How to safely move all Dropbox files to external hard drive?

[del60]

Hey everyone! 

I have 2 dropbox accounts, one for business and one for personal. I'm wanting to move all of my personal files onto an external hard-drive and then delete that account & only use my business dropbox account. I know of 2 ways to do this, but I'm so so worried about losing anything or being faced with endless error messages due to incompatibility, so would really appreciate any help please!! The 2 ways I know of so far are:

1. Click the '...' on each file/folder, download to my laptop and move the files/folders onto the external hard drive this way, but I have SO many and this will take too long. 

2. Sync my dropbox account, go to 'dropbox location' and move to a new location - the external hard drive. 

I'm keen to go with option 2 as it's much more efficient, but I've read some articles saying dropbox isn't compatible with some media outlets etc, and I really don't want to move the whole folder to then not be able to open it!! 

The external hard drive in question is a 'UnionSine Expansion 320GB' and my laptop is a Mac. 

Any help or suggestions very much appreciated!! Thank you 🙂 

[Megan]

Hey @del60, sorry for the late response and welcome to the Dropbox Community! 

Great troubleshooting steps you've got there, you're on the right path. 

Since step 1 would take a little longer, especially if you have a lot of content, I would also suggest step 2. 

Now, you wouldn't need to move your entire Dropbox folder. You could simply download the Dropbox desktop application, allow for everything to sync locally to your device and then copy the entire folder as a backup to the external hard drive. 

If you wish, you can directly sync the folder to the external, as long as it meets these criteria. 

I hope that clarifies. 

[del60]

Hi @Megan, 

Thanks for getting back to me! 

I've already downloaded the desktop application, but I don't think it's all up to date the syncing - how do I sync it all now please? 

For the directly sync option, I'm just a bit concerned about the 'criteria' as I don't know if mine passes this. It's a bit confusing as it's an external hard drive but then the criteria says any detachable media can cause issues? Please can you explain this for me. 

Thank you and in advance 🙂 

Del

[Megan]

Thanks for writing back to me @del60! 

Can you check your syncing status and let me know more? 

Sure, I'll explain it to you. Sometimes, when starting your device, the OS might not recognize external drives or detachable media.

Dropbox performs a deep file search when it first starts up, detecting changes and syncing them. If the app is unable to locate the Dropbox folder, files may be accidentally deleted.

If you have any other questions, let me know.