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DB doesn't see the external ****** drive on Mac

Raffa_hello

Hallo everybody.

I'd like to try the new "Back up an external ****** drive to Dropbox" feature, which I understand was added in August 2021, because I would like to synchronize on DB some files that I have no interest in keeping on my computer in order to share them but also to have a backup always available even on the move.

I have formatted a ****** drive as APFS, as instructed for Mac but the drive is not seen in any way by the app. The instructions say that "A Dropbox window will appear, prompting a back up of your external ****** drive" but nothing happens to me.
There is no way to directly tell the app to see the drive or tell the drive to be seen by the app in the Finder.

I have MacOS Catalina (10.15.7) on my Mac and the ****** drive is physically on a TerraMaster DAS and formatted with GUID Partition Map. I currently only have a Basic account but am considering upgrading if the functionality suits my needs.

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Hannah

Hi there @Raffa_hello, thanks for joining us!

Can you please try quitting the app from the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and then relaunching it again from your applications folder, to see if that helps?

Keep me posted!

Raffa_hello

Hallo Hannah, thank you for your reply: I've already tried closing and reopening the app from the menu. Not only that, I uninstalled the app and re-downloaded it from DB's site. After reinstalling it nothing has changed from before. 😞

Jay

Hi @Raffa_hello, is the TerraMaster DAS physically attached to your computer using a USB cable? How does your computer itself detect the device, like an external drive or a series of drives?

Do you have enough space on your Dropbox account to backup your external drive?

Do you have a normal USB external drive to connect to your computer to test if it's the way that Dropbox detects the DAS?

Raffa_hello

Hi Jay!

is the TerraMaster DAS physically attached to your computer using a USB cable?

Yes it is: specifically it is connected with a USB 3.0 cable + an adaptor USB 3.0/USB C, to connect it on the MacBook Pro (16", 2019).

How does your computer itself detect the device, like an external drive or a series of drives?

The single drive we are talking about is detected by the Finder as an external drive, as if connected directly; of course in the DAS there are many drives - five in total - and are all detected as individual drives connected directly.

Yesterday I wrote the drive was formatted as APFS, but here I read that MacOS Extended (journaled) is the same as HFS+ (which meets the required formatting) so I tried with MacOS Extended (journaled) and nothing changed... Now the drive is still formatted as MacOS Extended (journaled). Is what I read correct?

Do you have enough space on your Dropbox account to backup your external drive?

Yes: I have a base account with 3,8 GB still free and the files on the ****** drive (copied there just for testing purposes) take up 440 Kb. But... if your question is literally if I "have enough space on DB to backup the whole external drive"... then... the reply is "No": the drive is 4 TB...! Maybe this could be a problem for DB...!?

Do you have a normal USB external drive to connect to your computer to test if it's the way that Dropbox detects the DAS?

Not in that moment but... I will try ASAP and will tell you.

Jay, for now I thank you very much for all the questions posed, let's see if we can figure it out somehow! I'll let you know about the "normal" USB drive connected.

Jay

You can also check the Dropbox desktop application, under the Backups tab, to see if the checkbox is disabled to hide all the external drive notifications.

Raffa_hello

Hi Jay,
no, the checkbox is not checked, so notifications are active.

Jay

Thanks, let me know how it goes with another external drive. This can include USB sticks if those are easier to locate.

Raffa_hello

Hallo.

I tried to connect an ****** drive and a USB stick, both formatted as MacOS Extended (journaled) but neither of them is detected by DB (while Google Drive detects them).

Jay

In order to look into this matter in more detail, would it be possible to reach out to the email associated with your forum profile?

Raffa_hello

Hallo Jay,
sorry for the late reply.
Certainly you can contact my email!
Waiting for your contact.

Jay

Thanks, I've sent you an email to your address, please could you reply when you get a chance!

rmundell

I also have this problem. It has driven me crazy enough to think about dropping dropbox, (which I have successfully used since it was first introduced in 2007). In trying to compete with cloud services like one drive Dropbox has lost the usability that made it so valuable originally. I don't need a duplicate of my cloud storage options. I need a safe place to store important documents so I can retrieve them from anywhere online or offline. I need to store my dropbox folder locally, because i am not always able to be on the internet. However the synch folder eats up so much of the ****** drive on my Macbook that I have no space. So I want to put the synch folder on a separate USB drive, which is appropriately formatted, and it initially synched. But since the first day it has reverted to creating a folder directly on my primary drive, and has run me out of disk space again. When I go to preferences to try and change the synch folder back to the external drive, it does not show as an option, even though the drive is connected, and works for anything else, and has the dropbox folder on it that was originally created.

paultg

Hi,

Did either of you ever get this resolved. I have a Mac running Monterey. I have a Blackmagic 10G SSD dock, with four drives in it. I did get prompted to back up the drives awhile ago, but didn't have the space to do so. I now have upgrade to the Professional package with Dropbox and have the space to backup one of the four drives, which is important to me. I also quit Dropbox, and re started etc. The Drives are encrypted and APFS formatted. I cannot see the drive or actually any of the four drives in the App to choose to backup.

Any help would be really appreciated.

thanks.

rmundell

I have spent time with Dropbox support, and apparently if you have updated to Monterey you can no longer specify an external drive

paultg

Ok that makes sense !! Thanks for the response.

redorbit

After some research and try and error, I found out that if you format the drive as APFS Encrypted Dropbox can't see it. I reformatted the drive as APFS and Dropbox was able to see it and backup.

Not ideal, as I like my external drives encrypted being movable devices.

I'm on MacOS Monterey

paultg

Thanks I thought as much as like you I just have them encrypted for safety purposes!

stefanb

Hi there, does anyone solved this problem? It seems it´s one which still exists quite a long time. I run Mac Ventura and connected a Sandisk Extreme 4TB formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). In the first step dropbox recognized the drive, showed me a dialog and I set up the backup. Of some reason I had to delete the backup, cause in the web it told me everything is synched and in the app is said the drive is not connected, although it was. So I decided to delete the ****** backup and start from scratch. Now I have NO possibility to make dropbox recognizing my drive again. And there is NO way to add it manually.

@Dropbox: Why is there no simple Button "Add" for external drives?

I found a hidden file in the SSD calles something like "ignore db". I thought this is the solution! I deleted it but nothing happend.

I already had a chat with the support and wait for answer from the technical team. But now I found all this unsolved postings about this issue. Seems still not be solved from there side.
I really want to make this work, otherwise it makes no sense for me continuing with Dropbox. But in general I was really happy with the service. The backup function worked great with my old external.

PLEASE Dropbox make this work for us.

stefanb

SOLUTION

Got this from the Dropbox tec support and it works:

1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click Settings.
4. Click the Security tab.
5. Your devices are listed under Devices.
6. Click the trash can icon next to the devices you'd like to sign out of remotely.
7. Click Unlink.
8. The desktop app will then prompt you to re-enter your account information.