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sixstringbuzz's avatar
sixstringbuzz
Helpful | Level 6
5 years ago
Solved

I told Dropbox to not backup an external drive; now I've changed my mind

The subject pretty much says it all! I'm on a Mac and I connected an external drive (formatted HFS+). A popup came up asking if I wanted to backup this drive to Dropbox and I said no. Now I'd like to explore that service but I can't figure out how to turn backup on for this drive now that I've dismissed the popup. 

 

Is there a way to turn backup on for this drive other than reformatting it?

Computer Backup
desktop
Mac
sync
  • sixstringbuzz's avatar
    sixstringbuzz
    5 years ago
    Hello!

    I had reinstalled the app already (though I’m not sure I did a full uninstall first) but in the end I had some spare time and so I transferred the files from one external drive to another then reformatted the drive so it would trigger a new request to backup. This worked. As a suggestion, it seems like there should be some manual way to tell Dropbox to backup a drive after originally indicating not to and not to ask again.

    Thanks!

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

    Has this issue still not been fixed?? 

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

    Hey tomayko, thanks for joining the discussion here.

     

    Can you please clarify the issue you're having so that we can assist further? Are you also having issues with backing up an external drive to Dropbox?

     

    If you could also let us know the exact OS of your computer and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your menu bar/system tray, I'd appreciate it. 

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

    I have had the same issue with Dropbox Backup as EVERY other report here.

    I had a USB drive formatted APFS.  I initially chose to NOT backup to Dropbox when Dropbox first detected it. Then I changed my mind. No matter what I did (and I read all the above threads) I could not get Dropbox to "see" the drive to put it back into the backup process. Yes, I tried everything!!  

    In the end I re-formatted the drive with a new name. 

    However, I had to lose all the data on the drive. Good news I had a copy elsewhere.

    But this a big BUG in Dropbox Backup. Must be able to recognise drives that previously were excluded from backup.

  • hello_box11's avatar
    hello_box11
    Explorer | Level 4
    3 years ago
    There is a manual way to do that. You can go to the preferences and find a tab to manage backup. After clicking it, you should see portal to manually manage thaf

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