I told Dropbox to not backup an external drive; now I've changed my mind

[sixstringbuzz]

The subject pretty much says it all! I'm on a Mac and I connected an external drive (formatted HFS+). A popup came up asking if I wanted to backup this drive to Dropbox and I said no. Now I'd like to explore that service but I can't figure out how to turn backup on for this drive now that I've dismissed the popup. 

Is there a way to turn backup on for this drive other than reformatting it?

[lyndallm]

I’ve done all the suggested things like uninstalling/reinstalling the app, disconnecting/reconnecting the drive, restarting etc - but until the pop up reappears there’s no way to set up the backup. Your help would be appreciated as this is obviously an issue affecting everyone and the ‘solution’ verified in this forum is actually more or less just to get a new hard drive which is ridiculous.

[Megan]

Hi there, @lyndallm! Happy Monday. 

Can you let me know the storage capacity of your external hard drive and how it is formatted, please?

[kmkonstantinidis]

I have the same issue with my NTFS external drive. As previous comments suggest, I deleted all hidden files from the drive. In my case that was only .dropbox.device In fact, I have tried all previous suggestions except formatting the drive which I find ridiculous and uninstalling the Dropbox app. Dropbox won't prompt me to backup the drive. I also noticed that the file .dropbox.device is regenerated every time I connect.

[Megan]

Hi @kmkonstantinidis, how are you today? 

Mind sharing with me the drive's usage and capacity? 

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there. 

[runemadsen]

Everybody, please read the updates from people who actually investigated this. Until Dropbox fixes this, THERE IS NO WAY TO FIX THIS unless you reformat the HD. The hidden file thing won't work. Other methods won't work. The way this feature is implemented is horrible, and you'll only run around in circles with the technical support. Dropbox needs to prioritize this feature and re-implement it in a way that works.

[Celso Diniz]

Friends, I had the same problem, and the solution offered here is terrible, right? Let's agree that clearing my external drive and reformatting it just so Dropbox will ask the question again is too much. Can Dropbox show the external hard drives just like it shows the system folders for backup so we check mark the hard drive and go from there?

[Celso Diniz]

Hi, Windows or Mac? Tried that on Mac and it did not work...

[Celso Diniz]

With all due respect that solution is unacceptable really 🙂 Dropbox should show the external drives along with the folders for us to checkmark which we want it to back up...

[kmkonstantinidis]

@Megan I am doing good, thank you!

The capacity is 1.82 TB with about 300GB free.

So here is what (kind of) worked for me:

1. Delete any hidden Dropbox files from the external drive. I deleted .dbxignore and .dropbox.device

2. Advanced reinstall of Dropbox https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/advanced-reinstall

3. Wait for Dropbox to sync.

4. Disconnect/reconnect external drive and wait for the popup asking to back it up.

Guess what? I chose only one folder to backup from the external drive and Dropbox tried to backup others as well (not to mention that some folders were missing from the list I had to choose from). I ended up deleting the backup. This is a broken feature and you must fix it. It should work like Selective Sync and let us create or delete the backup at any time. I pay for Dropbox Plus and I expect development to take care of these issues. 

[Celso Diniz]

Agreed, and I've just tried support and they simply do not have a solution and answered like the problem was affecting me so I shared the link to these posts here. The solution provided here is unacceptable. I won't format my disk and pray for Dropbox to pop a question? Dropbox should simply show the external hard drives along with the folders for backup (or not) so we could check mark them, under the backup option, in the preferences...