No dialog box when connecting external HD?

Hey there @Jennifer G.29 - thanks for posting on our Community and happy Monday!

If you've ensured that our desktop app is running on your computer and that the external drive's filesystem is a supported one, you should get that pop-up when you plug your external drive into your machine.

Just keep in mind that this feature only supports external drives with filesystem type NTFS for Windows and APFS or HFS+ for Macs.

Can you double check if your external drive is supported?

Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there, Jennifer.

Hi Walter, and thanks for your reply. The drive in my original question didn't have the right file system.

However, I reformatted another external drive as APFS encrypted and moved the files onto it. I still don't get a popup when I plug it in. Also, I don't see the Dropbox menu when I right-click on the folders or files; I do have that menu on all the files in the Dropbox folder. Other ideas? Thanks.

Jay

Hi @Jennifer G.29, currently the external drive backup works for APFS and HFS+ for Mac devices.

Since APFS Encrypted isn't specifically mentioned there, could you try a normal APFS-formatted drive and see if that is detected by the Dropbox desktop application?

OK, now I've done it again with APFS. I got the popup when the formatting was finished, before I'd moved anything to the drive. I closed it then (without checking the box) because it's about 800GB of files and I didn't want to slow down my machine the whole day doing the transfer between drives and backup to Dropbox at the same time.

Now the file transfer is done. I've disconnected and reconnected, restarted, renamed the drive on another computer, and I can't get that popup again. Do I really have to reformat the drive just to be able to select this external drive to back up to Dropbox? Thank you for your help!

Rich

@Jennifer G.29 wrote:
Now the file transfer is done. I've disconnected and reconnected, restarted, renamed the drive on another computer, and I can't get that popup again.

Check the drive for hidden files. I can't comment on the drive backup function, but when you use Camera Uploads, Dropbox drops a hidden file on the drive to identify it. If you have such a file, delete it and then disconnect/reconnect the drive.

Jay

The way the external drive backup works is by the unique identifier in the drive itself. If the drive was renamed, this might not be enough to be seen as a different device.

Can I ask why you want to backup the external drive on another machine? Did you change the files in the drive itself?

I am having the same issue: Connecting an external hard drive doesn't trigger dropbox to prompt for backup.

I've tried to search for hidden files in the drive root, but can't find anything dropbox related (I only see .DS_Store and .localized).

I've also tried changing the drive UUID (similar to what is listed here https://superuser.com/questions/127191/how-does-one-change-the-uuid-of-a-volume-on-mac-os-x-10-6, but using apfs.util). I can confirm that the UUID changed, but I still don't get a prompt for dropbox.

Is there no way to tell dropbox to backup an external drive without having to wait for it to prompt me? My wife just purchased 2TB of dropbox space for this feature alone, and now she can't use it.

Please advise.

Megan

Hey @ylansegal, let's see what we can find together on this!

Can I ask the storage size on your external disk, please?

Keep me posted.

It's a 4TB disk. It's partitioned into two 2TB volumes. Formatted using APFS.

Thank you,

Lori,

Thinking a bit more about this: I may not have made my point clear. The issue is not that dropbox fails to backup the external drive. Rather, it's that I can't figure out a way to tell dropbox to backup the external drive in the first place. The help article says that the dropbox will automatically prompt for backup when connecting the drive. That doesn't happen.

How do I tell dropbox to backup the external drive on a Mac?

Thank you so much,

Hey there @ylansegal, sorry to jump in here, but can you clarify if the desktop app is running normally when you plug the external drive into the computer in question?

If it's running indeed, you should be getting two separate prompts for each of your external drive's partitions.

Yes, dropbox desktop is running and syncing files in my Dropbox folder correctly.

I am getting neither prompt, although I am mainly interested in one of the partitions. The other one I don't intend to backup to Dropbox.

Thanks for confirming this for me @ylansegal

Would it be OK if we reached out via email to have a further look internally?

Hello,

I’m not sure this is the same issue I started the thread about…you might community answers on a new post. I never found a fix for this. The only way to get Dropbox to recognize the drive was to reformat it and reconnect it. I couldn’t get Dropbox to prompt me to back it up any other way (it took me six reformats to conclude that). Good luck.

Yes, Walter. Contacting by email is fine. Thank you.

@Jennifer G.29 It seems like the same issue to me: I connect an external hard drive, and never get prompted for backup.

I appreciate that formatting the hard drive fixed it for you. I am not willing to do that. It's inherently destructive and seems like a poor experience for what seems to be failure in the Dropbox UI. It should have a way to tell it which external hard drive to backup on a Mac, like apparently is possible on Windows.

Hey @ylansegal, thanks for your cooperation.

I just sent you an email to investigate further.

At your convenience, please have a look at your inbox and we'll take it from there.

eggospartan

Hey All,

Same issue-- Drive is formated as HFS+ but I am not prompted to backup when the drive is connected. Is there any available fix?

wouterv-42

Same issue here:

- 4 TB external drive, with 1.11 TB used

- formatted "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" according to Disk Utility, which apparently is just a different name for "HFS+"

- macOS 10.14.6

- dropbox v135.4.4221

- 2 TB family plan

- no suspiciously named hidden files in root of drive which would mark this drive not te be used by Dropbox Backup (what name or mechanism does Dropbox use for this anyway?)

A solution would be greatly appreciated

thejustintung

hello, I plugged in an external hard drive a few times to do some final management, so I dismissed the dialogue box asking if I wanted to back it up with dropbox. Now I can't find a way to sync this drive or re-prompt the dialogue box.

Megan

Hi @thejustintung, welcome to our Community!

Because the OP had a similar question, I've merged your post into this thread.

Would you mind having a look at what has been suggested already, and letting me know if you have any questions?

Thank you!

Sigh. Every so often someone chimes in and says they have the same issue. There are no workarounds provided, no guidance from Dropbox. Since I posted in September, I've had no resolution, even trying emailing support many times. It always ends in them suggesting I reformat my drive. Unacceptable.

I've requested a refund, since I bought Dropbox only for this reason. I've yet to hear back.

EDIT: Found it, thanks anyway.

@Megan, how do I stop receiving notifications of replies on this thread? I’m the OP and not subscribed to any of the posts. Thanks.