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Can I use Dropbox as a Time Machine backup device?

I'm backing up Quicken and documents, downloads, and desktop on Dropbox but I'd like to have a full backup in case something happens.

Posted on Mar 2, 2023 9:17 AM

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Posted on Mar 2, 2023 9:31 AM

dialabrain and Ronasara are correct.

Virtual hard drives or "clouds" cannot be used as TimeMachines, the way TimeMachine was engineered. It was meant for external, physical, hard drives.

If you're in the market for one, here are the hard drives that Apple sells on their site:

External Hard Drive - Apple


If you decide to go elsewhere to buy one, make sure it can be formatted to fit a Mac! This is extremely important.



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 2, 2023 9:31 AM in response to karmajinpa

dialabrain and Ronasara are correct.

Virtual hard drives or "clouds" cannot be used as TimeMachines, the way TimeMachine was engineered. It was meant for external, physical, hard drives.

If you're in the market for one, here are the hard drives that Apple sells on their site:

External Hard Drive - Apple


If you decide to go elsewhere to buy one, make sure it can be formatted to fit a Mac! This is extremely important.



Mar 2, 2023 9:29 AM in response to karmajinpa

Here are some thoughts to consider.

  • Having a reliable backup is essential to avoid future data loss.
  • Time Machine, or another backup, app is designed to securely do our backups reliably.
  • Backup apps are designed to work backing up to an external disk.
  • The external disk should ideally be two to three times as large as the data to be backed up.
  • External disks are reasonably priced these days and a number of reliable brands are available.

Mar 2, 2023 9:59 AM in response to karmajinpa

NOTE: Having iCloud+ will not increase the internal storage space on your device. This is a commonly misunderstood topic.

If you have a device with 256GB of internal storage, subscribing to iCloud+ will not increase that storage...so you may still run out of space to store Photos, Apps, etc. on your device. But all that information will be safe in iCloud, if you find out you need a new device with more storage at some point.

Can I use Dropbox as a Time Machine backup device?

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