Can anyone please advise how I set up external drive auto backup? I originally saw the box pop up, asking if I wanted Dropbox to automatically back up the drive, but I clicked No. Now I've changed my mind, how do I set this up? Thanks in advance.
Thanks for your very helpful reply Steve D. I will try your suggestions. My objective was to be able to backup all my data automatically whilst still operating normally on my MacBook. I'll get back to you if I need any more guidance. Thanks again.
P.S. The "Thanks, I am fine" was my response to Megan's "How are you today" - not a comment on my technical situation? 😂
I do not want Dropbox to download automatically the content of any external drive when it is plugged in. I cannot get further than asking it to be done "later".
So, following the advice here, I click on my avatar, then Preferences, then Safeguards, but do not find any tab for Configuration, so cannot go further. I have a personal account, of which I am the administrator. What can I do ?
To summarise : I use Dropbox to store my current files, and regularly download to my hard disc as work finishes on a particular job. I do not want to downloading from drives that themselves contain my backups (I keep three full external backups).
This is my first contact with the community, and would be pleased have some hints on what to do.
Hi @DenisM5, and welcome aboard the Community!
if l get this right, you don’t wish to back up your external drives to Dropbox, correct?
If external drive backup has already been enabled on your device, could you take a look at this link, and let me know if it helps?
In general, your external drive backup doesn’t take up space from your main hard drive, since these files can only be found on www.dropbox.com, besides your external drive.
Let me know, if you’ve got any questions though.
@DenisM5 : I sounds to me that you have *not* enabled external drive backup but you keep getting an annoying prompt. If that's the case, then try Dropbox app --> Preferences --> Backups as shown in the screenshot below. Uncheck External Drive Backups "Show setup notifications..." Maybe this will disable the annoying prompt. The irony here is that I reopened this thread 'cause I cannot get the prompt no matter what I do!
Steve D, thanks for the suggestion. I am reluctant to uncheck "Notifications" because, if I am not notified, and thereby able at least to postpone the backup (whereas I want to cancel the option), then I may find myself again in the position of having vast quantites of unnecessary files starting to transfer to Dropbox, and needing to be removed, tediously, bunch by bunch. (This suggests that I have accidentallyi enabled downloading, that is what I want to change.) I am looking for a permanent solution in which Dropbox does not try to download external drives that have nothing to do with it.
Thanks for the prompt reply, Nancy.
I have read the link you give. It offers to allow me to suspend the backup, whereas I want remove the possiblity, and have in Dropbox only what I am working on. So I moved on to 'Suppression de la sauvegarde", which sounded better. But it seems to suggest, not that I can stop the backup, but that, once it has been done, I can remove it.
My problem arose on a new computer, to which I was downloading existing files using a synchronisation application. I discovered that Dropbox was simultaneously downloading hundreds of archive files into... itself. I then had to remove them in a cumbersome way, bunch by bunch. I really do not need all my music archives in Dropbox. I am already very careful with keeping separate backups.
I wish the Preferences tab on Dropbox would include a button to remove the possiblity of such unwanted synchronisations. Can you help ?
@DenisM5 Okay, then it sounds like you have indeed enabled the external drive backup and now want to disable it permanently. Unfortunately, we have seen that the Dropbox design for external drive backup is half-baked at best. There appears to be no direct way to enable it through configuration (only by the elusive prompt when you plug in the device) and then no clear way to disable it. The instructions say you can "pause" backup by right-clicking on the "backup" (whatever that means) and selecting Pause. Perhaps that will work for you. Another solution might be to reinstall Dropbox and if the prompt to backup appears when you plug in the external device, say NO! BTW, I've seen posts where people have done that and were never again able to enable external drive backup - which in your case seems to be desirable result.
Thanks for following up, Steve.
"Right-clicking on the backup ?" I see no trace of anything resembling this (in French) when I inset an external drive, just the possibility of clicking to have the backup "Later".
I might, when I find the patience, dis-install and re-install Dropbox.
I cannot imagine where I was ever asked to enable these cumbersome and, for me, completely unnecessary and tedious backups.
Hi @DenisM5, could you confirm that you deleted the external drive backup from the Dropbox site directly?
Any screenshots of the messages you're getting would also be helpful.
@Jay , I had followed Nancy's link, finding general headings. I chose the one that seemed appropriate, but could find only the possibility of asking for synchronisation to be postponed, with other options that I did not understand or did not find on my screen.
However, I have just followed other instructions in order to describe what happens to you. I clicked on my icon on Dropbox, chose "Preferences", then "Safeguards", then "Manage safeguards" and found, at the bottom of the list "De-activate safeguards" (I work in French, so am translating these terms). Then on "Keep content in PC files". Then "De-activate". This seems to have worked. I have just inserted a USB key, and the message offering to copy all content to Dropbox no longer appears. That is what I wanted.
The instructions and advice I received from Nancy and Steve D were well-intentioned, but I could not follow them.
I look round the present screen and cannot find a link to say "Solved". Let me know how to do this. I have solved my problem after a bit of floundering.
Hi @DenisM5, glad to hear it's sorted now - thanks for keeping us in the loop too.
This discussion has already an Accepted Solution this is why you're not seeing the option to mark it as solved.
Have a lovely weekend and see you around the Community!
