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Forum Discussion
I can't move my Dropbox folder on to an external hard drive; I get the error it's not compatible.
Just bought (Nov 2024) a 14TB Seagate External drive with the intention of moving my Dropbox folder off my PC's C: drive over to the external drive. When I followed the method to do this per the Dro...
Thanks Rich. Ok so if I want to move my Dropbox folder off my C drive over to my External drive (and all its contents), then I'll have to reformat it. This something I can do, just a bit annoying.
I have concerns about doing this move as I have been told I may lose all my photos. The reason for this is that my PC will assign a drive letter e.g. E to my hard drive. What happens if I disconnect the hard drive with Dropbox on it and connect a different hard drive? My PC will name it E:. Dropbox will be confused.
My son (an engineer) advised me not to move it and that I should store all my photos on the external drive and upload them from there into Dropbox via the web browser.
That method seems logical but negates Dropbox's syncing functionality.
What do you advise?
- Nancy
Dropbox Staff
Hey Dalewo. If the Dropbox app is running on your computer, you’ll need to have the external drive, where the local Dropbox folder has been moved, connected to your device at all times; otherwise, Dropbox won’t be able to detect the files on your computer and it’ll start deleting them from your account upon syncing.
So, what your son suggested may be a more viable option in this scenario.
Can you clarify though why you wanted to move your Dropbox folder onto an external drive in the first place? Is it due to lack of space on your local drive, by any chance?
Hi Nancy, thanks for your reply. Yes, lack of space is the reason. The C drive has 500gb but we have maybe 2tb of photos and videos that we want to store/be able to view using Dropbox.
- Nancy
I see, thanks for clarifying! What I wanted to suggest is using selective sync as an alternative, but that’s in case you have some folders on the Dropbox app that you don’t wish to access often. This feature would totally remove them from your local Dropbox folder (hence they won’t be taking up hard drive space), but they’ll always be accessible on www.dropbox.com and on any other linked devices you may have.
Another workaround is to make your files online-only instead, which will only leave their placeholder in your Dropbox folder, which doesn't take up much drive space, and you can download them every time you need to access them.
