Solved Need help from Dropbox experts regarding syncing...

[mitchellvii]

Have never been a big Dropbox guy but it seems like it would be prudent to start backing up some important database files and documents in the cloud in case all my hard drive backups go IRS on me (political joke).

I've tried reading up on how Dropbox syncing works but am just feeling more confused. So here are my questions for the experts out there:

1) If I have a folder on my hard drive I wish to back up to Dropbox, I just drop it into the Dropbox folder. Now does this copy the contents of my folder into the Dropbox folder on my SSD, therefore doubling the space it takes up, or are the files in my Dropbox folder merely shortcuts for the cloud data?
2) If I wish to sync a large folder containing many documents and files and wish Dropbox to update only those files which have been changed, will Dropbox do that? Dropbox seems to be telling me that my files have the same names, should I replace or ignore. I'm not concerned about new names, I'm concerned about new data under the same name. Confusing.
3) Is it safe to create symbolic links in Dropbox to folders on my SSD so Dropbox automatically has the latest versions as I work with the files or is there a risk Dropbox will replace my new local files with old Dropbox files?

Thanks in advance.

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THE SOLUTION:

Use Sync Toy (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155) to sync only new local files to my local Dropbox folder using the "Echo" method where updates flow only left to right. This prevents any Dropbox errors from corrupting or deleting my local data. Since Dropbox is only seeing the changed files, cloud syncing will be kept light.

Using a hybrid solution of Sync Toy and Dropbox (or OneDrive) works brilliantly.

 

[foghat]

If you are just starting out (not invested in dropbox at this point), why not use onedrive?

1. I imagine it would. Should be easy enough to test.
2. Yes. Not sure why it would be telling you you have files with the same names.
3. It shouldn't replace new versions with old versions. Again, easy to test.

I'd use onedrive since it integrates so nicely with 8.1.

I moved the locations of the Documents, Pictures, Music, and Video folder to live under the OneDrive 'folder' and work out of there. So only one copy of anything on my hard drive and everything automatically syncs. You could also do this with Dropbox.

 

[ctitanic]

Why are you using OneDrive?

 

[foghat]

Why are you using OneDrive?

I assume that is directed at me? Why wouldn't I use it?

 

[riggi]

Unless you have already invested in DB, I'd look at Google drive or onedrive.
They both give 15 GB for free and one drive will give you an extra 3GB if you enable camera backup on your phone (you can disable it straight away and still keep the 3GB) for a total of 18GB.
I have been using DB for a while and had 50GB free from the Samsung Note 2 and Note 3 promotions, but that is expirung in October. So, I've just finished moving everything over to onedrive and Google drive.
I use one drive as my live working storage for files that I access all the time and modify and want synced between home pc, surface and phone. And google is used more as just a backup for files that I might need (install files, photos etc.)
In thinking of getting an office 365 subscription just for the 1TB of storage, which is way cheaper than any other cloud, and putting everything in onedrive.
I did a bit of testing and the sync client for onedrive works better for me (which is not surprising and it's integrated into Windows). The google sync client crashes sometimes and I have to restart it, and sometimes if I delete a file from one machine, it will copy it back later from the cloud, when what I want is that if I delete the file on one machine, it delete it on all machines. But it seems to only do that sometimes.

 

[mitchellvii]

Will look into OneDrive. Yeah the syncing makes me paranoid. Don't want to make major edits to my database only to have it accidentally overwritten from the cloud.

 

[Kif]

So you need to rethink how to use dropbox. Dropbox syncs a local copy of your files between all your PC's and keeps a copy on the dropbox server. So you would just work off the copy that's in the dropbox folder. What's cool is that you can add your dropbox folders to be listed in my documents \ pictures \ etc... Just right click it and select include in library.

Why use dropbox? Because they have the best API's and many applications natively plug into dropbox that don't plug into other cloud solutions. They also provide superior Apps for IOS, Andriod and other devices.

Another thing is that Dropbox keeps a history of your files so you can roll them back if something bad happens to the current version.

 

[Liam2349]

You'd imagine it would be a direct swap. Hopefefully it is. Otherwise i'd need to put aside the money to buy a second sp3 to use and then return once the old one is replaced. This is not the kind of device that i can just do without for a few weeks; work is work.

So you need to rethink how to use dropbox. Dropbox syncs a local copy of your files between all your PC's and keeps a copy on the dropbox server. So you would just work off the copy that's in the dropbox folder. What's cool is that you can add your dropbox folders to be listed in my documents \ pictures \ etc... Just right click it and select include in library.

Why use dropbox? Because they have the best API's and many applications natively plug into dropbox that don't plug into other cloud solutions. They also provide superior Apps for IOS, Andriod and other devices.

Another thing is that Dropbox keeps a history of your files so you can roll them back if something bad happens to the current version.

Sounds pretty good. I use OneDrive because it works really well with Office and Windows in general.

 

[tuchas]

If you have Office 365, you already have OneDrive. I think they give you an entire terabyte of space. Dropbox was costing me $99 a year so I had no need for it. Only drawback of OneDrive is you cannot sync a file larger than 2GB. So I use the free version of DB with about 50GB to store large files.

One other thing. Consider this - you can store files on DB, OneDrive, etc and keep them offline, thus preserving space on your SP3 SSD. Just go into the preferences for these tools and choose the directories you want to sync. I only keep my critical files local - the rest are kept offline on OneDrive.

 

[Liam2349]

If you have Office 365, you already have OneDrive. I think they give you an entire terabyte of space. Dropbox was costing me $99 a year so I had no need for it. Only drawback of OneDrive is you cannot sync a file larger than 2GB. So I use the free version of DB with about 50GB to store large files.

One other thing. Consider this - you can store files on DB, OneDrive, etc and keep them offline, thus preserving space on your SP3 SSD. Just go into the preferences for these tools and choose the directories you want to sync. I only keep my critical files local - the rest are kept offline on OneDrive.

You mean keep them online, right?

And yeah, found out about the 2GB limit yesterday.. was pretty surprising. I still have 200GB for another year and some change from SP2, don't get why they can't let me sync a larger file?

 

[Moonsurface]

I use dropbox, onedrive, AND googledrive..... and I get real confused sometimes about what's where.

I like dropbox (have 1TB space there) and am moving away from googledrive. But the annoying thing is no native app for windows phone - though I found one which claims to do the same job for my new nokia.

 

[Liam2349]

I use dropbox, onedrive, AND googledrive..... and I get real confused sometimes about what's where.

I like dropbox (have 1TB space there) and am moving away from googledrive. But the annoying thing is no native app for windows phone - though I found one which claims to do the same job for my new nokia.

I really like the layout of OneDrive.. the Windows layout it has. What do you like about Dropbox?