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How to restore files from Dropbox Backup

I recently backed up 200-GB of files from an external hard drive that was getting old. I used the DropBox Backup feature figuring it would be easier to simply use a "restore" feature rather than manually copying files over.

I now have a new drive but have found that DropBox backup doesn't actually have a "restore" feature despite market the ability to "restore a new computer from backup".

From what I can see you have to manually select files and download them (what I was trying to avoid). Dropbox also forces the files to be ZIPd, which it can't do for 200GB of files. So now my files are literally stuck on Dropbox with no way to get them off.

Seems like a completely useless feature?

Does anyone know a workaround or am I going to have to manually download 200GB of files in small batches?

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Comments

Hannah

Hey @doesitwork, thanks for posting to our Community.

At the moment, the backup folder of another computer or external drive is not locally synced to your computer.

This means that you can only download the backup files, using the download option on our website.

I will however pass your feedback along to our team about this.

I hope this clarifies things, but let me know if you have any questions.

janenipius

I'm having the exact same problem. I paid for dropbox just so I could have this feature but it turns out it's half baked and you can't actually restore from back ups. This is a big pain because I have 20gb worth of folders. Please work on this while I look for an alternative software that actually works correctly

Jay

Hi @janenipius, are you following these steps to restore from a previous computer backup onto your machine?

janenipius

Those instructions did not work for me and presumably the same thing for @doesitwork. Let me provide more context on my usecase. I have a large usb stick that I do all of my work on and keep inserted in my computer. I set up Dropbox Backup to sync this stick to Dropbox in case anything happens to my physical usb stick. Something DID happen to my physical usb stick that rendered it unusable. I bought a new usb stick thinking I could just 1-click restore the data I've backed up onto this new stick.

Instead, I receive no prompt from the desktop app to "restore from backup". Instead, I see an error message that "to restore sync, please re-insert the usb stick". There's no other options or prompts to restore. My only recourse is to "To only restore a part of your computer backup or any part of your external hard drive backup onto a new computer:" and select each folder I need to download. Of course, there's a limit on the number of files that can be zipped, so this is a very slow and manual process. In addition, there's no option for me to save the files directly to a location of my choice. They go directly to my Downloads folder so I then need to move them to the usb stick because my hard drive doesn't have the space for everything.

Looking at this carbonite comparison https://experience.dropbox.com/resources/dropbox-backup-vs-carbonite, I don't see why I shouldn't use carbonite instead. Carbonite plus seems to do everything that I need and perhaps they've actually designed for this not uncommon scenario. It seems like @doesitwork has the exact same issue as me, but to a worse degree, considering they have 200gb of files.

Jay

Hi @janenipius, just for clarification, are you referring to an external drive backup, or a computer backup, which are both different things?

Do you have your computer backup enabled while having your Dropbox folder stored on the external drive?

janenipius

I do not have computer backup enabled. I am using the external drive backup feature

Jay

This would be the reason then, since restoring from a computer backup would add the files onto your account directly.

External drive backups are different, and would need to be downloaded via the method shown in my previous link, which would be by zipping the drive and downloading it.

If the drive is large, you can try downloading it in batches by selecting specific folders inside the backup to download.

deanlute

I agree, this is beyond frustrating. I had an external HDD that was backed up. The drive was corrupted and now I need to download over a terabyte of files in small batches. It's going to take me months. A completely inane feature and I will be leaving dropbox when this subscription ends. Ridiculous product!