This article answers frequently asked questions about Dropbox Backup.
What is the difference between cloud backup and cloud storage?
Cloud backup makes secure, up-to-date copies of files on your computer that you can access from anywhere you use Dropbox.
Cloud backup doesn’t free up storage space on your computer or provide additional storage space. The Dropbox Backup plan offers as much storage as you need to automatically back up one computer and one external drive to the cloud.
Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox makes it easy to back up and recover your files.
Cloud storage provides additional space you can use to save files and folders online, in the cloud. With cloud storage, your files are available wherever you use Dropbox, plus you can organize your content, sync across devices you’re signed into, and collaborate with others. You can use cloud storage to free up space on your computers and other devices, by making content online-only. Plans like Dropbox Basic, Plus, Family, Professional, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise provide cloud storage for your personal and business needs.
What is backed up?
You can select which folders are backed up from your computer or external hard drive during setup. To see a complete list of files that are backed up in your Dropbox account:
- Open your Dropbox desktop preferences.
- Click the Backups tab.
- Click Manage backups.
- Click View contents or View backed up files.
What isn't backed up?
If you choose to back up your computer, you can only back up files and folders from the hard drive with the Dropbox desktop app on it (usually the drive where your operating system is installed). If you have other drives installed, they won’t be included in the backup.
You can also choose to exclude certain files and folders from your backup by right-clicking them in the Dropbox folder in File Explorer or Finder and selecting Don’t sync to dropbox.com.
How many computers and external hard drives can I back up?
The number of computers and external hard drives you can back up depends on your plan:
- Dropbox Basic, Plus, Professional, Essentials, and Family: You can back up as many computer and external hard drives as you’d like, as long as you stay within your plan’s storage space limit.
- Dropbox Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise:
- Your team can back up as many computers as they’d like, as long as you stay within your plan’s storage space limit.
- The number of external drive backups your team can create is equal to the number of licenses you have.
- For example, if your subscription is for 15 licenses, your team can create up to 15 external hard drive backups altogether. You can choose to divide your external drive backups among your team as you’d like.
- Dropbox Business and Business Plus: Your team can back up as many computers and external hard drives as they’d like, as long as you stay within your plan’s storage space limit.
Does backing up my computer or external hard drive remove files from my computer or hard drive?
No. The backup process creates a copy of your files in Dropbox Backup but leaves them on your computer or external hard drive as well. If you delete the files from your computer or Dropbox account, they'll also be deleted from the other location. Files backed up from your external hard drive can only be deleted directly from the external hard drive.
You can restore deleted files and folders from your backup for up to 30 or 180 days, depending on your plan. When you restore files and folders on dropbox.com, they'll be restored on your computer as well.
What types of external hard drives are supported for Dropbox Backup?
You can back up the following types of external hard drives to Dropbox Backup:
- On Windows: NTFS, exFAT, FAT32
- On macOS: HFS+, APFS, exFAT, FAT32