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How can I copy the contents of my Dropbox folder to an external drive?

Device
(MacBook Pro)
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
(macOS15.6)
Dropbox App Version/Browser Version
237.4.5655

I am trying to simply copy the contents of my Dropbox folder to an external hard drive as a backup (not with the intention to save regular working files on the external hard drive as I know that would create a problem when the drive is disconnected. I am super confused by the Dropbox Backup website/app: when I go to manage backups I can't see a clear option of how to select my backup drive (Seagate portable drive) and transfer my Dropbox contents over. Instead it is giving me options to backup the folders on my computer (pictures, documents etc.). Please help! This should be super easy and clear???

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Comments

Hannah

Hi there, @kameyering, thanks for posting to our Community!

The settings you're looking into are those related to our backup feature, so I think that they're not really what you're looking for.

If you simply want to copy the contents of your Dropbox folder over to your external drive, all you have to do is go to Finder, open your Dropbox folder, copy the files and then locate your external drive, open it and paste the files in it.

Before copying everything over, though, please make sure that all your Dropbox files are set to "available offline".

If you copy files to your external drive that are set to "online-only", you won't be able to open them, as they won't be the actual files, but placeholders of the files.

To make files "available offline", you can right/control click on them and choose the corresponding option.

I hope this helps, but if you have more questions, let me know.