I have Window 7 and I uploaded files from an external drive a few months ago with no problem. And it was backing up those files daily with no problems. All of the sudden now Dropbox can’t read the drive. I’ve unplugged it and plugged back into my PC and it still has an error message that it’s not connected.Has anyone had this same issue and resolved it?

Hey there czcante - sorry to hear you're having issues with this. Could you please send us a screenshot of the exact error you're getting so that we can have a look too? Also, what is the desktop app's exact status and version as shown in your system tray at the moment? Keep us posted!

I no longer have that error. It resolved by itself when I turn off and disconnected everything overnight.But, I still can now back up. It's indexing files. It's in a loop.

This is what I am getting now. files have not been backed up since 10/11/23.

Thanks for the screenshot, czcante. It seems that the application is still trying to update some files; is syncing stuck on this specific number of files or has it progressed? If you click on your Dropbox icon, then on your initials and then on 'view sync issues', do you see anything?

The files are still syncing. The file number go up then they go down. Then up and down. It’s like they are in a loop. It has been doing that for 12 hours.When I go to the “view sync issue”, I do have one file that can’t be sync.

Dropbox not reading my external drive

21 Replies

Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Hey there czcante - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you please send us a screenshot of the exact error you're getting so that we can have a look too?

Also, what is the desktop app's exact status and version as shown in your system tray at the moment?

Keep us posted!
czcante
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago
I no longer have that error. It resolved by itself when I turn off and disconnected everything overnight.
But, I still can now back up. It's indexing files. It's in a loop.
czcante
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago
This is what I am getting now. files have not been backed up since 10/11/23.
Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Thanks for the screenshot, czcante.

It seems that the application is still trying to update some files; is syncing stuck on this specific number of files or has it progressed?

If you click on your Dropbox icon, then on your initials and then on 'view sync issues', do you see anything?
czcante
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago
The files are still syncing. The file number go up then they go down. Then up and down. It’s like they are in a loop. It has been doing that for 12 hours.
When I go to the “view sync issue”, I do have one file that can’t be sync.
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Hi czcante, what happens if you remove that file from your Dropbox folder or account, does it help the rest of the files sync across?
czcante
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago
The file isn’t on my Dropbox folder or account. It’s only on my external hard drive.
czcante
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago
Now it’s not reading my external drive again.
This is very frustrating. Everything was working fine for the past 5 months and now this. And these files I’m trying to backup are my work files. I manually copied them to another EHD last night for safety. But that takes too long. I really need some help!!
Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago
Sorry to hear that, czcante.

Are you getting the same error message you mentioned in your original post? If so, please send me a screenshot of it, and I'll have a look.
czcante
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago
This is what I am getting now. No error message. It will stay like this for awhile then it says that it's indexing and
that the last backup was 10/11/23 (.89 TB) It is in a loop with this process. It's been going on for days now.