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

How do I stop dropbox from continually trying to upload my whole c drive?

For no apparent reason, and not requested by me, Dropbox is trying to copy my entire c drive. I am going crazy and have tried every suggestion I have seen here to stop it uploading and it just keeps ...
desktop
sync
Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
4 years ago
Hi deannep, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

It sounds like you may have enabled the computer backup feature on your computer.

Could you have a look here and let me know if that's the case?

Thanks!
  • deannep's avatar
    deannep
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    As far as I can see, I do not have backup set, which is why I am so confused. Is there somewhere else I should be looking?


    This started happening about the same time Dropbox started asking when you plugged in a USB whether you wanted to backup (always a no) but it has never asked me whether I want to backup the whole computer.

    I have paused syncing for the moment until I can work out what to do, ask every thing I have tried has not worked. But I will be needing to sync some selected files so I can decommission the computer I am on, so I really need to find how to stop this upload.

    It also has at the same time uploaded over 30,000 images (so far) into my photos folder - most of them thumbnails from iTunes and things I have looked at on the Internet. It is crazy and makes photos unusable on my tablet. . I tried to remove these but it can't delete while it is doing the big upload.

     

    • Jay's avatar
      Jay
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      4 years ago
      Hi deannep, it looks like the computer backup is no longer running on your device.

      Could you confirm what system folders you see in the Dropbox folder, such as Desktop?
      • deannep's avatar
        deannep
        Explorer | Level 3
        4 years ago

        Hi Jay

        you may have found the problem

         

        I ran a search for ‘Desktop’ in the Dropbox folder on File Manager:

         

        they are from backups of my old computer done to a portable HD by professionals when the hard disk died and I had it replaced with a solid state drive. The computer is now being replaced and I need the files in the backup so I uploaded the portable hard drive to Dropbox which was obviously a mistake. 

        What should I do now?
        If I delete the folder named 'from hardrive' from Dropbox, will that fix things?
        What can I safely copy from the portable HD backup? Do I need to manually find the documents & music files on it and upload them (that will take a very long time)? 
        How do I ensure that Dropbox does not try to backup my whole laptop in the future?
        Thanks



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