open on the background, and boom, it triggers the pop-out "Do you want to backup your external drive?"
Syncing...
- isabellarodriguez3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
I had a backup that started to have some issues and deleted it. I've now decided to do a new one but when I connect my external hard drive to my Macbook, there's no dialog box suggesting to do a backup. I've tried reconnecting the drive multiple times, reinstalling the DP app, but none of these things have worked so far. Is there any other way I can do a backup without depending on that dialog box? Or is there any way to do the backup?
- isabellarodriguez3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
I had a backup that started to have some issues and deleted it. I've now decided to do a new one but when I connect my external hard drive to my Macbook, there's no dialog box suggesting to do a backup. I've tried reconnecting the drive multiple times, reinstalling the DP app, but none of these things have worked so far. Is there any other way I can do a backup without depending on that dialog box? Or is there any way to do the backup?
- Megan3 years agoDropbox StaffHey all, happy Friday!
If anyone is still facing this, Have you checked if the app is running on your end?
Also, feel free to share with me the storage of the external drive and the space it occupies.
Let me know more, and I'll be happy to get back to each and every one of you.- lyndallm3 years agoHelpful | Level 5Hi Megan,
The app is definitely running as my whole computer is backed up and there is more than enough storage space. The issue is that the dialog box doesn’t reappear after the very first time it popped up to allow me to configure external back up - not a sync issue. I just don’t even have the option to set up sync.
- GreatLand19593 years agoHelpful | Level 6
While this may be helpful for Windows users, since the original poster is on a Mac (as are others), this doesn't help there. And so far, no one seems to have an answer for the Mac folks. It seems that even the Dropbox folks don't have a clue. Which sadly is about par for the course these days when it comes to support from tech companies.
- runemadsen3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
I'm having the same problem. Are you seriously telling me that there's no way in the Dropbox settings to enable backup on an external drive, except to nuke all my data on the external drive and reformat it? What is going on? Dropbox want us to use this functionality for our most sensitive data? I honestly cannot believe this.
- GreatLand19593 years agoHelpful | Level 6I was able to copy a hidden file from a drive that IS being backed up to a drive DB was NOT backing up and that seems to have solved my problem. But I’m on a Mac so I don’t know if ot is applicable to other operating systems.
- Celso Diniz3 years agoNew member | Level 2
Hi, Windows or Mac? Tried that on Mac and it did not work...
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