Forum Discussion

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

Hi Dropboxers,

We've been using Dropbox for about 6 months with a team of 6 sharing a folder of our work. We'd like to back this up to an external hard drive and have it keep up to date by syncing. Can I set up a Mac with a large external drive and just let it sync to that? Most of us are using online only for lot of our work, but we'd like to have a downloaded version available. On the Community I see some references that a Dropbox folder on an external drive isn't recommended. Will this work?

 

Thanks!

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

    Hey Cinosa, thanks for joining us on the Dropbox Community.

     

    Indeed, moving the Dropbox folder to an external drive is not recommended.

     

    When it comes to Mac computers specifically, it might not even be possible.

     

    Have you updated your Dropbox app to the new Dropbox for macOS version that moves the Dropbox folder to ~/Library/CloudStorage?

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

      Thanks Hannah,

      We haven't set up a Mac to do this yet, but it would be the most recent update of Dropbox that we would be using. There's no reason this would have to be from a Mac though – if we were to set up a PC instead would this allow us to have a Dropbox folder on an external drive?

       

      Thanks for your help.

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

        Happy to help, Cinosa!

         

        If you were to do this from a Windows computer, it would be easier, as it is an option.

         

        However, it's still not recommended as it can lead to file loss.

         

        You can read more about the process here.

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