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Why does Dropbox remove a file from my hard drive when I "back up" to Dropbox?

Why does Dropbox remove a file from my hard drive when I "back up" to dropbox? The "dropbox help" info does not explain this. I've selected the option to "keep copies on my hard drive", but files still vaporize off my hard drive as soon as I copy them to dropbox. Do I need to turn off synching? I didn't mean to turn it on in the first place, and now it seems it seems I've inadvertently given dropbox permission to mess with my computer such that if I change any settings or if I unsynch a folder/file, it will disappear off dropbox AND OFF MY HARD DRIVE. I guess I don't understand Dropbox at all. But what does Dropbox not understand about the concept of a "BACK-UP"? A back-up is a copy, not a replacement. I don't want synching across devices etc. I just want a few files backed up to the cloud, and for the original FILES ON MY COMPUTER TO BE LEFT ALONE PLEASE. The help info is totally unhelpful on this. Can anyone tell me how to do this without losing files?

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Mark

Dropbox backup works by moving the directories in to the Dropbox folder and putting shortcuts in the original location. The exception to this is external drives that are backed up.

Personally I think backup is really, really counterintuitive and complicated.

All comments

Mark

Dropbox backup works by moving the directories in to the Dropbox folder and putting shortcuts in the original location. The exception to this is external drives that are backed up.

Personally I think backup is really, really counterintuitive and complicated.

jtlever

Hmm, I don't see shortcuts to anything on my desktop where the files originally were? However I do see the file in the folder on my desktop called "dropbox" - is the file actually in that folder on my hard drive now? Or is that just a link there to the file in the cloud? VERY confusing and counterintuitive.

Mark

Dropbox's folder is on your hard drive, its using space like any other folder. It is then just 'replicated' to the cloud as long as the application is running.

jtlever

AH, Thank you! So simple, the light bulb just went off in my head. All this time I thought it was short cut to the actual cloud folder, and that anything I drag there is COPIED. But it's a real folder on my desktop that I've actually MOVED stuff to. That's not at all what I intended; I want my files to stay in their place on my hard drive - but at least it makes sense. I liked Dropbox a whole lot better before I installed the app, and had to upload files via the website.

Thanks, Mark for clarifying with the quick responses.

Theresa

Hi @jtlever and welcome to the Dropbox Community. I am glad to see you got your issue resolved thanks to the help from our Super User @Mark.

By the way, my name is Theresa, and you might see me popping up around the Community 👩‍💻. I absolutely love hearing from our members and learning how they use Dropbox in their daily lives. 💙

If you're open to sharing, I’d love to hear how you use Dropbox 💡.

Who knows, you might inspire some helpful tips we can share with others or even spark ideas to pass along to our internal team! 🤗

T 😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)