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Forum Discussion

astokesmusic's avatar
astokesmusic
Explorer | Level 3
3 years ago

Files Shared Between Computers; "Make available offline" & "Make online-only"

Hello all. I'm a music producer and I work between two different Mac computers (a Mac mini desktop setup and a MacBook Pro for when I'm on the go). I'm currently using a folder inside of Dropbox to s...
desktop
edit
Mac
sync
Hannah's avatar
Hannah
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago

Hey astokesmusic, you are correct in this as well.

 

As long as your files are set to available offline and the Dropbox application is running on both computers, your changes will sync and you won't have to manually change their state from offline to online-only or vice versa.

 

The downside is that your files will take up space on your computer, but you won't have any issues otherwise.

Maester's avatar
Maester
New member | Level 2
2 years ago

 

Hey! I’m in the same situation, although currently using a Windows 11 PC and a newly purchased MacBook Air M3 until I can save up for a Mac Studio.

 

I have a "Working" folder that I’ve been manually copying to a USB drive to work on projects off my Air at school and other places. It’s risky, slow (around 20GB), and not using the power of my Mac.

 

I’m considering using Dropbox as a "digital USB," but I’m concerned about potential sync issues. For example, what if I save a project on my Air, wait for it to sync, but my PC doesn’t get the updated version and loads an older cached version instead? Or what if the new version gets stuck in the cloud? This could cause the files to be out of sync, maybe get overwritten, and lost?

 

I'm new to this completely, really confident with tech in general but have no experience with working off the cloud.

 

I know I'll have to be careful and always checking up on how it's syncing, but how concerned should I be? What's the likelihood of failure? Anything specific I should do to reduce risks?

 

To recap I want to work off my PC (soon to be Mac Studio) on some DAW projects, then be able to go to my Air and work off them as well. Then back to the PC. This would be pretty frequent changes, almost, if not daily.

 

I know I'm asking a lot but I'm sure its possible in one way or another.

 

 

Thanks!

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