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Dropbox folder shows as 0kB when using Time Machine to back up on an external drive.
When I create a Time Machine backup on an external hard drive using macOS (latest version), the Dropbox folder with the synchronized data is displayed correctly only on the original Mac. As soon as I...
Megan
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey Reinke!
Since the behavior of Time Machine is out of our scope, we want to make sure that everything works as expected from our side.
With that in mind, allow me to go back to my last question: Can you confirm that if you simply create a copy of a folder or file on your desktop, or any other location outside of the Dropbox folder, can be opened without an issue?
If so, the other thing we could potentially suggest is backing up the Dropbox folder while the Dropbox desktop app isn't running (if that's possible to do), to see if that makes any difference whatsoever.
To answer your question clearly: yes, I can confirm that. I can open and copy all other data to the new computer without any issues. Only the Dropbox folder is locked. Regarding your second suggestion: even if I stop synchronization, the same effect remains. We also have a second Dropbox account with an old iMac and an older macOS. On that system, we don’t experience this issue; the Dropbox folder can be opened on another computer without any problems. I don’t know if it’s due to the newer versions of macOS, but the problem only occurs on the newer computers.
- Nancy
Hi from me as well, Reinke! Please kindly note that using Time Machine to create a backup of the Dropbox folder is something that’s out of our scope of support unfortunately.
However, I did also check this with our team in the meantime and one workaround I can suggest is to create a manual copy/backup of the Dropbox folder on the external drive instead.
