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How to delete files from an external drive backup?
Device
(WINDOWS 11 ON PC)
Question or Issue
IN DROPBOX I HAVE A BACKUP OF AN EXTERNAL DRIVE THAT WAS CONNECTED TO AN (OLD) NON-EXISTING PC . I WANT TO DELETE SELECTED DIRECTORIES FROM THE DROPBOX BACKUP. HOW CAN I DELETE THEM AND RETRIEVE DROPBOX BACKUP MEMORY SPACE?
I TRIED, WITH THE FOLLOWING RESULTS:
WHEN I TRY TO DELETE, I GET A MESSAGE "If you no longer have access to the computer you used to create Extreme SSD OLD backup, click I don’t have access." (THIS IS THE CASE) THERE, I'M GUIDED TO "SIGN OUT OF THE DEVICE". I DID THAT, AND THE DEVICE IS NO LONGER SIGNED IN. NEVERTHELESS, I AM NOT ABLE TO DELETE THE DIRECTORY IN MY DROPBOX BACKUP.
WHAT CAN I DO TO DELETE THAT DIRECTORY?
4 Replies
- Rich
Super User II
I want to delete selected directories from the Dropbox backup. How can i delete them and retrieve Dropbox backup memory space?
I may be wrong as I don't use that feature very often, but I don't think that's possible. You can delete the entire backup, but you can't delete selected files or folders within a backup when the original computer is no longer backing up the content.
- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey Rongal, thanks for posting here!
I'd have to agree with Rich here. You should be able to delete the entire Backup, but I don't think you could remove specific directories.
What error do you get when trying to remove the directory? Also, what do you see when visiting your Backup page online? Feel free to send me a couple of screenshots, in order for me to have a visual too.
Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!
Thanks for your response. What you suggest seems to be counterproductive - the goal of the backup is to allow for recovery and maintaining of files on a media that has become inoperative or unavailable. I haven't tried to delete the entire backup of my external drive, but that would cause a complete loss of everything that is on it.
The alternative is to download the entire backup (all ~200GB of it!) to my current PC, then delete the original backup. Is that what is actually suggested?- Megan
Hi there, Rongal!
You're correct. I know this might not be exactly what you're looking for, however you can always download your backup to another device or drive, and then remove what you want before adding it back to your account.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
