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Back Up and Restore of Dropbox Data
- This article is for Windows only
Carbonite Safe Server Backup can be used to back up and restore data that is synchronized with Dropbox. This allows recovery of the data if it is deleted or if the Dropbox service is unavailable.
The Dropbox application must be installed and the data must be present and available on the local disk. Once the data is available on the local disk, select the Dropbox folder for backup within any File System backup set.
If a restore is necessary, use CSSB to restore the files or folders from Dropbox. If the data is restored directly to the Dropbox folder, it will be uploaded and synced automatically to the Dropbox service once the restore is finished.
Please follow the steps below to backup and restore Dropbox data:
The sections below are collapsed. Please click the section title to open / close a particular section.
The Dropbox software must be installed and operational on the system. Once installed, Dropbox will create a folder on the disk. If you are new to Dropbox, you must add files or folders to the Dropbox folder on the disk. If you are an existing Dropbox customer, the data stored on the cloud will be downloaded to this folder automatically.
The Dropbox data is available both on the web and the local disk after installation and synchronization is complete.
To back up Dropbox data, follow these steps:
- Include the Dropbox folder in any File System backup set. A new backup set was created for this example, but existing backup sets can be used.
- Finish the configuration of your backup set and click Save & Continue.
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- A screen will appear advising you to schedule your first full backup run. After setting the date and time, click Okay to proceed.
- Your newly configured backup set will be displayed in the Dashboard.
- The data will be backed up according to your schedules. You may launch a backup manually by navigating to the Backup Details page and clicking the Backup Now link.
- You will be able to select the backup location for your first full backup. Make your selection to proceed with the backup.
- Once the backup completes, you will receive notification in the Details column of the Dashboard.
Once the files and folders stored on Dropbox are protected with CSSB, they can be restored, even if a folder and some files are deleted or if Dropbox itself is unavailable.
In this example, the following items were deleted, and are gone from both disk and Dropbox.
- The After Reinstall.PNG folder
- The LogFile.txt file
These files can be recovered by navigating to the Restore page. Select the Dropbox backup set you would like to restore.
By default, the All items in this backup set option will be chosen and everything in the backup set will be restored. You can can restore specific items instead by using the Select items in this backup set option, which will allow you to browse or search for files/folders to restore.
Restore to the Original Location if you want the restored items to be automatically synced back to your Dropbox after the restore is complete.
The Name Conflict Settings controls what will happen if a file queued for restore already exists on disk. In this example, the Keep existing file / Keep Original option is chosen so that only the deleted items will be restored, even if other items are selected. This ensures that the files that still exist on disk will not be overwritten with old versions from the backup.
Click Continue to confirm your restore settings and then click Start My Restore.
You will receive notificaton in the Dashboard that the restore was completed. Files that already existed in the original location were not restored because the Keep existing file Name Conflict Settings was chosen. Additional information about the restore will be listed within the Notifications panel.
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The restored files are automatically synced back to Dropbox, once the restore is complete.
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