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Forum Discussion
Dropbox asks if I want to remove a document right after I save it
For the last couple of days, whenever I have saved a Photoshop or an Illustrator document to Dropbox, I have received a pop-up message right afterwards that says:
"Remove "name of document" from yo...
I'm running Dropbox 88.4.172.
I guess I'm really describing two different problems. One problem is Visual Studio crashing if Dropbox is running during a Build. This is highly intermittent and highly unrepeatable. It's been going on for years, ever since I have been running Dropbox. Ican't remember how many years that has been. The second problem which has only started happening in the last few days are the messages about Dropbox wanting to remove a file from my disk. Unless the exact file name matters, then a screenshot doesn't really matter because the only information that would be in the screenshot would be the message. This second problem is also intermittent, but it happens much more often than the first. I'll try to post a screenshot the next time either one happens.
Hi All,
On this thread, two completely independent problems seems to be discussed at once.
The initial issue (deleting message) is something related to the way some (typical - office or big IDEs or ... similar) programs behave. Key moment here is that, at saving, saved files aren't just updated, but initially new copy gets saved, original file gets removed and, finally, temporary copy gets renamed to the original name. That's done for stability - if something goes wrong, during save, (crash, for example) original file is still there, untouched, at least. Since the deletion, noted above, corresponding message pops up - of course (there is no way Dropbox to know what's going on and why the initial file gets removed, even that's "behind the scene" and not intended by user). That's it.
The second issue is related to the way Windows behaves by default - all open files get locked. That's why such issues happen only on Windows, but not on Linux, for example. Some programs are more sensitive and that's why such things happens. Probably Dropbox can do something here (if they want) to improve the application behaviour (especially in Windows - some workaround to Microsoft's bug, in fact).
Hope this adds some clarity, at least.
As workaround: For first issue - little bit more attention would be fine to prevent real deletion, not replacement with new file version. For both cases - set Dropbox on pause while using such sensitive programs will prevent the confusions (both - to the user and to the Dropbox program). :wink: Till the moment final solution comes up.
That may be the casebut it is worth noting I (and I guess the others) have been using my IDE in exactly the same way for years without these problems until the change last week.
I'm guessing dropbox broke something with the 88.4.172 update.
DB
Hi dbhvp,
Yes and No. Not exactly at least! :slight_smile: That always has been the same and nothing new here. The only new thing is precaution message Dropbox introduce. Excessive care, I think. That's it.
At the risk of further muddying the water, I probably should mention that I have another application besides Visual Studio that has a lot of trouble with Dropbox. I solve the problem by pausing Dropbox while using the app. Namely, the application is a genealogy program called RootsMagic which uses a relational database called SQLite as its database. SQLite is a free, powerful, and widely deployed relational database that is used as embedded software in lots of apps on lots of different kinds of devices, including PC's, Mac's, and lots of mobile devices.
Most (probably all) relational databases do not keep your data in memory while you are editing it and then do a File>Save of all your data at the end. Rather, each little change you make to your data is written to the database immediately. Dropbox sees this as an updated database and tries to sync it to the cloud immediately. Very trivial actions on my part such as just moving the cursor to a different person on my RootsMagic screen can trigger the Dropbox sync. Even with a large computer with a solid state hard disk and a fast Internet connection, there is no way that Dropbox can keep up.
Just because an SQLite database is open for update does NOT lock it from being read at the same time by other programs, including it does not prevent it from being read by Dropbox. That's why I wish there was an option for Dropbox to wait a minute or two (or five) after a file is changed before syncing it. Throttling the Internet speed does not solve this problem, and indeed it makes it worse.
Visual Studio is just as sensitive to Dropbox as RootsMagic if not more so. It records everything I do in its database of data about my program, essentially recording every keystroke I make to disk immediately. I don't know if the files where it records its data are conventional sequential files that do a Save or if they are more like RootsMagic's SQlite database. Some of the Visual Studio files have names that suggest they are more like databases. And I would emphasize again that none of these Visual Studio files that have problems with Dropbox are files that a user opens, closes, reads, writes, updates, etc. They are simply files that Visual Studio uses internally for its own use.
