Can't Backup an external drive

[guruuno]

Dropbox Sync Errors I have been attempting to sync an external disk for weeks now, with no success.  Uninstalled, reinstalled (Dropbox), tried on a Mac, tried on Windows 10, and ultimately, got the OS to see the external 4TB disk on a Windows installation, however, do not see any success in uploading the data to the cloud, it just keeps showing the repetitive "updating dbxignore" updating 3 files, 4 files, dbxignore, etc., and if I wanted to "drag" ALL the folders from the external drive into Dropbox, it overfills the capacity of the resident OS disk, how does one get the data there and not while putting it there fill the local disk?  Multiple issues, hours and days, failed syncs, looking for simple, 1-2-3, put data from external disk on Dropbox and walk away, no babysitting, folder by folder procedure, and or getting stuck...Am I doing something wrong or is this a limitation of the software?  Even if I wanted to put ALL the data on the external disk and make the external disk the Dropbox location, I get messages about disabling, and turning it off, which I do, but I still cannot succeed.  Why is this so hard?

[Jay]

When submitting the ticket, you can copy and paste what you have done on this thread into the ticket for the support agent to be aware of what steps you've already tried.

Currently, we only provide phone support for team admins of Dropbox team subscriptions.

[guruuno]

Issue details: 1st, let me say that the support offerings are dismal, especially when paying for a higher-level subscription. I, as a support consultant for dozens of clients, assist them with their issues so they don't need to go through the laborious, time-consuming, stupid, wasteful, "chat" or other BS functions to get support, and normally, for well over 30 years, I've been pretty much successful. I am somewhat of an advocate for my clients. However, the wasted effort as of late to achieve a simple, easy function of uploading, syncing, and populating the Dropbox "cloud" with data from an external 4TB drive (2 TB populated) has been problematic, time-consuming, and unsuccessful. Answers provided via Google search results, AI, and even your community forum do not even in the slightest help at all. I was told to copy/paste the community forum discussion to generate a support ticket. To summarize, before I do so, a 4TB external NTFS disk on Windows will not upload to Dropbox in the cloud, repeat gets stuck, never gets past 3 or 4 files, says fils in use (they are not), and if chosen to use the Web interface to upload multiple folders, I cannot, I can only "babysit" one folder at a time, wait, do another, and then the Dropbox cloud gets populated, so does the local disk, which is space limited, so there is no "easy solution to get files to be available from an external device to the Dropbox cloud for "safe keeping", as what is the intended purpose of a cloud-based repository. My client, xxxxxxxx, account xxxxx@xxxxxxx.com, with a 'Professional' account, cannot get her files on the cloud without 1 by by one folder upload (super overwhelming, time-consuming) and filling up her hard disk. So, how is it done, why is it so difficult, and if this product is a mature, well-working tool, why is it that I have to go to such lengths to even have a simple communication with the provider of this software (you/Dropbox), without being told that if I want a 'higher level' support, I'd need to buy a higher level subscription to have telephone support? (And even so, the support could potentially suck, as I've found out in the 30+ years of support that the support persons hired sometimes don't have a clue and we as the consumers report these types of problems as if we were beta testers.

[guruuno]

I got a message that said, “Someone has responded to your question on the Dropbox Community”, where, not here?

[Jay]

Thanks for the info, I can see that you are in communication with a support agent via the ticket, so they'll be able to provide more device-specific troubleshooting via email.

[guruuno]

Got zero reply, must be because of the weekend...

[guruuno]

Well, it is going on days after days after days, ZERO response from Dropbox support.  I would imagine this means they don't care, they don't know, and it's time to look for another solution )provider).

[Nancy]

Hey @guruuno, I checked your ticket and it looks like our support team has replied back to you. Please check their email, if you haven’t already.