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xuser06's avatar
xuser06
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago

External hard drive won't back up on Mac desktop app

I am currently not able to get any external hard drive to backup to Dropbox backup.   I have previously backed one up successfully, but then that backup got corrupted and had to be deleted.   ...
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desktop
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Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago

Hi xuser06, it can take some time to begin backing up the drive when you first enable it. How long have you waited for the process to be completed?

xuser06's avatar
xuser06
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago

About 14 hours - the better part of a day and overnight.

When still nothing had happened by the following morning I presumed it wasn't working.

  • Nancy's avatar
    Nancy
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Thanks for giving that a try, xuser06. 

     

    Let’s check something else, then; the external drive that you’re having trouble backing up, is it HFS+/APFS/exFAT/FAT32-formatted?

     

    Please kindly note that encrypted APFS drives, read-only drives, and CD-ROMs aren’t currently supported, so I’d like us to rule that possibility out.

    • xuser06's avatar
      xuser06
      Helpful | Level 6
      3 years ago

      Hi Nancy, thanks for your reply.

       

      The Mac is formatted with APFS.

      The Western Digital drive is formatted with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and is not encrypted.

      I can't discern any other formatting name on it, and I've looked using the mac disk utility app for that.
      If you have any instructions on what to look for please let me know.

      • Nancy's avatar
        Nancy
        Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
        3 years ago

        Hi again, xuser06, and Happy New Year!

         

        Can you please let me know if you’re still having issues with this and if you’ve updated/replied to your support ticket recently? I can see that there’s one already opened with our support team which is being handled by our specialists.

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