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I can't back up files from my external drive to my Dropbox mobile app via the Files app.

I cannot for the life of me sync my Dropbox to my iPad Pro. This is the only device I use to sync to Dropbox (by connecting an external drive to iPad Pro), so that i keep everything safe.

I have been doing this for some time (at least one year) so it’s not a new system, but it has suddenly stopped syncing for the past month. This was before I even updated to 26.2 so I now have 26.2.1 and no change.

I have tried:

Clearing dropbox cache

deleting Dropbox app, restarting iPad Pro and re-installing Dropbox app

deleting preview app

restarting iPad Pro again

deleting Dropbox from files “locations” and adding it back again

Removing external drive and reconnecting it

I can see files in Dropbox and can see drives in files and on my external drive, they’re just not the same since they don’t sync

I have a tonnnnn of storage space on both devices (not even half full) and no other apps open so it is not from either of those causes either. It continues to have the exclamation with a circle around it and the bottom of screen says “syncing with Dropbox paused”

Any help you have figured out would be greatly appreciated!

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Comments

Hannah

Hi there, @vanit0, welcome to our Community.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, can you clarify the following?

connecting an external drive to iPad Pro

Any additional info or description of the steps you're following to achieve the syncing process you mentioned, would be helpful.

Also, by "my Dropbox", are you referring to the local Dropbox folder on your computer or your Dropbox account on the website?

Let me know and we'll go from there.

vanit0

I have an external drive (a Samsung Portable SSD T7) and I got Dropbox so that I could have a second backup from that external drive. I connect my external drive to my iPad Pro and then I sync Dropbox from the locations section of the files app. So it is not syncing through the files app.

I looked on the Dropbox app separately and the files I originally synced June 2024 are there but not any recent syncs. I added some files to Dropbox at the end of last year thinking they would always sync and just have not so now there are different files

Nancy

Hey @vanit0, sorry for jumping in here.

I just wanted to mention that we can’t offer much support when it comes to the iOS Files app, as this is a standalone file/folder navigation app for iOS, built and maintained by Apple and it’s not owned by Dropbox.

Are you able to upload files via the Dropbox mobile app directly? You can try to do this either manually, or automatically via camera uploads.

Rich

vanit0 wrote:
I connect my external drive to my iPad Pro and then I sync Dropbox from the locations section of the files app. So it is not syncing through the files app.

How, exactly, are you accomplishing that? I know you can access both Dropbox and an external drive through the Files app, but I don't see a way to sync files between the two. I can copy files from one to the other, but there is no sync.

The Dropbox mobile app has never synced files like that (that's not its purpose on mobile), so I'm wondering how you were able to actually sync files to another device on your iPad.