External drive auto backup

Hi John. Yes, a new thread might help other people down the line, but I suppose a moderator can weigh in on that. You said you are fine, so I presume you have unchecked the boxes for backup and Dropbox put things back the way they were. At this point, I recommend that you test with a folder that you don't care much about to see how things work before going all in. For me, the Downloads folder was good for testing since I don't use it as a permanent home for anything. You should be aware that when you select a folder for backup, Dropbox actually moves that folder to the Dropbox folder (yikes!) and creates an alias in the original location presumably to make the move transparent to you and other apps that use the folder. These new folders in the Dropbox folder are hidden, but you can see them by showing hidden files in finder: shift-cmd-dot(.). The folder is named .Mac or something like that (don't remember). You can do a "Get Info" on the standard folder (such as Downloads) in your home folder to find out that it is not a "real" folder, but rather a pointer to the one in the Dropbox folder. 

Thank you for your reply, DenisM5. It helps to hear that you've been unable to get a clear response either.  I'll stop wasting my time beating that bush. I too have two local backups. A sync'd cloud backup of my external drive seemed like a good part of a disaster plan, especially since I have plenty of room in my Personal Plus plan. I'll look elsewhere for options.

I have Dropbox Plus running on a MacBook Air with M1 processor. I have the Desktop app but I cannot get to "Preferences". Whenever I open the App I am just taken to my DropBox folder. Please help!

My OS is macOS Monterey 12.2.1

I can get to preferences by clicking on the Dropbox icon in the top-right (menu bar) of the desktop. It drops down a type of dashboard shown below. Then I click on my account icon in the top-right of the dashboard - a tiny saxophone in this example. That will open up a dialog that has preferences in it.

Thanks very much Steve D. I am sorted now!

As a new user of Dropbox backup I am struggling. I now find that since I implemented automatic backup I am unable to manage my files. I no longer have the ability to rename or delete files in any of my folders. It also means that I cannot move a new version of software into my Applications folder. Obviously I cannot operate like this! A reminder that I am on a MacBook Air with M1 processor running MacOS Monterey Version 12.2.1. Help please. 

This thread is for problems related to setting up an external drive to be backed up. Is that what you are talking about, or are you talking about automatic backup of Mac folders such as Desktop, Documents, and Downloads?

I'm talking about automatic backup of folders. Should I create a new thread?

Hi JohnDawson, how are you today? 

You should be able to find out more in regards to Computer backup in this Help Center article. 

If you need to disable it, follow the steps shown there and that should do the trick. 

Let me know if you have any other questions.