Syncing Cloud Folders with External Drive

Lynk wrote:

I am backing up folders to an external drive by manually clicking the folders and choosing "Download" and pointing to where I want them on the external drive. Is this the right way to create a backup?

If your intent is to create a backup of your Dropbox folders that are online, then yes, that would a way to download them to an external drive.

However, the best way to back up your Dropbox files is to allow them to sync normally to your local Dropbox folder, and then copy them from there to your external drive. If you're comfortable using a terminal or command line, you could also use the dbxcli tool to download files from your account directly to your external drive.

Lynk wrote:

I want to be able to sync the files between the cloud and the external drive, is that possible?

I'm assuming you mean separate from your local Dropbox folder? Dropbox will only sync files stored in your local Dropbox folder.

Lynk wrote:

When I plug in the external drive, I do not get the "back up this drive" option.

This would be different from what you're trying to accomplish. That feature is used to back up the external drive to your Dropbox account online. It sounds like you're trying to do the opposite.