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Move some files from Dropbox to external drive, and then delete those files from my account

I have 140GB of files which I need to pass on to another designer via an external hard drive. How do I take everything off my Dropbox (I won't need them anymore) and put them onto an external drive for them? I then want to unsync all these client files so they are not part of my dropbox anymore. The other designer does not have/need dropbox.

Thanks,

Amanda

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Elixir

Hello Amanda,

I imagine you are syncing the files to your computer hard disc. You can copy the files/folders from your computer hard drive to the external hard drive. Dropbox folder is just like any other folder in your computer, whatever you save inside the Dropbox folder, it is replicated in the Dropbox cloud and any other connected devices. If you no longer required those files, you may delete those files from your computer, and it will be deleted from Dropbox cloud, so would not take up space anymore.

However, note that if it is a shared folder with others, the files will also be removed from their Dropbox account/devices. If you do not want that way, please get back to us. There are ways to unshare a folder, and remove the files only from your Dropbox account, but not from other members.

All comments

Elixir

Hello Amanda,

frogtoastie

Simply cut and paste the files from your dropbox to the external hard drive.. this will add them all to the drive and remove them from DB at the same time :-)

sigridbwallace

how do you access the cut feature in dropbox? when right cliking a file the cut option is not there

Lusil

Hi @sigridbwallace!

Are you trying this from the Dropbox folder on your computer? If so, please note that you should be able to do this as you would for any other folder.

If you’re trying to do have a file that’s on the website available in a folder on your computer, you’d have to download the file/folder in question and save it locally. You can do this by following the steps below:

Sign in via the website.
Click on Files.
Hover over a file/folder so as to allow the box on the left-hand side to appear - click on the box to select the file in question.
Click Download that should appear as an option on the right-hand side of your screen.

If this doesn’t resolve your concern, please provide a bit more info on the matter and send a screenshot of the behavior you’re experiencing (omitting personal info) so as to have a better understanding of what you're seeing.

Thanks in advance!

davidsiudmak

I too am using Dropbox with an external hard drive. However, I recently just purchased a laptop that requires me to disconnect the external drive from time to time. Will it have to sync every file each time I reconnect or is this current syncing, which it's doing with the new laptop, a one-time occurrence? And how can I avoid a total-sync with new computers in the future? Thanks.

Lusil

Hey there, @davidsiudmak.

Initially, I wanted to mention that if you have the Dropbox folder to an external drive, the Dropbox folder must be available when your computer boots and before the Dropbox desktop app starts. However, you mention that:

@davidsiudmak wrote:
I recently just purchased a laptop that requires me to disconnect the external drive from time to time.

Please bear in mind that if the desktop app starts before such a drive mounts and gets recognized by your computer, you'll see an error. Dropbox will then give you the opportunity to relink your Dropbox account or exit if it can’t find your Dropbox folder.

If the external drive is disconnected from the computer while Dropbox is running, there's a small chance that the app will start deleting files before realizing that the entire drive has been removed.

Although the desktop app should just index for changes instead of syncing again, in general, if the Dropbox folder is located on media that becomes unavailable, you may see problems including:

Unwanted deletions
Poor syncing performance
Issues with extended attributes
File system incompatibilities

As per your last query, please remember that using Dropbox on your computer is just like using any other folder on your hard drive, except the files you drag into your Dropbox folder automatically sync online and to any other devices linked to your account.

This would mean that you have to make the Dropbox folder available on your computer. In other words, the first time you download and install the desktop app, syncing is necessary to ensure that you have your files available on your device.

I hope this helped to some extent. :slight_smile:

goldenlightmeg

This does not work for me, on a mac desktop. Neither does drag and drop?

Lusil

Hey @goldenlightmeg, since, as mentioned previously, the Dropbox folder is just like any other folder on your computer, copy-pasting or cut-pasting can be carried out as you would in any other folder.

Having said that, could you please elaborate on what’s not working for you? Are you getting any errors? If so, any screenshots (omitting personal info) would be very helpful. Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

axmk2000

Getting back to the original question, I also want to put the files on an external harddrive in a way that makes them completely local and disassociates the files from Dropbox so they are no longer synced, and a person can use them locally without using Dropbox. However, I do NOT want to delete them from my Dropbox account, as I want a backup of the originals.

When I copy (not move) the files to my external hard drive as mentioned above (just using drag-and-drop in MS File Explorer) it still shows as linked to Dropbox. Does this mean they won't actually be available without Dropbox? Will the files be deleted in Dropbox, even though I copied them & did not move them from my Dropbox account?

