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Forum Discussion
No dialog box when connecting external HD?
I want to back up my external HD to my Dropbox account.
What should happen: When I connect the external drive, I should get a popup that asks if I want to back up the external drive, I select it, then set it up.
What does happen: Nothing. I don't get a popup when I connect the external drive. In Preferences/Backups, the "Hide all setup notifications when new external drives are plugged-in" is NOT selected and never has been.
The only instructions Support could provide are "You get a pop up window saying back up this external hard drive and you select it and then you click on set up." I don't get the popup, so I can't do this.
I don't see another way to set the external drive to back up. I know this is a relatively new feature, but it isn't working at all for me and I haven't seen any other threads with this problem. How can I find a way to do this? Thanks for your help.
Hi there,
I recently decided to have a backup of my external SSD (APFS format). When first prompted a few months ago I must have said "no, don't show again".
But now I would like to have the whole SSD backed-up, how can I do that ?
I have been told there is a hidden file to delete so that dropbox can view the SSD as a new disk, but I can't figure out which file it is.
Thanks for your help. : )
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hi tibo1234, let's see what we can find on this!
Can you try uninstalling and then re-installing the app? That won't affect any of your files, of course.
After you do, try to connect the external once again.
Keep me posted on the results.Thank you !
I logged out, quit the app, moved it to the trash and re-installed. The external hard drive was recognized once again by dropbox.
Cheers : )
- WalterHey there Jennifer G.29 - thanks for posting on our Community and happy Monday!
If you've ensured that our desktop app is running on your computer and that the external drive's filesystem is a supported one, you should get that pop-up when you plug your external drive into your machine.
Just keep in mind that this feature only supports external drives with filesystem type NTFS for Windows and APFS or HFS+ for Macs.
Can you double check if your external drive is supported?
Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there, Jennifer.
Hi Walter, and thanks for your reply. The drive in my original question didn't have the right file system.
However, I reformatted another external drive as APFS encrypted and moved the files onto it. I still don't get a popup when I plug it in. Also, I don't see the Dropbox menu when I right-click on the folders or files; I do have that menu on all the files in the Dropbox folder. Other ideas? Thanks.
- JayHi Jennifer G.29, currently the external drive backup works for APFS and HFS+ for Mac devices.
Since APFS Encrypted isn't specifically mentioned there, could you try a normal APFS-formatted drive and see if that is detected by the Dropbox desktop application?
Running on Mac Big OS 11.6, I just partitioned my G Drive that's connected by a USB C and changed it to run APFS. With dropbox desktop app running, it doesn't see the drive or give backup option notification. The external drive backup notification is checked in preferences and I've tried restarting computer, restarting dropbox app, and even reinstalling desktop app, but still nothing. I don't get a notification for any drives plugged in and would really like to sort this out and back up my drive. I have room in my dropbox to back it up too.
- MeganHi Setchy1222, I'd be more than happy to help.
I've merged your post under this similar thread since it matches what you initially asked.
Would you mind taking a look at what was previously suggested?
Also, what is the size of your external hard drive?
Let me know how it goes.External drive is 4TB and there is no solution here that worked. I've erased and reformatted the drive and there is still no prompt. Dropbox desktop app is still not recognizing it.
Megan Walter Hello, OP here...one step deeper, I have another issue. I got the popup on a new drive and selected it so it backs up to Dropbox. Dropbox created the "synced drive" on dropbox.com--I can see it there. That's all good.
The problem is that it isn't backing up any of the files on the drive. Dropbox created the structure on dropbox.com, but it isn't filling it.
Right-clicking on it and looking at the menu options doesn't provide any solutions, although it does provide a clue: The dropdown says "don't sync to dropbox.com." It's giving me the option to stop syncing, because it's supposed to be syncing...yet it doesn't sync. What's going on now? Thanks.
- MeganHi Jennifer G.29, happy Monday!
Is your app running and syncing?
Can you check the syncing status, and let me know?
Thank you!I'm having the same problem.
I have a Western Digital Passport drive, which I completely deleted and reformatted to HFS+, making sure it was non-encrypted. At first the dialog box popped up, so all seemed fine.
Then after re-copying the data to the external drive, Dropbox won't recognize the external drive to actually back it up.
I have re-started my machine, restarted the dropbox app & sync, I have ensured the "Show setup notifications when new external drives are plugged in." box is checked.
How can I get, or force the Dropbox app to recognize this drive so that I can get it to start backing up some of the folders on it?
There is nothing in any menu in the preferences etc. to do this, which makes me concerned that even if I am able to sync it at some point the app won't recognize the drive and all the time invested in syncing a bunch of data will be lost if I can't have a manual and sure-fire way to make sure the app is knowing to be getting data from a certain external hard drive.Can anyone please assist with a way to ensure an external drive dialog box comes up, as I've ensured everything is good to go on my end in terms of formatting etc.
