Will renaming the external drive my Dropbox folder is on cause any issues?

Welcome back to our forum, Phili1! 

Changing the name of your external drive could indeed interrupt the connection to the Dropbox folder (as mentioned here).

It’s not necessary that the Dropbox folder, or the files within, will get deleted, but it’s definitely a possibility and it’s at your own risk.

Let me know, if you have any other questions though.

Many thanks for the quick reply!

Do I understand the information in the link above correctly? If I use my computer without the external hard drive connected on which the Dropbox folder is, will the Dropbox cloud delete my files?

One more question regarding my original question:
If I back up my files from the Dropbox folder to a third location, rename the external drive, and then repopulate the new Dropbox location with the previously backed up data, will Dropbox recognize that the data on the hard drive and in the cloud is the same or will Dropbox start resyncing the data?

Thank you for your help!

Phili1 wrote:

If I use my computer without the external hard drive connected on which the Dropbox folder is, will the Dropbox cloud delete my files?

It absolutely could. While you can store your Dropbox folder on an external drive, it comes with a risk. If the drive becomes disconnected while Dropbox is running, the application could view the missing Dropbox folder as a mass deletion of your files and sync that change to the cloud. The same can happen if Dropbox starts before the drive is connected. That's less likely as the application should pop a warning that the folder is missing, but that only happens when the application starts, not while it's already running.

Phili1 wrote:

... will Dropbox recognize that the data on the hard drive and in the cloud is the same or will Dropbox start resyncing the data?

The best option would be uninstall and reinstall Dropbox. First, make sure all of your files are syncing locally. If you use Selective Sync or have files marked as Online-only, change your settings so all files are local on your drive.

Uninstall Dropbox. Rename the existing Dropbox folder to Dropbox_OLD or similar. Rename your hard drive. Reinstall Dropbox and allow it to create a new Dropbox folder on the renamed drive. As soon as the install completes, quit the Dropbox application so it stops syncing. Copy your files from the Dropbox_OLD folder into the new Dropbox folder. When the copy is complete, and not before, relaunch Dropbox.

At this point Dropbox will begin indexing all of your files. This process will take a while, especially if you have a lot of data to go through. During this time it may say that files are uploading or downloading, but it's only transferring comparison data and any changes that it finds. Be patient and LET IT WORK.