How can I stop Dropbox from trying to backup external drives?

[pellegrinogrigio]

Hi guys,

I've been trying for some time now to stop dropbox from:

- asking me to backup every external drive I plug in

- littering said drives with .dropbox.device files

I've tried everything. Is there a way to turn this annoying unrequested feature off once and for all?

Please no answers on the line of "never for this device".

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on the matter.

pg

[Rich]

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@pellegrinogrigio wrote:

Is there a way to turn this annoying unrequested feature off once and for all?

---

Turn off camera uploads. If you're on Windows, that's done in the Autoplay settings of your OS; not Dropbox.

[Megan · Accepted solution]

Hi @pellegrinogrigio, I hope you're doing well! 

If you open your app's Preferences, and then click the Backups tab, do you see the settings there? 

Feel free to send a screenshot of what you see there. 

Thanks!
 

[jpliskin]

Same question from a Mac user. There do not seem to be any local preferences on a Mac running the latest OS.

Thanks,

Joel

[DM2021]

The steps to stop Mac prompt to 'auto backup' when external drives are connected are:

A) Under top bar on desktop (believe its called the task bar) find your dropbox icon

 

B) Pulldown menu and under the initials for your user name find 'preferences' (mine is under DM)

 C) There is a 'backups' preference. Click off External Drives Backup.

[I have not yet time tested this method... as I actually just figured it out myself, after several annoying weeks of 'declining' prompt everytime I connected an external drive. But I'm pretty sure this is solution.]

 

 

[Bob K.9]

External backup check box within Account>Preferences>Backups. Unchecked, but don't know when it got checked in the first place. and this fixed the problem with constantly being asked.

[pellegrinogrigio]

Nope, it didnt' work.

I keep deleting the file and as soon as I plug the external drive it's there.

[pellegrinogrigio]

And NO, there's no checkbox to opt out external drives backup completely.

And NO, there's no options that says 'No photos nor videos'.

It seems to me like Dropbox is trying really hard to be your external drives backup, you like it or not.

Where am I wrong?

[Megan]

Thanks for the screenshot @pellegrinogrigio!

Under External Drive Backups, you can uncheck the box there. This way, you won't get prompted to backup your new hard drives each time you plug them in. Can you give it a go?

As for your Autoplay settings, I can't determine how they're set up since they're not in English. 

You can also have a look into this suggestion in our Ideas section, which has to do with the dropbox.device. file.

[pellegrinogrigio]

Hi Megan, thaks for you reply.

You can't spot the difference between the option having Dropbox written on it or not, even if it's in another language?

I'll translate: I selected the option to Open the folder with File explorer and not the one that says Dropbox.

I tried your suggestion and now I don't see any messages when Dropbox still litters my devices, now silently.

Please understand that I'm not trying to be rude.

You cannot immagine how much this thing bothers me.

I'm actually contemplating switching to other softwares beacuse of this.

regards, pg