Forum Discussion

qihangZH's avatar
qihangZH
Explorer | Level 3
3 years ago

Why my external hard drive can not be seen by Dropbox backup?

I work with my WD Mypassport external hard drive. For safe, I backup it for the first time and then I hope it works. However, when I KEEP plugged in and restart, the dropbox backup said it could not ...
desktop
upload
Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago

Hi qihangZH, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

 

What error are you getting exactly, and on what page?

 

A screenshot showing this error would be greatly appreciated.

 

This will help me to assist further!

  • qihangZH's avatar
    qihangZH
    Explorer | Level 3
    3 years ago

    Dear Jay,

     

    Thank you! I will post what happens in my PC:

     

    Firstly, before I open my PC, I plugged in my WD external harddrive. The dropbox desktop always start automatically.

    Then we click the icon of backup, it shows:

     

    But, we can assure that the "My passport" could work properly:

    then we unplugged the WD external hard drive:

    Then replugged in, it is so "amazing" that the dropbox will find the WD!

    Besides, when we quit the dropbox and re-enter, it will meet the same problem too...

    Hope for you reply!

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

      The external drive backup feature syncs files once every hour, after the drive is connected and sync. Did the drive sync correctly when it was connected?

      • qihangZH's avatar
        qihangZH
        Explorer | Level 3
        3 years ago

        Dear Jay,

         

        Yes, If connected, it will work properly. But it could not connect after take a lot of times in the condition I sent.

        Besides, Dropbox(Basic function) could work will and sync real-time. The problems only occures in backup.

         

        Some other problems may not relative with "connection" but the preference-selection subfolders, I think it is another problem and I will have another idea to share.

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!