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lament's avatar
lament
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago
Solved

Proper procedure for re-linking (adopting) backed up external drive on a new computer?

Hi all,   I'm only backing up an external hard drive with Dropbox Backup. I wiped and reinstalled my Mac (Sonoma 14.2.1) and reinstalled Dropbox.   Dropbox has created a new backup of the externa...
Dropbox Backup
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    2 years ago

    Hi lament, since you wiped and reinstalled the OS, this is considered a different device, so any backups made on the 'old' device will no longer work.

     

    You'll need to backup the external drive from scratch, and delete the old backup, since you're currently out of quota, to free up space. Currently, it isn't possible to merge two backups together in the way you're requesting.

fortsound's avatar
fortsound
New member | Level 2
6 months ago

I have exactly the same issue here. I want to continue the same existing backup on a new OS. External drive hasn't changed, now I have to start backup from scratch and probably delete the existing backup in order to create enough space. That means I'll be without online backup until the new backup is fully done which can take days with my limited upload speed. Moreover, I have to do this for 3 external drives for a total of 2 TB. 

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