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Forum Discussion

pellegrinogrigio's avatar
pellegrinogrigio
Helpful | Level 5
4 years ago

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

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 ev...
Computer Backup
Desktop
Dropbox Backup
Setting up the apps
  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    4 years ago

    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's avatar
jpliskin
New member | Level 2

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's avatar
DM2021
New member | Level 2
3 years ago

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's avatar
    Bob K.9
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    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's avatar
      pellegrinogrigio
      Helpful | Level 5
      3 years ago

      Nope, it didnt' work.

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

      • pellegrinogrigio's avatar
        pellegrinogrigio
        Helpful | Level 5
        3 years ago

        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?

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