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Forum Discussion
lament
11 months agoExplorer | Level 3
Proper procedure for re-linking (adopting) backed up external drive on a new computer?
Hi all, I'm only backing up an external hard drive with Dropbox Backup. I wiped and reinstalled my Mac (Sonoma 14.2.1) and reinstalled Dropbox. Dropbox has created a new backup of the externa...
- 11 months ago
Hi lament, since you wiped and reinstalled the OS, this is considered a different device, so any backups made on the 'old' device will no longer work.
You'll need to backup the external drive from scratch, and delete the old backup, since you're currently out of quota, to free up space. Currently, it isn't possible to merge two backups together in the way you're requesting.
Walter
11 months agoDropbox Staff
Hi there Jason E.15 - sorry to hear you're having issues with this.
Could you please send me a screenshot of the app's exact status as shown in your menu bar at the moment?
Also, do you see one or two backups in your backups page?
Let us know more and we'll take it from there, Jason.
- Jay11 months agoDropbox Staff
Hi lament, since you wiped and reinstalled the OS, this is considered a different device, so any backups made on the 'old' device will no longer work.
You'll need to backup the external drive from scratch, and delete the old backup, since you're currently out of quota, to free up space. Currently, it isn't possible to merge two backups together in the way you're requesting.
- lament11 months agoExplorer | Level 3
Jay I find it hard to believe that in 2024 you can't adopt a backup of an external drive that didn't change at all. That's a complete waste of time and resources having to re-upload, on both sides. I know it can be done with Backblaze because I've done it, so it's baffling you guys can't do this.
I'm not backing up the new computer itself - I'm simply adopting an external backup that is already showing in my account. Why can't that backup be associated with this "new" device?
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