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danielstarrason's avatar
danielstarrason
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago

Dropbox Backup can't find external hard drives - Mac Ventura 13.0.1

Hi everyone, I've seen people have a similar issue but haven't found a workaround.  I'm planning to backup a couple of hard drives using the Dropbox backup option. But when I use the desktop app (...
Dropbox Backup
danielstarrason's avatar
danielstarrason
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago

They are all Mac OS Extended. 

Since I've been meaning to set up my backup I haven't seen a drive connected to DropBox, now I remember though when I connected to my personal account it saw the hard drives. But I have to use my Advanced account for this. 

Megan's avatar
Megan
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
4 years ago

Hi danielstarrason, sorry to jump in here! 

 

Just keep in mind that this feature only supports external drives with filesystem type APFS or HFS+ for Macs. There's no chance the drives are formatted differently, right? 
 

Also, can you check for a .dbxignore and .dropbox.device, which are in the root folder of your external drive, and delete them?

 

Afterwards, disconnect the drive and reconnect it.

  • danielstarrason's avatar
    danielstarrason
    Explorer | Level 4
    4 years ago

    Thanks Megan, now we're getting somewhere! 

    Plugged in an old drive, formatted as APFS and it's working like it should! Is DropBox not equipped to make a backup of MacOS Extended formatted disks?

    • Megan's avatar
      Megan
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      4 years ago

      Hi danielstarrason, it depends on the format they use. 

       

      Usually, Mac OS extended drives use the Mac format HFS+, isn't that the case for your drives? 

      • danielstarrason's avatar
        danielstarrason
        Explorer | Level 4
        3 years ago

        Hi Megan and thans, yes some are and some work great while some don't.

        Is this an error on the FAQ site?

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