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Forum Discussion
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...
- 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!
The preference > backup > manage backup page should be able to let the user re-select the backup after the initial choice.
I have the same issue, and have tried most of the solutions in the thread and none of them have helped. I still don't see the hard drive available to be backed up.
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hey barrymcw, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
Could you try resetting the File System Warning options and unplug and re-plug this drive into your computer?
To bring up the button I mentioned, please navigate to the desktop app's preferences in the Account tab and press alt+H (for Windows) or the space bar (for Macs).
Hi, I have the same issue and nothing works. I formatted the drive, uninstalled the dropbox app ( deep cleaning). Still I can't backup of external hard drive.
- Nancy
Hey obara, thanks for posting this here.
Just to be on the same page, have you checked both your Backup page and the Backups tab of your desktop app preferences, and you’re unable to back up your external drive from there?
Also, can you let me know what’s the format/type of the external drive you’re unable to back up?
Yes, I tried both backup page and desktop backup preferences - when I clicked the external drive to add to backup nothing happens. The drive was formatted multiple times in different formats and nothing works. I checked the drive on different MacBook with different dropbox account and the dropbox asked to backup. On my MacBook nothing happens.
- Megan
Hi obara, happy February 1st!
Just keep in mind that this feature only supports external drives with filesystem type APFS or HFS+ for Macs. Can you double check if your external drive is supported?
Also, can you clarify if the desktop app is running normally when you plug the external drive into the computer in question?
As I mentioned before I formatted the drive in all possible ways and formats, nothing worked. None of the ones you listed. When I plug the external drive to my MacBook I got none notification to backup the drive and also when I go to backups settings when I click the hard drive name nothing happens. But when I plugged my external drive to my boyfriend's MacBook his dropbox asked if he would like to backup that drive. So the external drive is not a problem. As the title of the topic stands "I told Dropbox to not backup an external drive; now I've changed my mind" - I also have this problem. I did told dropbox to not backup some time ago ( different external drive) and from that time I can't backup any external drive, I mean AAAAANYYYYYY, no matter how it is formatted.
- Megan
Hi obara, could you try one more thing?
Please access your app's preferences, then access your Account tab, and then press Option/Alt key.
Has this issue still not been fixed??
- Walter
Hey tomayko, thanks for joining the discussion here.
Can you please clarify the issue you're having so that we can assist further? Are you also having issues with backing up an external drive to Dropbox?
If you could also let us know the exact OS of your computer and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your menu bar/system tray, I'd appreciate it.
I have had the same issue with Dropbox Backup as EVERY other report here.
I had a USB drive formatted APFS. I initially chose to NOT backup to Dropbox when Dropbox first detected it. Then I changed my mind. No matter what I did (and I read all the above threads) I could not get Dropbox to "see" the drive to put it back into the backup process. Yes, I tried everything!!
In the end I re-formatted the drive with a new name.
However, I had to lose all the data on the drive. Good news I had a copy elsewhere.
But this a big BUG in Dropbox Backup. Must be able to recognise drives that previously were excluded from backup.
