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+--- Thread: Trouble getting dropbox to work... (/showthread.php?tid=142346)
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - TheTominator - 10-03-2012
What if you used soft links instead of aliases?
If the Dropbox folder is on the same drive (and the "files" you want to share are actual files and not folders) you can use hard links instead of soft links. That would definitely work.
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - Robert M - 10-03-2012
MAvic,
I'm sorry I didn't ask you to describe how you've organized your storage. IF you had listed what you said in this post, I would've immediately said Dropbox isn't a workable solution. At least not with your current workflow.
It's still feasible to use Dropbox but you'd have to modify your work flow to do it. Maybe keep it as you've described except for one change. Use Dropbox for current projects only and leave everything else in your existing folder. Here's a simple configuration:
Create a folder within your Dropbox folder and call it Current Projects. Within that folder, have a subfolder for a given client's project. When you're done with the project, move it to your primary projects folder and sort it accordingly.
That way, Dropbox is autosyncing just the current projects. This backs them up in more than one location, too.
Robert
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - M A V I C - 10-03-2012
TheTominator wrote:
What if you used soft links instead of aliases?
If the Dropbox folder is on the same drive (and the "files" you want to share are actual files and not folders) you can use hard links instead of soft links. That would definitely work.
What are "soft links"?
Robert M wrote:
MAvic,
I'm sorry I didn't ask you to describe how you've organized your storage. IF you had listed what you said in this post, I would've immediately said Dropbox isn't a workable solution. At least not with your current workflow.
It's still feasible to use Dropbox but you'd have to modify your work flow to do it. Maybe keep it as you've described except for one change. Use Dropbox for current projects only and leave everything else in your existing folder. Here's a simple configuration:
Create a folder within your Dropbox folder and call it Current Projects. Within that folder, have a subfolder for a given client's project. When you're done with the project, move it to your primary projects folder and sort it accordingly.
That way, Dropbox is autosyncing just the current projects. This backs them up in more than one location, too.
Robert
"Current Projects" is tough to define. I have Projects folder with all my projects, unless I haven't heard from the client for a few years, they've closed down, been acquired... basically if I think I won't hear from them again, I put them in an Archived Projects directory.
I basically have one client that I want to have easy access to their files for the current year. There's ~12 years worth of files in the directory, sorted by year. That said, there's also other folders like a "logos" one that I keep all logos in related to them as they get reused between the years.
If I move the location of those files:
- All of the links in the files (eg linked photos for INDD files) will break
- My backup won't sync anymore. I can setup another, but that just complicates things
- Each year I would have to move the previous year's directory back to the other location. That will likely end up with multiple versions backed up, hogging a bunch more storage space.
- The versioning of my files - both on the server and on the remote backup - will likely be messed up
Another thing that's VERY alarming to me with dropbox is that when I stop sharing files, it delete the local copies. That cannot ever happen! I don't want some glitch in the dropbox app or server wiping out my local files. Any idea if there's a way to tell it to stop sharing something, but not actually delete the files? Same with deleting files out of dropbox - I want them to stay local.
For example, I used the phone photo upload thing to get some more free storage. Then I deleted those files using the web GUI. It also deleted the files on my harddrive. That should never, ever, ever happen.
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - macbeergeek2 - 10-03-2012
Another thing that's VERY alarming to me with dropbox is that when I stop sharing files, it delete the local copies. That cannot ever happen! I don't want some glitch in the dropbox app or server wiping out my local files. Any idea if there's a way to tell it to stop sharing something, but not actually delete the files? Same with deleting files out of dropbox - I want them to stay local.
For example, I used the phone photo upload thing to get some more free storage. Then I deleted those files using the web GUI. It also deleted the files on my harddrive. That should never, ever, ever happen.
Dropbox is doing exactly what it's designed to do in this scenario... syncronize the shared info. If you delete that info from any one of the shared locations, it syncs the other location.
Lesson learned: don't ever keep anything in a Dropbox folder that you don't also have backed up somewhere else.
