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How do I delete Backups in Dropbox?

Hello,

I've been trying to find out what is taking space in my Dropbox. When I go to Manage account it says I have 11.8 GBs of Backups out of 15 GB. However I cannot actually find out what backup this is nor delete it.

All the steps I've checked on the site talks about installing a Desktop App then going to Sync and Backup. However there's no such thing. I'm using the latest Dropbox app downloaded from Dropbox website and running on Windows 11.

Also if I go to Dropbox app in the taskbar and then click on my account name then go to Preferences there's an option for the tab called Backups. However this tab opens up just the folders however I've not selected any folders to be backed up. There's no way to actually delete backups.

I've tried unlinking all devices from my account, deleting all files in the directories and still there's this 11GB just missing. Why can't Dropbox app just show what is taking the space and have an option to delete it?

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Accepted answers

Megan

No worries, this is why I am here @anwar79!

You should be able to open your Backup page by accessing the home page, clicking on the burger icon on the top left, and then Backup.

Let me know if you need anything else!

All comments

Megan

Hi @anwar79, welcome to our Community!

Let's see what we can find together. Can you check your Backup page online, and let me know what it reports there?

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

anwar79

Hello,

Thanks. Somehow there's a hardisk there that I dont remember enabling backup hence I would be deleting it.

This is exactly what I needed to find. How do I get to this page from the Dropbox website?

Thanks!

Megan

No worries, this is why I am here @anwar79!

You should be able to open your Backup page by accessing the home page, clicking on the burger icon on the top left, and then Backup.

Let me know if you need anything else!

anwar79

Thanks this did the trick.

Sally 1

I recently accidentally clicked yes to backing up to Dropbox a USB with a lot of photos and some videos on it. It has taken up all my storage, which I don't want to do. I want to delete it, but it is not showing up on my list of files on my computer. Can anyone advise me how to find the file so it can be deleted?

Megan

Hey there, @Sally 1, I hope you're doing well!

Let's see what we can find together and how you can disable your Backup option. Can you check your Backup page online, and let me know what it reports there?

You should be able to see your USB as an external backup there, correct?

Let me know of any updates!

Sally 1

Hi Megan.

When I clicked on backup it came up with a blank page. I went back and tried a few minutes later and I was able to find and delete the USB. Thank you!

But I don't understand why this USB did not show up under "all files," nor why something else that I received as a download from an organisation doesn't appear to be there either, yet I have it open in another window...

Sally

Nancy

Hey Sally! Glad you were able to sort this out.

When enabling external drive backup, your files will only show here on Dropbox, besides your USB.

Can you clarify what you mean though when saying that something doesn’t appear among your files, even though you have it open in another window? Do you mean that you saved a file to your USB and it didn't show among your backed up files on Dropbox?

Sally 1

Yes, that's what I mean.

Nancy

Alright; let’s check this further.

Can you send more details on how this file was sent to you exactly? Did someone send you a shared link to it and you saved/downloaded the file to your USB directly after that? When opening your USB now, does the file show there?

If it does, and external backup has been disabled in the meantime, then it’d no longer show on your Dropbox account anyways.

Tbelsare

Having same issue.

Hannah

Hey @Tbelsare, have you checked your backups page here, to see if you can locate your backup files?

joeco2

Megan you're an angel 👼.

I had exactly the same problem as Anwar, & everything the automated answers from the 'Chat Help' robot told me to do, DIDN'T help me at all.

Then I found your post & it was sorted in 2 mins.

Thank you sooooooooooo much 😁

FrancisVaughan

I want to delete my backups to create more space in dropbox. Please can you help?

Rich

@FrancisVaughan wrote:
I want to delete my backups to create more space in dropbox. Please can you help?

https://help.dropbox.com/organize/delete-dropbox-backup

blakelylaw

I've read through all these posts; I've checked out the website How to Delete Dropbox Backups ; I'm somewhat capable when it comes to computers; I can definitely follow written instructions - & I'm still stumped in a never-ending failure to delete backups loop.

How we got here:

Over the years, I've had multiple computers, at work & home. Most have been various WIndows flavors; a few have been Linux machines; & of course there's my Android phone(s). I'm currently down to one Linux Mint Victoria, Budgie Desktop machine. Because of size constraints, all of my Dropbox files are on an external Seagate drive in a directory clearly marked "Dropbox." Although I had downloaded and installed the Dropbox Linux desktop software from the website, I never could quite get it to work correctly, so I've gone back to using InSync to handle my every day file sinking. There's no problem with that.

Now for the problem:

In checking to ensure that everything had been properly transferred to the new Seagate and was working properly, I found out that all of those old machines were still showing up on my Dropbox Security tab and that Dropbox Backups shows 4 computers: PC (now shows as unlinked); PC (now showing as linked with last backup earlier this month); Dell G3 Laptop Backup (now showing as unlinked), & PC (4) (now showing as unlinked. The problem is that those 3 unlinked backups still contain a little over 50GB in data. I want to download that data to ensure that I've not missed anything & then erase those backups.

This is where the loop comes in. Every time, even when I click on an empty directory in an unlinked backup & tell it to delete, I get the popup that tells me to tell Dropbox "I don't have access" & then go to Backup Settings. The "I don't have access" link takes me back to the Security tab which already shows that I'm unlinked (now I've even deleted those links) but the Backups are still there & I still can't do anything with them.

I have noticed one issue, the Security Tab never had a Dell G3 Laptop listed, for instance, or a PC(4), all of those old computers were listed according to the name I'd given them.

So, please help get me out of this eternal loop! Thanks

joeco2

Hi Anwar,

I had the same problem some time ago & it took me ages to find out what was happening. Can't remember just how I found the backup (found the solution in the forum somewhere), but I did find out where the backup came from.

I'd logged on once using my friends laptop & somehow this linked his laptop with my account.

As the laptop was now linked, it got it's own set of default settings & the 'Backup external drives' was enabled. So my 'missing' 15GB was his external drive.

After I unlinked his laptop from my dropbox I could delete the backup with no problem.

If you are & want to remain linked, you could probably disable the setting & then delete the backup also.