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Forum Discussion
jayne
8 years agoNew member | Level 2
move contents of dropbox to external hard drive
how do I move contents of dropbox
i.e my files and photos to an external hard drive
thanks folks
- 8 years agoDo you have the Dropbox client installed on your computer? If so, then your files will be syncing to your computer. They'll be in the Dropbox folder. Just copy them to your external drive like you would any other file.
If you're not already syncing your files and you just use the Dropbox website, then you'll need to download your files and save them to your external drive. The easier method would be to install the Dropbox client, let it sync all of your files to your computer, uninstall the client, and then move the Dropbox folder to your external drive. - 8 years agoWelcome to the Dropbox Community, let's look into that together!Please keep in mind that as a rule of thumb we recommend choosing a location for the Dropbox folder on the same hard drive as your operating system, since Dropbox won't work correctly if the Dropbox folder becomes inaccessible, which can happen if it's located on an external drive that gets disconnected.Of course, we’re always here if you need further assistance!Warm regards,JaneA[mod edit 2023, updated Help Center link]
TominAZ
New member | Level 2
No, I want to move Dropbox to an external drive off my very crowded hard drive, and I bought a 5T drive to do that. It is on the Dropbox cloud, so I don't need it on two drives at my house. ;)
Jane
8 years agoDropbox Staff
Welcome to the Dropbox Community, let's look into that together!
Please keep in mind that as a rule of thumb we recommend choosing a location for the Dropbox folder on the same hard drive as your operating system, since Dropbox won't work correctly if the Dropbox folder becomes inaccessible, which can happen if it's located on an external drive that gets disconnected.
Of course, we’re always here if you need further assistance!
Warm regards,
JaneA
[mod edit 2023, updated Help Center link]
- meremer8 years agoNew member | Level 2
I'd like to move items off of Dropbox completely and onto my external HD, bypassing my computer altogether.
How do I do this?
- Rich8 years agoSuper User IIDownload them from the Dropbox website, and specify your external drive as the Save location in your web browser.
- Sanchez8 years agoDropbox StaffWould you mind taking a minute of your time to fill out a survey sharing your experience using our Dropbox Community? You can access the survey here: http://bit.ly/2lNKIxTThank you!
- rafest4 years agoNew member | Level 2
This is an old question and it wasn't really resolved to my satisfaction until I answered the question myself. My issue was, I wanted to download some very large files directly to a hard drive. On many sites, when you click on download, you get a navigation window asking you where you want to download the files to. Dropbox doesn't do that. It defaults to your downloads folder. Now, my computer's internal drive hasn't got much space left and it definitely can't handle downloading all the files I need to get onto the hard drive, so I need to bypass the computer altogether. The answer lies in determining what the default downloads folder is for your browser. It is usually the Downloads folder. But you can temporarily change that. Go into your browser's preferences (make sure your hard drive is connected and powered up) then change the default downloads folder to the hard drive. Now, any files or folders you click on in Dropbox will download directly to your hard drive. Once you're done, change your default downloads folder back to where you had it. Done-zo!
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