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - M A V I C - 10-03-2012
macbeergeek2 wrote:
Another thing that's VERY alarming to me with dropbox is that when I stop sharing files, it delete the local copies. That cannot ever happen! I don't want some glitch in the dropbox app or server wiping out my local files. Any idea if there's a way to tell it to stop sharing something, but not actually delete the files? Same with deleting files out of dropbox - I want them to stay local.
For example, I used the phone photo upload thing to get some more free storage. Then I deleted those files using the web GUI. It also deleted the files on my harddrive. That should never, ever, ever happen.
Dropbox is doing exactly what it's designed to do in this scenario... syncronize the shared info. If you delete that info from any one of the shared locations, it syncs the other location.
Lesson learned: don't ever keep anything in a Dropbox folder that you don't also have backed up somewhere else.
I think of their servers as a different type of location. If I deleted it from a client, I would expect it to be removed everywhere. If it's removed from the server, it should remain on the clients... or at least ask.
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - ztirffritz - 10-03-2012
Can you use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a script to synch the files that you need to the dropbox folder locally, then let the DropBox software do their automatic synching in the background? That way you're not copying the files all the time. You're just setting up the script to do it for you.
A B C
Local Files -------->Local DropBox Folder----->DropBox in the Cloud
\ CCC copies from A>B / \ DropBox copies from B > C /
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - Robert M - 10-03-2012
ztir,
I do something similar to that but I use a program called Folders Synchronizer. There is a particular set of files that must remain in my main documents folder. But, I want them in Dropbox so they sync with my other machines. I use Folders Synchronizer for the job. Admittedly, it means the files in Dropbox are a duplicate of items elsewhere on the drive but the system works. Short of using the sneakernet and a USB stick, it was the only way to automate the process and make it far more convenient.
Robert
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - TheTominator - 10-03-2012
M A V I C wrote:
What are "soft links"?
Soft link
Hard link
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - M A V I C - 10-03-2012
ztirffritz wrote:
Can you use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a script to synch the files that you need to the dropbox folder locally, then let the DropBox software do their automatic synching in the background? That way you're not copying the files all the time. You're just setting up the script to do it for you.
A B C
Local Files -------->Local DropBox Folder----->DropBox in the Cloud
\ CCC copies from A>B / \ DropBox copies from B > C /
Since the machines are often on the same network, at that point I might as well just use CCC to clone between the two. Also, having duplicate files will eat up a ton of storage space over time. Plus I'll probably have to drop CCC as I can't afford it anymore (unless they change their license to be more flexible.)
TheTominator wrote:
[quote=M A V I C]
What are "soft links"?
Soft link
Hard link
Ahh, had you symlink I would have known what you were talking about. Good idea, I'll give that a try.
Re: Trouble getting dropbox to work... - clay - 10-03-2012
M A V I C wrote:
[quote=macbeergeek2]
Another thing that's VERY alarming to me with dropbox is that when I stop sharing files, it delete the local copies. That cannot ever happen! I don't want some glitch in the dropbox app or server wiping out my local files. Any idea if there's a way to tell it to stop sharing something, but not actually delete the files? Same with deleting files out of dropbox - I want them to stay local.
For example, I used the phone photo upload thing to get some more free storage. Then I deleted those files using the web GUI. It also deleted the files on my harddrive. That should never, ever, ever happen.
Dropbox is doing exactly what it's designed to do in this scenario... syncronize the shared info. If you delete that info from any one of the shared locations, it syncs the other location.
Lesson learned: don't ever keep anything in a Dropbox folder that you don't also have backed up somewhere else.
I think of their servers as a different type of location. If I deleted it from a client, I would expect it to be removed everywhere. If it's removed from the server, it should remain on the clients... or at least ask.
Dropbox does not purport to be anything except a synchronization service/tool. In the same way that a file is updated across all devices when you save it, it should be removed from all devices when you delete it from one of them. The moment it ceases to do that, it could no longer be viewed as a synchronization tool.
Dropbox does offer an "undelete" option through the web interface that allows you to go back 30 days in the free version (I believe that's the correct time period) to restore a deleted file.