Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨💻? Find out how to check here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
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 (computername)" However, recently I disabled the Dropbox backup on my work laptop because I didn't think it would be wise to backup my work stuff to Dropbox. But I was subsequently told it was OK, so I re-enabled the backup. While everything was uploaded to Dropbox just fine, the name of the work laptop backup directory is now simply "Mac (2)". I would like to rename the folder to the "My Mac" format I previously had, but it is not letting me rename the folder. Any assistance would be great. Thanks in advance.
43 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
This is ridiculous. I just got 2 new Mac's and expected them to be in the same naming convention as all my other Mac backups "My Mac (JSMs-MBP.local)" but now I cannot tell which Mac is 1 or 2. Why would you change this simple feature!?!
- This has been going on for a few years now. Dropbox isn’t paying attention to the fact that many users are complaining about this issue. And I don’t buy that this is working as described.
Great Dropbox
You lost another customer here.
In 2 years not being able to ONLY put a "feature" of renaming a **bleep** folder is just ridiculous!
Bla bla bla since 2 whole years.
Hi Google, here I come!- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi everyone, I hope you’re all doing well.
At the moment, we have a relevant idea that’s open here, so if you’re interested, you can definitely vote for it.
This will really help our team have a clearer image of what you need, and look into this further.
Hope this helps!
- That suggestion has been out there for almost two years and has 41 votes. So this isn’t something recent. So to everyone on this thread - VOTE on the suggestion Nancy posted above. The more votes, the more Dropbox’s product people will pay attention to it.
as i paid 650 euro for a business account, i cant really get a grasp on why i cant define my mac backup folder so its alligning with my number-based foldertree
I created a doc explaining how this could be done -- with some willingness to use the terminal and be responsible for your changes
https://brianlamb.notion.site/Methods-for-Custom-Backup-Folder-Name-f0426632c9044ab5bb3c52a0ec74ca50
I have gone to the link in your message and I have clicked on the Vote for this idea -> button. But nothing happens.
This item definitely needs to move up in their priorities.
Although I appreciate the workaround to be able to modify the symbolic links through Terminal commands...
- We shouldn't have to do this!
- There are always risks with Terminal commands
- As these are unsupported commands they can always be broken by any Dropbox upgrades
This problem has been around for a long time and Dropbox needs to reprioritise the problem in their software update planning
- 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 not…
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 “Backup” terminology and setup… you have just provided yourself with a handy link for yourself.
I’ll admit it requires willingness to use the terminal and really shouldn’t be necessary for such a simple concept.
We’re you able to see the link contents from my post? With the instructions near the end…..
```bash
[my prompt is a '→' and the current directory prepends the prompt sign]
~ → IFS="::"
[Set a custom separator character so spaces can be used in directory names]
~ → COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR="My Mac (MacBook Pro 13)"
~ → mkdir ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
~ → cp -r ./Desktop/. ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
OR (I prefer rsync)
~ → rsync -a ./Desktop/. ~/Dropbox/$COMPUTER_BACKUP_DIR/Desktop
```
