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Can I backup my Dropbox files to an external drive, and then delete them from Dropbox?

So, if I permit Dropbox to backup my files (onto a portable HD), which somewhere along the way my new Dropbox said I could do (so I clicked on it before loading up my photos on Dropbox) --then could I simply delete the photos from my Dropbox and they'd stay on the portable HD, but be gone from the Dropbox?? It seems like a cumbersome way to do this, but apparently the backup is storing stuff on my portable HD, so it's kind of like moving a copy there to keep???

Thanks

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Hannah

Hey @KimmieII, just to clarify, are you talking about moving your entire Dropbox folder to an external drive?

Or copying your Dropbox folder to the external drive, meaning you'll be keeping the original Dropbox folder in its original location on the internal drive?

KimmieII

Frankly I am not sure what I mean. All I know is that as I began moving my photos to a new Dropbox, something popped up to say (roughly)"Do you want to back up your Dropbox on the portable hard drive?"(which was plugged into my laptop). I agreed to let drop box back up my files to my hd.
I was hoping that meant that there would be copies of everything on both the hard drive and in my Dropbox. But since they haven't yet finished loading I don't know if that's the case?
So you guys are telling me that I can't have both at once, that I need to choose to put everything I have on Dropbox on the HD and Dropbox well then be empty, OR I need to just keep all my photos on Dropbox itself?
Sorry I am new to Dropbox I am also not technologically savvy as you may have gathered! Thanks

Jay

Hi @KimmieII, that prompt doesn't sound like a message from Dropbox, since it isn't possible to backup your Dropbox account onto your external drive in this manner.

What you could've see was a prompt to backup your external drive to Dropbox, which would upload the contents of the external drive to the site on this page.

In order to understand what you saw, are there any additional prompts you're getting? Do you have another backup software on your machine by any chance?