Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

timq's avatar
timq
Helpful | Level 5
5 years ago
Solved

How can I cancel my computer backup?

I apparently selected pc backup when I installed Dropbox and naturally I'm out of storage on my Dropbox account now.  I don't want and have no need to have my pc backed up to it.  I have the desktop ...
Computer Backup
Delete
desktop
Space and storage
sync
  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    5 years ago
    Hey timq, welcome aboard our Community!

    Indeed, with computer backup, if you delete your desktop files from Dropbox, they will also be deleted from your computer. 

    If you want to disable the backup feature, you can follow the steps here.

    You'll find the Dropbox app's preferences, if you click on the Dropbox icon in your system tray.

    Let me know if you have any questions.
Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
4 years ago

Hi pdolmsted, if you're still experiencing issues disabling the computer backup feature, I'd recommend getting in contact with the support team directly for further assistance for them to investigate in more detail.

pdolmsted's avatar
pdolmsted
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

Hi Jay,

 

I finally worked it out. I needed to remove the computer completely (unlink it), and then wait for it to finish syncing on other computers. Then because it was unlinked I could delete the folders and files using one of the other computers, and eventually relink the computer in question. Because there were 100Gb or so involved I needed to wait a long time between steps until everything had stopped syncing. I think that was causing the previous weird problems: it was still syncing and needed to purges it's system before trying something new. The message is "not to panic"! 

 

I may go back to using Backup once I am comfortable with my new system and have it all set up. 

 

Thanks, 

 

 - Peter

 

About Delete, edit, and organize

Solve issues with deleting, editing, and organizing files and folders in your Dropbox account with support from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!