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Forum Discussion
Dropbox Unlinks on Restart
Hi I have 2 separate drob box acounts both on external drive
On most computer restarts one account unlinks, and I get the notification drop box folder missing and we have to re link, and everytime things have to resync all files.
iMac Pro 2017 3GHZ Intel Zezon W
Extrernal HD is Mecurty Elite Pro
Hey there JeremyStacey - sorry to hear that!
First of all, note that Dropbox can be used with an external hard drive as long as you can ensure the drive is always connected to your computer while Dropbox is running. If the drive is ever disconnected from the computer while Dropbox is running there is a small chance that the Dropbox software will start deleting files before realizing that the entire drive has been removed.
Additionally, you should ensure that the file system of the external drive meets the file system requirements. Those can be found in the following Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/system-requirements
To move your Dropbox folder to an external drive use the steps in the following Help Center article: https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/move-dropbox-folder
NOTE: The location you select is the folder the Dropbox folder will be moved to, rather than the folder your Dropbox files will be stored in while a good alternative to moving Dropbox to an external drive is to take a look at our Selective Sync feature; a feature that allows you to choose which folders to sync to a particular computer. It's a great option if you'd like to free up disk space without moving Dropbox to an external drive.
I hope this helps to some extent and please let me know if you have any further inquiries Jeremy.
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hey there JeremyStacey - sorry to hear that!
First of all, note that Dropbox can be used with an external hard drive as long as you can ensure the drive is always connected to your computer while Dropbox is running. If the drive is ever disconnected from the computer while Dropbox is running there is a small chance that the Dropbox software will start deleting files before realizing that the entire drive has been removed.
Additionally, you should ensure that the file system of the external drive meets the file system requirements. Those can be found in the following Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/system-requirements
To move your Dropbox folder to an external drive use the steps in the following Help Center article: https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/move-dropbox-folder
NOTE: The location you select is the folder the Dropbox folder will be moved to, rather than the folder your Dropbox files will be stored in while a good alternative to moving Dropbox to an external drive is to take a look at our Selective Sync feature; a feature that allows you to choose which folders to sync to a particular computer. It's a great option if you'd like to free up disk space without moving Dropbox to an external drive.
I hope this helps to some extent and please let me know if you have any further inquiries Jeremy.
Thank you so much for the advice. Yes the external drive is always connected. The main OS Drive is formatted APFS, but the external drive where dropbox is located is formatted Mac OS Extented Journaled aka HFS+ and extended attributes have not been disabled.
Any other ideas why this keeps happening?
Thank you- Walter
No, nothing I can add at this point JeremyStacey - just make sure to log a ticket with our team the next time you see this happen providing as much information as possible so we can have a more in-depth look into this for you.
If you'd like me to reach out instead, please let me know.
