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Forum Discussion
Set up Dropbox to sync to external storage
Hi,
I've searched for answers but I couldn't find anything that's less than 5 years old, and I'd like to figure out the answer before I make a mistake that I can't fix.
Currently, I selectively sync some of the photos because there are lots of them. I'm out of space on the computer, and I want to move my Dropbox files to an external drive so that I no longer have to sync selectively. I want a local copy of all of my Dropbox files.
According to what Dropbox said years ago (would't let me post the link so pasting the text), if you unplug a drive while Dropbox is running, Dropbox might start deleting your files.
Is this information accurate?
Thank you
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Dropbox can indeed be used with an external hard drive as long as you can ensure the drive is always connected to your computer while Dropbox is running. If the drive is ever disconnected from the computer while Dropbox is running there is a small chance that the Dropbox software will start deleting files before realizing that the entire drive has been removed.
Additionally, you should ensure that the file system of the external drive meets the file system requirements as found in the following Help Center article:
https://help.dropbox.com/installs/system-requirements
(As you mentioned a new PC, I guess you're (going to be) using a Windows device so you'll need to make sure that the Dropbox folder will be on an NTFS-formatted hard drive)
To move your Dropbox folder to an external drive use the steps in the following Help Center article: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/move-dropbox-folder
[The location you select is the folder the Dropbox folder will be moved to, rather than the folder your Dropbox files will be stored in.]
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hi there, korisnik, thanks for your post today.
The info that you copied from that post is indeed correct.
You can have your Dropbox folder on an external drive, however, you'd be facing a file deletion risk if something goes wrong with the connectivity.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
