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touchepas's avatar
touchepas
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago
Solved

Time machine forces smart sync to download files locally!

There is a huge problem when using smart sync as a Mac user who has time machine setup to automatically back up the entire hard drive (including the dropbox folder). If this is the case the time mach...
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  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    8 years ago
    The files aren't on the computer so your backup software can't back them up. If it tries to access the files, Dropbox is likely bringing them local just like it's supposed to do (no different from when you access a file that's Online Only; it's downloaded). Dropbox likely can't differentiate between you accessing a file or another application accessing the file.

    Your best bet would be to add an exclusion to your backup set so that it doesn't attempt to backup any files that are marked as Online Only.
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    8 years ago
     
    Hey touchepas, let me follow-up on your last reply more closely (& thanks for taking the time to post your feedback here)!
     
    You may keep in mind that it isn’t currently possible to avoid this behavior: 
     
    However, I wonder whether there is a way to prevent dropbox from doing so if it is a 'read trigger' by time machine?
     
    On the other hand though, I understand that this functionality is important to you & for that reason I’ve made sure to pass your comments & overall feedback on to our team for future consideration. 
     
    Please don’t hesitate to post here again at any time in case you need further assistance & we’ll do our best to check back with you. Happy Friday! 
Jane's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
8 years ago
Hey there (Anne-Marie a.), thanks or reaching back out to me on this discussion on the issue & apologies for the slight delay in replying on my end.
 
Are you still experiencing the same behavior? I’ve made sure to run a search on our system on my end, I’ve located your newest ticket & I can see that my colleague has been awaiting your reply, in order to investigate what happened. You may have a look at your inbox for their latest message at your earliest convenience & please keep them updated with the requested info on this email chain, as it’s best for us to keep all relevant info in one correspondence. 
 
I hope that this gets resolved soon for you & I’m always here in case you’d need further assistance in any way, just keep me updated in your next reply & I’ll do my best to check back with you. I’m wishing you a wonderful rest of your day ahead! 
Anne-Marie a.'s avatar
Anne-Marie a.
Explorer | Level 3
8 years ago

Hi Jane, I have not seen it happen again since that day.  It must  have  been  sunspots  or  some other  celestial event  causing a glitch. ;-) Thanks, I'll  find and close  out the tech support  request.

  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    8 years ago
    Ah, that’s great to hear Anne-Marie a. & thanks a lot for circling back to me to let me know of the outcome. I’m always around, so feel free to ping me back again in case you have more questions in the future & take care until we talk again!

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