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Forum Discussion
the_ood
5 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Backup folder name change
Hello! I have 2 macs, one personal and one for work. Both had backup enabled and when I went online, I saw both computers' backup directories. The directories were both in the format of "My Mac (comp...
rocketmanblamb
4 years agoHelpful | Level 6
To be clear
I am a Dropbox user just like yourself, I only offer this as an effective solution.
As to whether Dropbox breaks it or notâŠ
Well I would use the second method I propose and then you just have symlinks in your home directory to folders that are being synced like any other folder in Dropbox
It avoids any of the âBackupâ terminology and setup⊠you have just provided yourself with a handy link for yourself.
Iâll admit it requires willingness to use the terminal and really shouldnât be necessary for such a simple concept.
Weâre you able to see the link contents from my post? With the instructions near the endâŠ..
```bash
[my prompt is a 'â' and the current directory prepends the prompt sign]
~ â IFS="::"
[Set a custom separator character so spaces can be used in directory names]
~ â COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR="My Mac (MacBook Pro 13)"
~ â mkdir ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
~ â cp -r ./Desktop/. ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
OR (I prefer rsync)
~ â rsync -a ./Desktop/. ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
```
I am a Dropbox user just like yourself, I only offer this as an effective solution.
As to whether Dropbox breaks it or notâŠ
Well I would use the second method I propose and then you just have symlinks in your home directory to folders that are being synced like any other folder in Dropbox
It avoids any of the âBackupâ terminology and setup⊠you have just provided yourself with a handy link for yourself.
Iâll admit it requires willingness to use the terminal and really shouldnât be necessary for such a simple concept.
Weâre you able to see the link contents from my post? With the instructions near the endâŠ..
```bash
[my prompt is a 'â' and the current directory prepends the prompt sign]
~ â IFS="::"
[Set a custom separator character so spaces can be used in directory names]
~ â COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR="My Mac (MacBook Pro 13)"
~ â mkdir ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
~ â cp -r ./Desktop/. ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
OR (I prefer rsync)
~ â rsync -a ./Desktop/. ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
```
the_ood
4 years agoHelpful | Level 6
After over a year since my original post, it's good to see that there is more interest in this issue. In the past year I ended up replacing a Mac with another, which is now labeled "Mac (9)" as my backup directory, so this is truly annoying as heck. Hopefully this will be considered.
Question for Dropbox product people - is this even on the roadmap? If so, estimate of when it'll be addressed?
Thanks!
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