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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 app but am not able to find the preferences section to stop it from backing up. I did try just deleting My PC from Dropbox but a message comes up and says if I delete "My PC" it says it will be removed from my Dropbox and from the computer. If I delete it in Dropbox, does that mean I'll lose everything on my laptop too? Sorry if it sounds like a newbie question but I am. ๐ Any help stopping the PC backup would be greatly appreciated.
- 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.
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I got it sorted, thanks. The way to disable backups is unnecessarily confusing. If I click on a drive to enable it, I should just be able to disable it. I can only pause it. Thanks to Google is discovered how, but it seems to be intentionally unintuitive. Just look at how many people are asking how to do it and you have to know there is something poorly designed.
Those instruction are for setup and enabling DropBox backup. The question is how to disable Dropbox Backup. I am also using Time Machine and read that this is incompatible with Dropbox Backup, so I just want to completely disable the DropBox Backup function.
- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Sorry to see that you're having issues with the backup feature, BobBurgess.
If you'd like to disable the feature, you'll need to follow the steps in this article.
Let me know if you run into any issues.
I use Mac OS 14.3.1
I cannot select the correct desktop when trying to "save as..."I have suddenly found that I cannot move a photo from Photos to the desktop.I was able to yesterday.
I do not want Dropbox to sync to my desktop. It causes issues.
How do I stop that sync?
Thank you very much
- Walter
When you disabled your backups the app would have gone through the process of removing them from Dropbox only and ensuring that they're still on the device so interrupting this process and what you've done so far sounds like you deleted the files altogether.
You can try pausing sync or quitting the desktop app and restoring your files from the trash in order to move them manually back to your Desktop/Download/Documents folders.
In any case, please let us know how you get on Another Fed Up User
I also found, in the Dropbox folder on my hard drive, shortcuts in both the Documents and PIctures folder pointing to the original folders on my C drive. I deleted those shortcuts before removing the "My Pc" backup from that Dropbox folder. My hope was to prevent the horrific effect of deleting original files on my hard drive when a backup is deleted in the dropbox cloud. Can anyone confirm that this would work?
Not sure about your 2nd question. This is what I see now - the backup is Unlinked instead of Disabled.
It is backups that I'm having trouble with. Possibly the word "syncing" isn't used for that.
- Walter
Hey there Another Fed Up User - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
Could you please clarify you're referring to folders you've copied or moved to your Dropbox folder and had syncing on your computer or ones that you had backed up to Dropbox using the Dropbox Backup feature?
Do you see your backups on your account online normally in your homepage or in the backups page' perhaps?
