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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! 
Rich's avatar
Rich
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
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.
megsmakesart's avatar
megsmakesart
New member | Level 2
6 years ago

I just had my Dropbox folder excluded from my Time Machine backup under Options. As Dropbox backs up to Dropbox, there's really no need to back the files onto an external harddrive. 

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