Start 2025 on time and up to date! Seamlessly integrate your calendars into Dropbox with these simple steps! 📆
Forum Discussion
Solved
Backup, sync, external drives and local backup
Hi.
I want help to see if I'm doing the right thing here. Maybe I'm being dumb and you have a better idea for my problem.
- My computer has 500GB of space.
- I work on my projects locally and save them in an external drive (4TB) when finished (I have a backup of the external drive in another building).
- Every day I sync my computer to the external drive, also to backup "projects being done".
- So my external drive has two folders like: "Ready" and "Projects being done".
- My Dropbox is currently syncing my local "projects being done", so I have two copies (local and Dropbox).
Do you think it is a good idea to sync my external drive with the two folders to DropBox instead my local folder? If so, both folders will be back up in DropBox too.
If so, who is the best way to do this? Should I unlink my account, delete the current content in DropBox and link to the external drive?
What do you think?
Thank you,
Luiz
It really depends, it sounds like if anything goes wrong, your most recent work will be on dropbox, and your last sync of the files from your external HDD will be available via your offsite backup. So for me this sounds like the optimal solution and I wouldn't really change anything unless for whatever reason you feel that in the event of some problem, you want to access your folders from your HDD quickly, rather than wait for the external backup copy.
You can have the google drive folder located on an external drive, but it can cause some occasional issues if it isn't connected 24/7. In my experience it's usually fine, it'll just wait until you plug it in and not do much in between.
- Rich
Super User II
Luix wrote:
Should I unlink my account, delete the current content in DropBox and link to the external drive?
Syncing to an external drive can be problematic and is not officially supported. While it can be done, it is NOT recommended as data loss can occur under the right conditions.
is it really not supported? I'm running an M2 Macbook Pro and an M1 Mac Mini. I actually have Dropbox synced to an External 3.5" 4TB HDD that's inside an enclosure. I'm actually able to disconnect either computer and connect it to the external hdd and it works just fine. Been doing this for over a year and a half now.
I say go for it. It clears up space on your internal ssd, and you can bring around the external hdd with you if you ever need to be mobile. I do it this way cause sometimes I need the content that's on my dropbox but I don't have immediate access to wifi or ethernet internet. Having a physical dropbox folder on a hard drive allows me to access the files wherever I go.
To each their own, I don't know the "compatibility" but it's been working great so far.
I'll say this though, when you turn on your computer and boot into your OS (operating system if any noobs are reading this) and Dropbox is one of the starting up programs, it will prompt you and give you a message that it can't find the Dropbox Folder if your drive isn't connected to your computer. When that happens, always choose the cancel or quit button. Don't do the re-link or unlink thing cause that will make you have to resync again. If you know you have to use your dropbox and sync, plug it into your laptop/computer before turning it on and logging in to your OS.
Good luck!Hi.
Interesting moment I get your message, Miraflor9000. I just bought a new 8TB external drive and decided to sync DropBox to it. After a week, it finished last Sunday. It is working okay. Thank you for sharing your experience. I don't know why Dropbox says syncing to External Drives are a problem, it looks fine until now.
Thank you again!
It really depends, it sounds like if anything goes wrong, your most recent work will be on dropbox, and your last sync of the files from your external HDD will be available via your offsite backup. So for me this sounds like the optimal solution and I wouldn't really change anything unless for whatever reason you feel that in the event of some problem, you want to access your folders from your HDD quickly, rather than wait for the external backup copy.
You can have the google drive folder located on an external drive, but it can cause some occasional issues if it isn't connected 24/7. In my experience it's usually fine, it'll just wait until you plug it in and not do much in between.I've read that, too, but I don't see a downside.
If the drive has a problem, everything is still on the cloud.
Having a 4TB drive be my "Dropbox Drive" allows me to keep all files "local" and eliminates the frustration when files mysteriously sync on my harddrive, fill it, and crash my computer -- causing about 2 days of very frustrating fixes.
I've been using an external drive for about 6 months and I'm really happy with the way it's working.
Your mileage may vary.
Thank you. Very interesting. I'm really tempted to give it a try now. hahaha.
But how do you manage it? Do you make changes to the files in Dropbox, or just in the HardDrive? I do not plan to update anything in Dropbox site directly, just sync what I have in the External Drive.
Thank you!
