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.

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

        Hi Hannah,

        Thanks again for your help – that's great. I'll look into this further, but that may be an option.

         

        When you say it may lead to file loss, do you mean on the local drive or on the Dropbox, or both?

         

        Thanks,

        Cinosa

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