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Forum Discussion
mapping my dropbox as a network drive and not store locally
Hi I would like to save my visual studio projects on dropbox but not on my local computer. I would like to map it as a network drive. I don't believe selective sync is going to work for this. So I want to create a new project in visual studio and point it to my projects folder on dropbox. So as I work in visual studio the changes are being save on dropbox but not on my local machine. Is this possible. Is it possible to map dropbox as a network drive?
17 Replies
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- Ed
Dropbox Staff
Hi there,
Sorry for the late response - are you still having issues?
http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/
I have been looking for a cheaper option than WebDrive, but so far it's the best solution I've found for accessing Dropbox as though it's a server rather than a synced folder.
Seems like Dropbox should let us use it as a mapped drive without having to get a third party application.
Joe, if you have dropbox on a network drive (unsupported) and dropbox starts before the network drive is validated/connected then DB thinks you have deleted all your files!!!!
- Rich
Super User II
That's not what he's referring to, Rick. He means to have a folder or virtual drive on his computer that is directly linked to the files in his account (nothing stored locally, files accessed directly from the Dropbox servers through Explorer or Finder).
Joe, Dropbox has stated in the past that they have no plans to provide such functionality. Dropbox is intended as a file synchronization service; not a cloud-based folder or drive.
Rich R., Thanks for clarifying that. He wanted to use dropbox as if it were a mapped drive. I have not heard of anyone doing that over WAN, only over LAN. So dropbox is still not his solution.
pCloud lets you do this - https://www.pcloud.com
Bill J., Thanks for the info on pcloud. I also discovered that my current Web Hosting and Exchange Hosting service http://www.1and1.com supports mapped drives on their cloud storage offering.
Onedrive can do this too ... if you are prepared to tolerate the woeful performance ...
http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/map-onedrive-network-drive
I wish Dropbox could do it ...
- Robert S.
Super User alumni
In fairness, there is the whole thing about it not working like a cloud drive, because it isn't one.
File synchronisation is what DB is all about, they've not to my knowledge ever shown the slightest interest in transitioning their product to a cloud drive model.
In any case, Dropbox would need a deeper level of filesystem integration than Microsoft currently allow. MS themselves use a closed API for this on their OneDrive product and by all accounts even that's mostly broken on Windows10.
... woeful performance ... I wish Dropbox could do it ...
Now that's a different thread entirely... ;)
