My laptop doesn't show up in my connected devices list, even though it's syncing files

Hey annml, thanks for reaching out to us.

This is a quite strange issue indeed, but let's see what we can find.

Just to confirm, is the Dropbox app linked to the same Dropbox account as your browser?

You'll find the email address of the linked account in the "account" tab in your Dropbox preferences.

Also, if you go to the "backups" tab in the preferences, do you see an option to enable backup?

If not, what do you see instead?

Let me know and we'll go from there.

Hi Hannah - thanks so much for replying!

-- Yes same account on browser vs app

-- When I look at preferences, I see "This PC" and then to the far right I see "manage backups". If I click on that, I eventually get to a "get started" button -- clicking that brings me to a window where I can "choose files" and I can select "more". When I go to select the files, it lists the name of my old desktop. I don't have an option to select files from the new laptop I'm on.

-- I don't see "enable backup" anywhere.

-- And just checked again on browser -- if I click Security and scroll down, it sees only my phone and my old PC

-- Also tried a suggestion from my phone's dropbox app - it said go to dropbox.com/connect. I tried that using the laptop that I want to connect to but it was still not listed in devices after I tried that

Thanks!

Thanks for the update, annml, can you test something for me?

Add a test file to your Dropbox folder, allow it to sync and then go to your account online and check the version history.

It should show you the name of the device the file was added from, so let me know what you see there.

It was the same result as my prior test -- it uploads from new laptop and I can immediately see it online and on my phone, so I know it's working. The version history said "desktop" and when I hovered over that it said "annml" which is the name of my laptop. It's so strange. Another oddity is that I don't see any dropbox icons next to my dropbox files on laptop. Yet, it appears to be working.

Sorry to have so many issues but here's another thing. When I click backup button, it goes to the folder selection window -- but when I expand those options there is no option for me to choose to backup Dropbox, it's not one of the selections. I'm so confused.

Also not even sure the dropbox for desktop ever really installed. I've installed it several times but nothing looks like the screenshot tutorials. The 2 things I have available are the dropbox file explorer and the icon found in the tray. Is that normal?

Today I uninstalled and re-installed dropbox and I think my desktop app seems better, but when I hit backup I still can't choose my dropbox folder to backup.

Thanks for the additional info here, annml.

I'm glad things now seem better after reinstalling the Dropbox app, but would you mind clarifying what you mean by "choose my Dropbox folder to back up"?

Are you trying to back up your folders to Dropbox or back up the Dropbox folder itself somehow?

Hopefully I can explain this better.

-- I believe my files are syncing correctly -- although I still don't see any dropbox icons next to the folders I'm syncing -- any thoughts as to why?

-- As far as backup vs syncing:  Maybe Dropbox "backup" feature isn't a true backup, maybe I'm misunderstanding this feature. When I hit "manage backups" on desktop app, it eventually brings me to a window where I can select which folders to backup (vs just sync) -- there is no option for me to select my dropbox folder as part of that backup. The only options are music, pics, documents (empty), desktop, downloads, one drive etcetera.  I want to also backup my dropbox folder (not just sync).

Does that make sense? Thank you Hannah!

Thanks for clarifying, annml.

Unfortunately, this is not really possible.

You can back things up to Dropbox with Dropbox backup, but you can't back up the Dropbox folder; whatever's in your Dropbox folder and is synced to your account online as well, is already saved to our servers, that's why you can restore files that you delete.

If you'd like to back up the Dropbox folder itself, you could make a copy, which you can save to a different location on your computer or an external drive, but it won't be a live, two-way backup, just a simple copy for safe-keeping.

I hope this helps!