Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

Jennifer G.29's avatar
Jennifer G.29
Helpful | Level 6
5 years ago

No dialog box when connecting external HD?

I want to back up my external HD to my Dropbox account.   What should happen: When I connect the external drive, I should get a popup that asks if I want to back up the external drive, I select i...
Computer Backup
desktop
Setting up the apps
sync
ylansegal's avatar
ylansegal
Explorer | Level 3
5 years ago

Lori,

 

Thinking a bit more about this: I may not have made my point clear. The issue is not that dropbox fails to backup the external drive. Rather, it's that I can't figure out a way to tell dropbox to backup the external drive in the first place. The help article says that the dropbox will automatically prompt for backup when connecting the drive. That doesn't happen.

 

How do I tell dropbox to backup the external drive on a Mac?

 

Thank you  so much,

Jennifer G.29's avatar
Jennifer G.29
Helpful | Level 6
5 years ago
Hello,

I’m not sure this is the same issue I started the thread about…you might community answers on a new post. I never found a fix for this. The only way to get Dropbox to recognize the drive was to reformat it and reconnect it. I couldn’t get Dropbox to prompt me to back it up any other way (it took me six reformats to conclude that). Good luck.
  • ylansegal's avatar
    ylansegal
    Explorer | Level 3
    5 years ago

    Jennifer G.29  It seems like the same issue to me: I connect an external hard drive, and never get prompted for backup.

     

    I appreciate that formatting the hard drive fixed it for you. I am not willing to do that. It's inherently destructive and seems like a poor experience for what seems to be failure in the Dropbox UI. It should have a way to tell it which external hard drive to backup on a Mac, like apparently is possible on Windows.

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    5 years ago
    Hey ylansegal, thanks for your cooperation.

    I just sent you an email to investigate further.

    At your convenience, please have a look at your inbox and we'll take it from there.
  • eggospartan's avatar
    eggospartan
    Explorer | Level 3
    5 years ago

    Hey All,

     

    Same issue-- Drive is formated as HFS+ but I am not prompted to backup when the drive is connected. Is there any available fix? 

  • wouterv-42's avatar
    wouterv-42
    New member | Level 2
    5 years ago

    Same issue here: 

    - 4 TB external drive, with 1.11 TB used

    - formatted "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" according to Disk Utility, which apparently is just a different name for "HFS+"

    - macOS 10.14.6

    - dropbox v135.4.4221

    - 2 TB family plan

    - no suspiciously named hidden files in root of drive which would mark this drive not te be used by Dropbox Backup (what name or mechanism does Dropbox use for this anyway?)

     

    A solution would be greatly appreciated

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

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!