External drive sync, how does it work? New contents not updating

[shinbeth]

I set a folder from my external drive with Dropbox. It syncs the contents only if I exit and restart Dropbox, it doesn't sync otherwise in real time.

What kind of useless sync is that?

[Jay]

Hi @shinbeth, thanks for your message.

The Dropbox Backup external drive feature works by syncing any changes when the drive is connected, and then once every hour while the drive is connected.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

[shinbeth]

@Jay 

Thanks understood, makes sense. Will wait 15 minutes since my last update was 45 minutes, I guess that will work.

Now could explain this: "You can’t make changes (like editing, adding, or moving) to files backed up from an external hard drive in Dropbox. If you’d like to make changes to these files, make them directly to the files on your external hard drive. "

Does that mean like, unlike a file that is stored on my local disk, I can't make any change on Dropbox.com for those files synced on the external drive? Makes sense to me. But what happens if I accidentally made a change to such file on Dropbox.com, what would happen? Would it create another file on my external disk Dropbox, or would it do nothing?

[Jay]

The Dropbox Backup feature is different to normal Dropbox syncing. On external drive backups, files can only be directly added, edited and deleted from the computer, as it is a one-way sync. 

Making changes on the site would revert those changes and adding a file on the site would create a conflicted copy.

[shinbeth]

Thanks @Jay and last question, am I supposed to see any green (and blue) tick on Dropbox synced external disk folders, the same way as I see them on my local SSD Macbook /Dropbox drive?

[Jay · Accepted solution]

No, there aren't any sync icons on files or folders outside of the Dropbox folder itself. 

You'll be able to see if the backup is synced from the backup site, where it will show a green tick.

[shinbeth]

Yes indeed! Perfect thanks.

[Jay]

No worries, glad to have helped out! Let me know if you have any more questions in the future.

Enjoy the rest of your week!