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TimP's avatar
TimP
Helpful | Level 5
7 years ago
Solved

What's the best way to back up the Dropbox folder if I don't have enough space to sync all files?

Hello, I'm using Dropbox Business with Smart Sync. I would like to brckup my entire dropbox to an external hardware (alternative ideas welcome). According to Dropbox support I would have to: ...
desktop
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    7 years ago
    I appreciate it that you circled back to us here Tim (TimP), let me clarify matters in a bit more detail for you below!
     
    I simply don't have enough space. I was hoping there is a way to download the entire content from the website.
     
    Please bear in mind that by suggesting the Dropbox folder move to your external hard drive, I meant the remaining folder after unlinking (which is just a simple folder as any other on your OS). This essentially implies that if you had chosen to exclude any of your content from syncing to your desktop, this will also be eliminated when you move files/ folder from your internal to your external drive. If you decide to follow my advice, it will be the same as if you downloaded your content in smaller chunks (i.e. via the website). 
     
    In other words, you can sync your files to your desktop utilizing Selective Sync; once you get all folder structures you’d need to backup fully synced, you can unlink & then safely move the folders to your external hard drive to back them up. 
     
    From there, you can re-install the desktop application anew changing the Selective Sync settings in order to get going with the second backup batch &c. 
     
    I hope that this illustrates my point a bit more clearly; please let me know if you have any follow-up questions! 
TSD2's avatar
TSD2
Helpful | Level 6
7 years ago

Hi Jane,

Yes, I understand about the place holder being local and the real file on the dropbox cloud.

SyncBackPro logs on to dropbox cloud ( once it has permission) and can perform its backup function between dropbox cloud and an external hard drive. 

I assume that many dropbox smart sync uses rely completely on dropbox for their smartsynced file security. I am sure dropbox does a great job of backing up the system, but **bleep** happens. I have recently had to retrieve files from 14 years ago that relates to a problem worth $1.4 M. I could do that because I have good backups. It would be great if dropbox provided this functionally to its customers.

I love Dropbox though and am pleased to have found a way to continue using it.

CEHTeam's avatar
CEHTeam
Helpful | Level 6
7 years ago

Do you happen to know if there is an option like SyncBackPro for mac? FileZilla Pro does for Google Drive what SBP does for Dropbox with Windows.  Would love to solve this problem!

While I work on a Mac, we do have a PC in our home. I'm actually contemplating getting a 4TB HDD added to our main PC strictly to have the full contents of Dropbox downloaded and kept locally there as a backup.  Wish Dropbox made it easier but I love it and want to use it.  Just have to figure out to have local backups copies of my data too.

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