I can't move my dropbox folder to external hard drive

[jakercd530]

Hi, I just bought a new computer and the hard drive is smaller than my dropbox and like to have my dropbox on my computer since it is faster to open and save files to it. I went back to best buy and asked them the best way to do this. On my other work computers I just went to sync and moved my dropbox from the C drive to the D drive but on this new IBUYPOWER desktop it only has a 500gb c drive. Best buy recommned the WD 2TB passport and when trying to move it to the passport I am getting an error that says - To sync your dropbox, move your dropbox folder to a partition with a compatible file system. Dropbox is compatible with NFTS. Does anyone know what that means and is it possible to move my drop box to the wd passort? Thank you for your help I know just enough about computers to know nothing. I appreciate any and all help. 

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @jakercd530, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Are you certain that the external drive is formatted in NTFS format for the Dropbox desktop application to accept it as a location?

This will help me to assist further!

[jakercd530]

I figured out how to format the hard drive and then it worked perfectly. 

[SC21]

Hi! I'm having a similar issue. What is NTFS format? I don't want to reformat my existing hard drive because I don't want to lose the files. Should I purchase a new hard drive and does it matter which one?

[Nancy]

Hey @SC21! Click the Start button and then (depending on your OS) click Computer or My Computer. 

In the Computer window, right click the drive you wish to check and then, click Properties from the menu. In the Disk Properties window, the information is listed next to File system.

[CRBJosh]

I am having a similar issue. I use drop box desktop daily for all my picture/video storage. I ran out of space on my internal drive so move the storage location to a 10TB external drive. Not I cant use any of the files from windows explorer. I can open the folders and see all the files but cannot copy them or open them in any programs. I check the format of the external D drive and it is NTFS. Is there something else I can try?

[Walter]

Hey @CRBJosh - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Did you use these steps to move your Dropbox folder to the external drive or did you manually move your files in the first place?

What is the app's exact version and status as shown in your system tray at the moment? 

Let us know more and we'll take it from there, Josh.