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Forum Discussion
Chronosync and Dropbox
New user of Dropbox here. Apologies if this is a stupid question, but is anyone using Chronosync to sync the content of folders in Dropbox with their counterpart folders on external hard drives? Is ...
Thank you so much for your detailed and thorough response. It really helps!!
There are still some issues that I see with making this system work the way that I want for my personal setup.
I suppose my main question is what's really the point of dropbox if I can't trust it to sync properly and backup between my computers and external drives?
I had seen Fab Dupont on Puremix explain his system for dropbox (where he and his team essentially work entirely off of it) but what he didn't explain (and what I'm certain exists) is how all of their projects are stored to external backups as well.
I can see myself employing a system like yours and working off of an external drive which syncs to dropbox whenever it's plugged in to the Mac mini, but I'm not sure how to implement this fully since I only have 500gb internally on that computer. It is always connected to a 1tb data m.2. But will dropbox allow me to store files here? As you said, Dropbox wants to store everything locally. That external drive is plugged in 99% of the time, but it still risks being unplugged I suppose.
Is there a way I could configure my Macmini as like a home base computer with the 1tb m.2 as the local storage, but access the files stored on that m.2 through my MacBook Pro through dropbox? Or even that I could use an external drive between my computers, but chronosync would sync from my MacBook Pro to the dropbox folder which would then be stored locally on the Mac mini's m.2?
It is quite frustrating that Dropbox is configured this way, and I will certainly be writing them an email asking for integration with chronosync, but maybe there's just a better option overall for me? Maybe I should forgo the cloud storage until it's sorted out better and just use external drives with chronosync and back those up to something like backlaze?
What are your thoughts and recommendations?
Again thank you so much for your time and knowledge. This has been driving me truly and utterly nuts, so it's really nice to get some input from someone with experience.
I really wish there was a way to post an audio recording here lol because it's way too much to type, and it would be much easier to talk on the phone or through audio etc. than going back-and-forth, there's just too much information to be exchanged. If you want to email me I'm happy to give you my phone number if that's easier, I just don't want to post it publicly here. Short answer though, theoretically dropbox will work as you described, sinking changes across devices etc. If, and only if, every instance of dropbox on every machine you're using it on has a local copy of all of the content that you're working on, which for most people, is not practical. If dropbox/smart sync worked the way it theoretically should, and acted as a Netwerk Drive instead of using placeholders that need to be downloaded in the background, this problem virtually wouldn't exist. (Google Drive desktop does this very well, but it has other issues going for it which is why I've stuck with Dropbox for the moment.) But since that's not the case, if you don't have that kind of storage then your next best bet is to use ChronoSync bidirectionally with dropbox and external hard drives. However, for that to work correctly, the main ChronoSync location needs to also have a local copy of whatever dropbox content you're syncing back-and-forth with ChronoSync. Otherwise, ChronoSync will do its job all too well, and replace your actual files with the dropbox placeholders of them, causing them to seem corrupted by any OS that tries to interact with them.
You need to email ChronoSync about integrating their software with Dropbox API, not other way around. Dropbox itself has no interest in integrating something Like ChronoSync, because they're essentially competitors when it comes to the sinking process. but ChronoSync could have a much wider user base by allowing Itself to sync back-and-forth natively with dropbox cloud storage
You need to email ChronoSync about integrating their software with Dropbox API, not other way around. Dropbox itself has no interest in integrating something Like ChronoSync, because they're essentially competitors when it comes to the sinking process. but ChronoSync could have a much wider user base by allowing Itself to sync back-and-forth natively with dropbox cloud storage
I'd be more than happy to email you and speak on the phone. That would be enormously helpful. And I always love to connect with musicians and pros in the industry!
I don't see your email here, but mine is [Removed as per Community Guidelines]
If you can shoot me an email we can exchange numbers and find a time to chat
- Perfect, just emailed you. I'll also see if I can add my email to my profile here somehow for future reference.
Hi everyone, just seeing this thread. I discovered Chronosync yesterday and I was wondering how could it complement Dropbox? I thought Dropbox was enough for backups by I'm probably missing something.
Thanks in advance!
- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi everyone, we appreciate the discussion here regarding the connection of Dropbox to another app or service.
Nevertheless, we wouldn't recommend posting your emails on the community, as it would be against the Community Guidelines, for your own privacy and security.
Enjoy your weekend!
- I understand that, and I also wouldn't really want to post my email here. Is there a way to message people privately through the forum though? Otherwise how can people communicate privately?
