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Forum Discussion
Backup from Dropbox to External HD
I’d like to backup the entire contents of my large Dropbox account to an external hard drive. What is the best way to do this?
Considerations:
- I have a complex web of folders and files, some of which are online-only and not. I’d like to keep the current setting of which are online-only and which are not. Syncing down in batches and copy-pasting onto the external is therefore not ideal.
- Backup methods like Time Machine don’t do much good with stub files like Dropbox’s online-only files.
- The size of my Dropbox contents exceeds the capacity of my local hard drive, so I can’t use it as a “middle-man”.
- There are apparently download limits on Dropbox web, so I don’t think I can just download it all directly to an external hard drive.
- One idea would be to make a new user on my Mac, sign into Dropbox, set the folder to the external HD, and sync everything down, but this seems risky and janky…
Any ideas appreciated!
24 Replies
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- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey rymanbugs, thanks for posting to the Dropbox Community today.
At the moment, there's no direct way to back up the contents of your Dropbox to your external drive.
With the new Dropbox for macOS app, the Dropbox folder is saved to ~/Library/CloudStorage and cannot be moved somewhere else.
If you don't have the space to make all your files available offline, to copy them to your external drive, a workaround would be to download your files in batches from the website and then move them there.
You can also use selective sync, to choose which folders to sync, make them available offline and then copy them to your external drive.
I hope this helps, but let me know if you have any questions.
Hi Hannah, thank you for your quick reply!
I can't use the selective sync method for the reasons (1 & 3) stated in the original post.
I can probably download in batches, but some folders are heavier than others, and I foresee a headache coming as to keeping track of what's been downloaded, reorganizing in the final place in the external hard drive, etc.
This issue would be solved by 1 of the following potential features:
- Keep the download limit off Dropbox.com. However, allow a mass-download; simply breakup the files programmatically on Dropbox’s end into separate zip file of max size determined by you. Or download in split RAR files, max size determined by you.
- A feature of Dropbox Backup, but allowing the reverse: instead of backup from external, allowing backing up to external from Dropbox.
Would DB be willing to consider one of these features Hannah ?
I love Dropbox, but we all know it's a good idea to have backups in multiple places. With Selective Sync, and running my work/life out of my Dropbox folder, it makes it almost impossible to routinely back up to some other place (preferably physical).
Thanks, Nancy!
Hi @rymanbugs,
have you been able to find a solution for this? I have a similar situation and would like to create an additional backup on an external HD. I find it strange that Dropbox does not offer a solution.
I am also looking to backup from my Dropbox account straight to an external hard drive.
I have the same issue. Any resolutions yet?
no - still waiting. may have to try another service.
Any luck yet? I am also wanting to back up all my files directly onto an external hard drive. My computer doesn't have space to download everything to copy and paste over
