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Forum Discussion
sanchmo
4 years agoNew member | Level 2
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 N...
JMaldaner
Helpful | Level 6
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.
JMaldaner
3 years agoHelpful | Level 6
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!
- nordlight3 years agoNew member | Level 2
I still have the same issue. I've deleted the external drive from dropbox, unistalled the app, restarted computer, installed app again and the sync of the external drive is waiting to resume. This is so annoying as I need to backup important files. Please advise on how to get dropbox working like normal again
- thefootball3 years agoNew member | Level 2
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?
- Dendrial3 years agoExplorer | Level 3
Hi. So i was having the same exact problem
When i connected my external HD i by mistake clicked the back up to drobox option and that thing started syncing and it would NOT STOP.i tried all the stuff mentioned here but nothing worked, maybe because i didnt read it correctly.
The advice to delete the external hard drive from your drop box folder is the correct way. But i understood this as going to my dropbox folder on my HD and deleting it from there. When i did that it would only delete the already synched files and recreate the folder with the files that still needed to be synched.
what did the trick, was going to the browser version of dropbox. Go to the "all files" (or all folders, dont know, mine is the german version so not sure what it would say in english). basically the main folder. AND THERE it had my external harddrive. Not with a folder symbol, but with a symbol of an external harddrive. Mine is called Transcend so i had a folder that said Transcend Backup (where the stuff was being synched into) and below that was Transcend with the symbol for an external HD. When i deleted that it would stop the sync process and not start it again.
after that you delete the "transcend" back up folder and all stuff it dumped onto dropbox was gone......
man this cost my some nerves!!!- JJade43 years agoNew member | Level 2
I found the same thing. Delete the external drive from your DropBox online, not locally, and those large files will disappear.
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