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Helen J.3's avatar
Helen J.3
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago
Solved

External drive auto backup

Can anyone please advise how I set up external drive auto backup? I originally saw the box pop up, asking if I wanted Dropbox to automatically back up the drive, but I clicked No. Now I've changed my...
desktop
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  • Emmet's avatar
    Emmet
    4 years ago
     
91281's avatar
91281
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

Same issue here, the drive is AFPS (Mac). I selected no when I first plugged the drive in but use-case has now changed but there doesn't appear to be an option to add it. 

The backup tab gives five options: This Mac, External Drive Backups, Photos, Devices, Screenshots.

- This Mac allows for user files (desktop, downloads, etc.) 
- External Drive Backups is just a tick box (tried selecting/de-selecting tickbox, ejecting/connecting ext
- The others don't seem relevant

Am I missing something?

Megan's avatar
Megan
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
4 years ago

Hey there, 91281, how are you today? 

 

Can you share with me the usage and the capacity of your drive? 

 

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there. 

  • 91281's avatar
    91281
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    Hi Megan,

     

    A bunch of drives - I have an internal 1TB SSD through an external SATA/USB cable, a Sandisk Extreme 500GB and a Western Digital External 2.5" @ 1TB.

    Two of them are pretty full the other mostly empty.

    Is that the kind of info you need from me?

    • Megan's avatar
      Megan
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      4 years ago

      Thanks for the clarification, 91281 & Helen J.3! 

       

      Can you check to make sure you haven't disabled your File System Warnings?

       

      Please go to Preferences > Account tab and try re-enabling them by pressing the Option/Alt key.

      • Helen J.3's avatar
        Helen J.3
        Explorer | Level 4
        4 years ago

        Hi Megan

         

        Thanks for your message. I have tried doing that, but it doesn't make any difference. 

         

        I clicked the Option key on my Mac, then clicked reset file system warnings.

         

        I then went to Preferences > Backups > Set up > then a window appears asking me to select folders, but the external drive is not shown as an option to add.

         

        I know it can work, as it does work on my new laptop, as per previous message.

         

        Any idea how I can get this set up on my iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021), running Monterey 12.2.1

         

        Helen

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