Lusil

Hey there @axmk2000,

Your Dropbox folder is just like any other folder on your hard drive, where files move instead of copy when they are dragged and dropped. For this reason, if you:

Dragged and dropped the file: It should be removed from the Dropbox folder and exist only in the new location.
Copied and pasted the file: Then it would exist in both locations (the Dropbox folder and wherever you pasted the file into).

In any case though, if you see that the file exists in both the Dropbox folder and the new location, please note that these would be considered to be two separate files.

In other words, if you delete the file in your Dropbox folder, the file that’s in the other location will not be deleted, and vice versa.

Let me know if you have any other questions or if you’d like me to further elaborate!

Здравко

@Lusil wrote:
...
For this reason, if you:
Dragged and dropped the file: It should be removed from the Dropbox folder and exist only in the new location.
Copied and pasted the file: Then it would exist in both locations (the Dropbox folder and wherever you pasted the file into).
...

Hi @Lusil,

I want to put here one note. Your statement is not not absolutely correct. Drag and drop operation is location context sensitive! So, the common qualification "in the new location" is incorrect. Your statement would be correct if restricted to "in new place on the same drive", for example. When You drag and drop something inside some drive then the default operation (without using additional modifier key - ctrl) is move (like cut and paste). When drag and drop is between different drives (without using additional modifier key - shift), the default operation is copy (like copy and paste). Current discution context is for move between different drives!

Lusil

Thanks for the looping me back and apologies for missing that core point in the query, @Здравко!

@axmk2000, since you do mention in your original post that:

it still shows as linked to Dropbox

Could you please elaborate a bit on this and possible send me a screenshot (without any personal info) so as to have a better understanding of what you’re seeing?

Thanks in advance!

axmk2000

Thanks to both of you for your interest in this question! I realized that the files are NOT showing as linked, but as shared. So now I feel a little silly - I didn't look closely enough at the icons. But now I'm just curious why they show as shared. Let me explain:

So, the original folder is "DAY OF SCOTUS" which shows up in Dropbox on my PC (in MS File Explorer) and in Dropbox online. It's a shared folder. On my PC the Dropbox folder icon, which normally has just a green checkmark on it (showing it's synced to the Dropbox cloud), has the little people on it too, showing that it's shared.

(Apologies for no screen shots - I couldn't figure out how to drop them in here.)

I copied the whole folder over to my C: drive. It, too, shows up in File Explorer; the folder icon does NOT have the green check mark, but it does have the little people. To me this means that it is still shared (somehow) but not being synced.

I copied it over to an external drive, too, with the same result.

I've tested changing a file in the original folder & confirmed that the files copied to C: & the external HD are not syncing. So now my only question remains - why do I still have the icon showing the folder as shared in the instances on my C: & external HD? This is probably some kind of random artifact & not worth any more of your time. But I am curious

Lusil

Not to worry @axmk2000, we are here to help after all.

At first, bear in mind that the Dropbox folder on your computer is just another folder like any other, but with syncing capabilities. You can tell if a folder/file is in the process of or has completed syncing from the relevant syncing indicators (:arrows_counterclockwise: or :white_check_mark: respectively).

Having said that, the folder and file icons on your computer are OS-based. This would explain why when you copy-and-paste a folder outside of your Dropbox folder, it carries the relevant icon - despite the fact that it’s not shared anymore.

You can ensure this by checking out the options that appear when you right-click on the shared folder that’s in your Dropbox folder and the right-clicking on the folder that you copied to your external hard drive.

Finally, since the folder isn’t residing in your Dropbox folder anymore, please note that any changes you make to it will not be synced across to the website, other connected devices, or anyone else that has access to the original shared folder.

I hope this helped to some extent, but do let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!

Derick Melander

Hi, I have selective sync set up on my hard drive. I went and selected a folder, selected “copy”, went to my external drive and selected “paste”. Then I went back to my hard drive and deleted the folder. Now when I go to my external and try to open the files they are not actually there even though they look like they are. They are all incomplete files as they were online only. What a mess! Please advise.

Lusil

Hey @Derick Melander, thanks for nudging us on this thread.

Smart Sync helps reduce the amount of space your files take up on your hard drive by marking them as online-only. By doing so, only information about the file, such as the file name, location, and date the file was updated is downloaded. If you want to edit the file, you'll have to make it local again.

Having said that, I'd recommend restoring the file you deleted, letting it sync again to your Dropbox folder, setting it from online-only to local, and then copy-pasting it to another location outside of your Dropbox folder.

Let me know how it goes, thanks!