Dropbox Backup Won't Back Up Encrypted APFS External Drives

[fssbob]

I finally found the Dropbox FAQ that explains why I've never been able to use the new Dropbox Backup program on my external drives: "Note: Encrypted APFS drives aren't supported."

Apple recommends encrypting external drives that contain any personal information, and that's obviously for a good reason. Does Dropbox intend to support Encrypted APFS drives at some point? Other backup programs (e.g., Backblaze) have no problem with this.

(And is there any known way to work around this limitation?)

Thanks.

[Hannah]

Hey @fssbob, thanks for your post here.

At this time, encrypted APFS drives are not supported for external drive backup, as you've seen in our article.

There are no known plans to support this kind of drive in the future, however, I'll pass your comments along to our team.

We appreciate your feedback and we're always looking for ways to make Dropbox better.

Let me know if you have any questions!

[Garry16uk]

That is ridiculous. It makes Dropbox massively less useful. But what makes me angry is that I had to spend hours messing about in settings and then an hour chatting to them on support before even they realised why my drives could not be added! If you are aware of this it should be stated in advance to save peopple all this hassle1

[Walter]

Hey @Garry16uk - thanks for your feedback on this.

It's been noted in our system - please let us know if you have anything else to add.  

[Garry16uk]

Thank you , and just to add that I am looking at alternatives for my renewal, because it's a pretty basic requirement to have my personal data encrypted and has been standard for many years now.