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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!
     

DM2021's avatar
DM2021
New member | Level 2

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?

      • Megan's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        3 years ago

        Thanks for the screenshot pellegrinogrigio!

         

        Under External Drive Backups, you can uncheck the box there. This way, you won't get prompted to backup your new hard drives each time you plug them in. Can you give it a go?

         

        As for your Autoplay settings, I can't determine how they're set up since they're not in English. 

         

        You can also have a look into this suggestion in our Ideas section, which has to do with the dropbox.device. file.

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