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Forum Discussion
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 it, then set it up.
What does happen: Nothing. I don't get a popup when I connect the external drive. In Preferences/Backups, the "Hide all setup notifications when new external drives are plugged-in" is NOT selected and never has been.
The only instructions Support could provide are "You get a pop up window saying back up this external hard drive and you select it and then you click on set up." I don't get the popup, so I can't do this.
I don't see another way to set the external drive to back up. I know this is a relatively new feature, but it isn't working at all for me and I haven't seen any other threads with this problem. How can I find a way to do this? Thanks for your help.
51 Replies
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- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi thejustintung, welcome to our Community!
Because the OP had a similar question, I've merged your post into this thread.
Would you mind having a look at what has been suggested already, and letting me know if you have any questions?
Thank you!
Sigh. Every so often someone chimes in and says they have the same issue. There are no workarounds provided, no guidance from Dropbox. Since I posted in September, I've had no resolution, even trying emailing support many times. It always ends in them suggesting I reformat my drive. Unacceptable.
I've requested a refund, since I bought Dropbox only for this reason. I've yet to hear back.
EDIT: Found it, thanks anyway.
Megan, how do I stop receiving notifications of replies on this thread? I’m the OP and not subscribed to any of the posts. Thanks.
- Yes. Dropbox Desktop is running correctly. It syncs fine. Like others and I have described multiple times, the prompt never appears, so we can't direct Dropbox to sync the external drive.
At this point I've given up and looked for a solution from a different company. I am pursuing a refund. Running on Mac Big OS 11.6, I just partitioned my G Drive that's connected by a USB C and changed it to run APFS. With dropbox desktop app running, it doesn't see the drive or give backup option notification. The external drive backup notification is checked in preferences and I've tried restarting computer, restarting dropbox app, and even reinstalling desktop app, but still nothing. I don't get a notification for any drives plugged in and would really like to sort this out and back up my drive. I have room in my dropbox to back it up too.
- MeganHi Setchy1222, I'd be more than happy to help.
I've merged your post under this similar thread since it matches what you initially asked.
Would you mind taking a look at what was previously suggested?
Also, what is the size of your external hard drive?
Let me know how it goes. External drive is 4TB and there is no solution here that worked. I've erased and reformatted the drive and there is still no prompt. Dropbox desktop app is still not recognizing it.
I’m in the same situation as all the other users in this thread. I upgraded my account to Pro in order to backup a 2TB external drive but, having previously declined to sync it, there’s no way to get Dropbox to ask again.
Do I take it that there’s no solution and I need to request a refund?
Yeah, I don't think there's any hope. I gave up and downgraded to a free account.
Why in the world hasn't DBX added an option from the system tray dropdown menu to "Backup External Drives" which should then reinstate the prompt that we're all looking for when you plug a drive in?! This is insane. Same issue here. Accidentally clicked I didn't want to Backup, now I do want to backup entire external drive, but there seems to be no way to make DBX recognize drive again when I re-plug back into computer.