Hi - I am trying to setup backup for my 32TB Raid drive - I am able to see all of my externals EXCEPT the raid drive (which the dropbox folder is currently installed to.) For reference, the other drives are a 2TB Samsung Pro SSD and two 16TB Hard drives - all three of these external drives show up and one of them is daisy chained THROUGH my Raid drive, but the Raid drive itself is not showing up.
Thanks for any help.
Hi @Woahskigner, I'd recommend getting in contact with the support team directly for further assistance.Once you get a ticket ID from the automated response, please let me know the number here so I can locate it in our system.
Hi -
I submitted the case, here's the ticket ID - #16474231
Thanks
Walter, I was pleased with the path I found to disable automatic backup of all external drives, but the same problem has arisen again, my computer wants to download everything. Since I was on a separate computer, I thought that the disablement might need to be done for each unit (though Dropbox is synchronised). So I followed the same steps, got as far as "Backups" in "preferences" but, instead of "Configurer" (my Dropbox is in French) I found 'Gérer les sauvegardes", and could no longer disable backup. I have just tried again, found "Configurer" (why does this change from one day to another?), found that desktop, documents and downloads were all enabled again. I deticked them, but the "Configurer" button at the bottom left is grey, and cannot be pressed.
My efforts seemed to have worked. No, I am still stuck with the computer trying to download, automatically, all my documents and any external drive plugged in. So I have not found any "Accepted solution".
Thanks @Woahskigner, I can see that the ticket has been responded to by a support agent, who have requested additional information. Please could you reply to them as soon as possible.
@DenisM5, I'm a little confused on what is still enabled on your account. Could you attach a screenshot of what you see on the Dropbox Backups page?
Hi @Jay
I didn't receive any notice of the tech requesting additional information. When I stopped speaking with them they said they had everything they need and where reaching out to their team for more information.
Please let me know if there's any further information I can provide.
From the recent support ticket, they requested more information. Could you check your inbox, or spam/junk folder in case it went there?
You can also view your active tickets from this page.
Thank you for your idea, while we can’t take every idea forward we do regularly re-review and will update you if anything changes!
I too have this problem of my external drive not showing up as an option in Backup. I've tried all of the suggestions in the help documents and in this conversation thread. I've talked with several people at Support, who are either sales people or technical people who don't seem to have a solution but won't say so.
I have a Personal Plus subscription with lots of space available. No issue there. My external drive is formatted in one of the accepted formats. Is there a solution to this problem? If so, what is it?
I have also been unable to get clear (admittedly clear to me, a non-specalist!) information or help from Dropbox.
I have at least reached the point where, in my Preferences, I have removed the option of automatic synchronisation of Desktop and Documents, which took me far beyond my limit on the Basic Version. Only Downloads remains, and I actually download into a folder in Dropbox, so the hard disc folder remains empty.
Before I found out how to do this, Dropbox used to start downloading so many things from my hard disc that I was quickly over the limit.
Why don't I move to a higher option? Well, I use Dropbox strictly for safeguarding the files I am working on or recent ones, and about once a month I transfer all completed work to the hard disc. This takes a bit of time, but gives me a chance to revise what I am keeping. I also keep two copies on external hard discs (using AllwaysSync for this synchronisation). In other words, I use Dropbox on line, and all my other content is stored locally.
Thank you for your reply, DenisM5. It helps to hear that you've been unable to get a clear response either. I'll stop wasting my time beating that bush. I too have two local backups. A sync'd cloud backup of my external drive seemed like a good part of a disaster plan, especially since I have plenty of room in my Personal Plus plan. I'll look elsewhere for options.
In my experience it is not fixed. I still cannot get a prompt for my older Seagate drives. It does work, however for a new SanDisk SSD drive that I acquired. In any case, the feature is poorly documented and designed so I probably wouldn't trust it even if I got it working. They need to make external drive backup configurable in the Dropbox preferences instead of using this unreliable prompt. And yes, Dropbox support appears to be useless in regards to this issue.
I finally ended up putting my Dropbox folder on an external drive and putting my personal backup data in one of its folders. I would recommend encrypting your data before sending it to the cloud, however.
Thanks for your response Steve. I'll stop trying to find a solution and put my my to a different backup option.
Hey everyone, how are you today?
I went through your comments, and I am here to help as much as possible. You mentioned that you've contacted our Support team, right?
If so, would you be able to provide your ticket numbers, just so I can have an idea of all the troubleshooting steps you've followed?
Thanks, keep me updated!
Good morning, Megan: I assume from your response that you are a Dropbox employee who is able to do something about resolving this issue. Is that a correct assumption?
I was sent a link to a desktop application update by one of the support people with whom I conversed. I’ve installed it, signed out of Dropbox via Accounts, restarted my computer, made sure that "Show setup notifications when new external drives are plugged-in” is selected, plugged in my external drive, which is formatted HFS+ and connected via a USB-C cable, and still it is not recognized. I’ve looked for it from within the desktop app preferences and also opened my account via the website. I've been trying to resolve this issue for 3 days without success. It's been a waste of my time. I'm moving on to looking for other solutions.
Hi @Frostinite, thanks for writing back to me, and informing me of this.
You're correct, and I'd be more than happy to continue looking into this for you, if you want. Provided that you have an active ticket number, have you responded back to it?
Feel free to send me the number here too if you wish to continue troubleshooting with us.
The ticket #19482924 I received this yesterday without the issue having been addressed. I replied that I had been very dissatisfied with my experience.
