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Forum Discussion
STOP Dropbox from backing up external drive
I made the mistake of accepting a request from Dropbox to back up an external drive plugged into my Mac. I didn't stop to think the files in that drive were going to be huge video files that should NOT be backed up to Dropbox. How do I stop the backup of that external drive? The help section says go to the preferences of the Mac Dropbox app and uncheck folders I don't want to be synced. There is NO such option. The only option is to uncheck something about set up notifications for new external drives.
There was another help suggestion that suggested right clicking "the backup" and pausing it. WHAT backup?? I don't see the external drive listed anywhere in my Dropbox folder, and right clicking the external drive icon on my desktop doesn't show any Dropbox options.
How do I stop this backup without disabling ALL backups??
Thank you for any help on this....
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hey there sanchmo, happy Monday!
You should be able to see your external drive, inside your Dropbox folder. Can you confirm if this is the case here?
You can remove your external drive backup in the same way that you would any other Dropbox folder, by deleting it.
When you delete an external drive backup from Dropbox, it simply deletes it from Dropbox, not from your external hard disk.
Can you give this a go?
Thanks!Megan, I have the same thing happened to me. I went to my dropbox and deleted my external drive. But when I hit "resumed syncing", it still trying to sync many files from my external drive. How to I cancel the sync? Thanks so much!
- MeganHi x3kristy, I hope you're doing well!
Can you update me on your app's version and syncing status?
Is the external drive removed?
Thanks a bunch!
Hi there,
I have exactly the same problem. I accepted the request to back up my external hard drive without thinkint twice, and now mt dropbox is syncing nearly 1tb of photos unneccarily. Which will take ages and would take too much space from the dropbox. I did the mentioned steps already: Removed the folder where the files are synced to from the dropbox, disconnected the external hard drive, logged in and out, removed the whole app and installed it again. And STILL dropbox is syncing/trying to sync over 22k files. Even when the hard drive is not connected to the computer and there is no folder in the dropbox where it would sync the files to. How is this possible and how can I undo this?
Thank you.
Lately, when I connect an external drive to my Mac to back up to Time Machine, Dropbox asks me if I want to back up the drive to Dropbox. (The drive is NOT in my Dropbox folder.) I click NO... but the result is that somehow Dropbox disconnects my wifi! How do I keep Dropbox away from my external drives.
I have this EXACT same problem!!!
I followed your instruction and deleted the external HD from Dropbox. Because of the very large size of that external HD, my Dropbox account was more than maxed out and I got the corresponding error message that I need to upgrade. Now that I have deleted that external HD, will the space be reclaimed by Dropbox automatically? If so, I will be well within my plan's limits.
UPDATE: I restarted my MAC and after a day, the files that were deleted, i.e. my external HD, have now been completely eliminated as pertaining to the space they were taking up. I am now well within my Basic Plan parameters!
This is really really annoying. I should have learned my lesson by now about using beta features.
The link provided by Hannah from Dropbox leads to a "How to set up Dropbox Backup" document which does not have anything on it about disabling the backup of an external drive.
It seems you need to download and install the latest version of the Dropbox desktop app in order to get an option for turning off the backup of a particular drive.
Hi just found this link due to same problem. Your link though takes me to a page where it shows me how to set up NOT disable ? I cant stop this thing from trying to upload 200K+ files but none of then ever show in my online dropbox either.
I honestly just use to scan receipts etc
