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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 Dropbox website I got a warning message that the Seagate was not compatible with Dropbox. I checked the Seagate's properties and it says the file system is exFAT. What should I do? Any help appreciated. Thank You.
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.
- Rich
Super User II
I got a warning message that the Seagate was not compatible with Dropbox. I checked the Seagate's properties and it says the file system is exFAT.
On Windows, the drive needs to be NTFS-formatted. You can't put the Dropbox folder on an exFAT-formatted drive on Windows.
