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
Proper procedure for re-linking (adopting) backed up external drive on a new computer?
Hi all, I'm only backing up an external hard drive with Dropbox Backup. I wiped and reinstalled my Mac (Sonoma 14.2.1) and reinstalled Dropbox. Dropbox has created a new backup of the externa...
Hi lament, since you wiped and reinstalled the OS, this is considered a different device, so any backups made on the 'old' device will no longer work.
You'll need to backup the external drive from scratch, and delete the old backup, since you're currently out of quota, to free up space. Currently, it isn't possible to merge two backups together in the way you're requesting.
Jay
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi lament, since you wiped and reinstalled the OS, this is considered a different device, so any backups made on the 'old' device will no longer work.
You'll need to backup the external drive from scratch, and delete the old backup, since you're currently out of quota, to free up space. Currently, it isn't possible to merge two backups together in the way you're requesting.
Jay I find it hard to believe that in 2024 you can't adopt a backup of an external drive that didn't change at all. That's a complete waste of time and resources having to re-upload, on both sides. I know it can be done with Backblaze because I've done it, so it's baffling you guys can't do this.
I'm not backing up the new computer itself - I'm simply adopting an external backup that is already showing in my account. Why can't that backup be associated with this "new" device?
