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STOP Dropbox from backing up external drive
I made the mistake of accepting a request from Dropbox to back up an external drive plugged into my Mac. I didn't stop to think the files in that drive were going to be huge video files that should N...
Hi. So i was having the same exact problem
When i connected my external HD i by mistake clicked the back up to drobox option and that thing started syncing and it would NOT STOP.
i tried all the stuff mentioned here but nothing worked, maybe because i didnt read it correctly.
The advice to delete the external hard drive from your drop box folder is the correct way. But i understood this as going to my dropbox folder on my HD and deleting it from there. When i did that it would only delete the already synched files and recreate the folder with the files that still needed to be synched.
what did the trick, was going to the browser version of dropbox. Go to the "all files" (or all folders, dont know, mine is the german version so not sure what it would say in english). basically the main folder. AND THERE it had my external harddrive. Not with a folder symbol, but with a symbol of an external harddrive. Mine is called Transcend so i had a folder that said Transcend Backup (where the stuff was being synched into) and below that was Transcend with the symbol for an external HD. When i deleted that it would stop the sync process and not start it again.
after that you delete the "transcend" back up folder and all stuff it dumped onto dropbox was gone......
man this cost my some nerves!!!
I found the same thing. Delete the external drive from your DropBox online, not locally, and those large files will disappear.
I must have done something wrong, because when I deleted the external drive from within the web instance of Dropbox it deleted my local files! I am not happy.
When I installed my external drive, I don't recall a setting that said back up to Dropbox. The external drive was supposed to be my backup! If there was a setting on installing the external drive, it's my fault for not paying much closer attention. But the consequences are huge, and I am beyond frustrated.
The right way to do this would have been for me to be able to click the drive icon in the web interface and have an option to stop monitoring the source folder or drive. And when such a choice was implemented, I could then delete the files within Dropbox without it affecting any of my local files.
Lesson (a big lesson) learned. It's not the war in Ukraine or even dental problems, but it is very annoying, Dropbox.
Again - it's on me for not really thinking things through, backing up my files for temporary increased redundancy, before following the advice given here.
I post this to let others know of my experience, which is different from what I've been reading here. Maybe I did something wrong - I don't know. But my advice: before you delete the drive from the web instance of Dropbox, back up your files so that if things go sideways, you're not hosed.
~ Bal
