Can you back up QB online files into an external hard drive?

It's good to see you here in the Community, @Mary June.

I'll provide insights about backing up data in QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks keeps your data safe and secure by saving your data to two hard drives. We copy all data to a third-party hard drive on a regular basis to protect your data in the event that the first two hard drives fail. Also, automatic backups are performed every night.

In response to your inquiry, reports can be exported for backup, but not as a complete corporate file. This is how you do it:

1. Go to Settings ⚙. 
2. Choose Export Data under Tools.
3. From the Reports tab, set the date range.
4.  Toggle the slider to add or delete items from the Reports and Lists tabs.
5. Once done, click on Export to Excel.

On the other hand, if you're backing up files using your QBO Advanced company, check out this article for guidance: Back up and restore your QuickBooks Online Advanced company (formerly ChronoBooks).

I'm also adding these helpful articles that you can review about exporting and printing reports:

• Do I need to back up my data with QuickBooks Online?
• Export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online
• Run reports in QuickBooks Online

Don't hesitate to message us back if you have other concerns with QuickBooks and reports. I'm here to help anytime. Have a good one!

@Mary June 

You may have 2 ways:

1. Export your data to QBD Desktop file format. You can open it on the trial license of QB Desktop later.

2. Utilize an exporter tool.

https://transactionpro.grsm.io/qbo