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Adding an external drive to the backup cloud devices

I have Preferences / Backups already setup, how do I manually add an external drive?

I have the check box for "External Drive Backups" and under devices I see that I have three devices listed.

How do I manually add a HDD as an item to be backed up - Theis external drive is always attached to my iMac and it contains my Dropbox folder.

HELP!

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Accepted answers

Jay

After reading your original post again, I realized that you wanted to backup the external drive, which also contained your Dropbox folder. This isn't possible when using the Dropbox Backup feature.

If you want to backup the drive, then you need to move the Dropbox folder away from the external drive.

All comments

Jay

Hi @bs98909, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

If you try to open the Dropbox Backup settings in the desktop app, are you able to backup the external drive from there?

Keep me updated with any progress!

bs98909

Maybe I'm missing that but I don't see any way to do that. I am on an iMac running version 182.4.6427 and when I click on the "Backups" tab I can see "Manage Backups" but NO PLACE to add any drives. When I click on the "Manage Backups" I see my systems listed that are using Dropbox for backups but again no place to add any thing. There does seem to be text at the bottom left called "Add a backup" but that just seems to be text and not a button or anything to click on.

Jay

Under the 'Add a backup' section, is there no external drive listed?

bs98909

Nope, nada, nothing

bs98909

I could send a snapshot but there is no means to send an attachment

bs98909

Ooops silly me : [removed]

and the drive is already mounted and attached to the iMac. The drive is mounted at boot.

Walter

Hey @bs98909, sorry to jump in here, but could you use the camera icon (insert photo option) in your reply's box to attach your screenshot instead of sending us a shared link to it?

Also, can you maybe navigate to your backups page online and let us know if you can backup your external drive from there?

bs98909

Screenshot 2023-09-19 at 3.56.46 PM.png

Ah I see that now - thank you that

Hannah

Sorry, @bs98909, you mentioned that the external drive you want to back up, has your Dropbox folder in it.

Do you mean a copy of your Dropbox folder, or the actual syncing Dropbox folder?

bs98909

The rest of the drive the Dropbox is just one of 6 folders on the drive.

Jay

After reading your original post again, I realized that you wanted to backup the external drive, which also contained your Dropbox folder. This isn't possible when using the Dropbox Backup feature.

If you want to backup the drive, then you need to move the Dropbox folder away from the external drive.

bs98909

I was a fraud of that; is there a means to select the remaining folders?

Jay

No, it will prevent you from choosing that entire external drive to backup, to ensure there aren't any permission issues.