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Forum Discussion

Dullard's avatar
Dullard
New member | Level 2
2 months ago

Cannot completely disable Dropbox Backup for an USB drive.

I plugged in a USB drive and got an annoying prompt about backing it up. I've never used the Dropbox Backup feature and don't want to, especially not for a drive I'm using itself as a backup.

I turned off autoplay completely for now in my Windows settings, but I shouldn't have to do that in order not to use Dropbox Backup. The help page for this is out of date and describes a setting that doesn't exist. There appears to be no way whatsoever to disable backups.

So, short of nuking Dropbox completely and moving on to something else for cloud storage, how do I disable the annoying backup feature?

Account Settings
Desktop
Dropbox Backup
  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    2 months ago

    And what happens if you click on the "Never for this device" option bbob?

     

    Have you tried adjusting your autoplay settings? 

     

    Also, what is your computer's exact OS version, and the version of the Dropbox desktop app?

     

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    31 days ago

    Amazing news bbob! 

     

    If you need anything else, give us a shout! ðŸ˜€

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 months ago

    When did this start happening bbob? 

     

    I'd love to also have a screenshot of the pop-up message you get on your end, when plugging an external drive on your device. 

    • bbob's avatar
      bbob
      Explorer | Level 3
      2 months ago

      I don't recall when, it has been for some time.

      • Walter's avatar
        Walter
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        2 months ago

        And what happens if you click on the "Never for this device" option bbob?

         

        Have you tried adjusting your autoplay settings? 

         

        Also, what is your computer's exact OS version, and the version of the Dropbox desktop app?

         

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 months ago

    Hey bbob, thanks for the screenshot.

     

    However, have you tried accessing the Backup page that I mentioned above? 

    • bbob's avatar
      bbob
      Explorer | Level 3
      2 months ago

      Sorry had to step out for the wife, missed the first response as i was focused mainly on the wrong named to whom the response was for. checked backups on line, and only had two errors from a laptop many years ago, but no other information, especially about external drives.

       

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 months ago

    Yeah, bbob, ctrl+v should be able to work. 

     

    Give it a go, and let me know how it goes. 

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 months ago

    Hey bbob, let's jump right into this!

     

    Would you be able to access your Backup page online, and let me know what you see there? 

     

    If you have a screenshot of what you see there, it's more than welcome.

     

    Keep me posted!

    • Megan's avatar
      Megan
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      2 months ago

      My mistake bbob! Whoops, apologies! I was referring to your earlier message. 🙂

      • bbob's avatar
        bbob
        Explorer | Level 3
        2 months ago

        Yes, i have a png screenshot. but have tried the camera icon to insert it and could not get it to work. is there something easier, like drag and drop?

    • bbob's avatar
      bbob
      Explorer | Level 3
      2 months ago

      Are you replying to @Dullard or myself bbob?

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    2 months ago

    Hey Dullard, thanks for posting to our Community.

     

    Can you please go to the "backups" tab in your Dropbox preferences and send me a screenshot of the options you see there.

     

    Also, what's the sync status and version of the Dropbox app, when you hover over your Dropbox icon?

     

    Let me know and we'll go from there.

    • bbob's avatar
      bbob
      Explorer | Level 3
      2 months ago

      Hannah, Ihave the same problem and the 'Ask to backup external drives' preference option is turned off. Version of Dropbox is 210.4.4854

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