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Forum Discussion
Problem transferring files from desktop dropbox folder to an external drive
I've used Dropbox for 2 years without issue. My files are located in the dropbox folder on my computer. It has worked flawlessly. Suddenly, when I try to transfer a file (located within dropbox on my...
Hi Lee,
This happens because your external drive uses a different file system than your internal drive. Your internal drive (where your Dropbox folder is located) uses NTFS, while your external drive most likely uses FAT32. The NTFS file system can store additional properties with a file, while FAT32 cannot do that. Dropbox uses this feature of the NTFS file system to store additional properties for the files in the Dropbox folder.
When you try to copy a file from the Dropbox folder to the external drive you receive that warning because the file system on the external drive cannot store additional properties. Therefore, those additional properties cannot be copied to the external drive.
You will not see that warning message when you transfer a file which has no additional properties (like most of the files outside of your Dropbox folder).
However, you can safely ignore this message because those additional properties are relevant only in the context of the Dropbox folder and only for the Dropbox application.
Hope this helps.
Razvan
The dropbox support confirmed with me that's is the way suppose to be if you copy or drag files from dropbox to storage which is FAT32 , the message will pop up and you can ignore it. They said they put tag along every files that uploaded to dropbox. It won't show the message if your storage is NTFS.
I've been discussed with dropbox support team , they said it is not the bug from dropbox , it is the OS that we use that detect the dropbox's tag. ( I used dropbox service for years, it just happen a year back , this issue)
I closed the issue since dropbox push it to OS's side that it is not their bugs. So i am tired of argue with them. I have to live with the tags that they put to our original files that in dropbox's folders. When you download your files which are in dropbox , that tags still tag with you files forever.
I am so upset that the support teams seem to be ignorant and not try to develop the fix that the OS that we use not have to detect that stupid message up to users.
Gail
