Mac Time Machine APFS and Dropbox

[aknyc]

Dropbox customer support tells me that it is an absolutely bad idea (i could lose files and folders) to include dropbox in the OSX Time Machine backups.  Since dropbox is really not a backup program (no history beyond 30 days), this is very disappointing advice and means that I will have to stop using dropbox.

Question: does this recommendation still apply with OSX Monterey and APFS?

(One opinion: "Modern Time Machine uses APFS and snapshots and delta copies. Snapshots are made to the file system without impacting the files and they are read only and can be mounted like a file system. It would be highly unlikely to cause Dropbox any problems. But back when Time Machine was using HFS+ and hard links? Yes, it could be a problem.")

[Megan]

Hey @aknyc, let's get to it! 

Things remain the same on our end, in terms of how Dropbox interacts with Time Machine. 

The latter itself is fine, but restoring files from there could result in incorrect permissions, corrupted data, or even deleted data. 

If you need anything else, let me know.

[aknyc]

Thanks Megan.  Just to clarify, you are saying that it is ok to use TM and Dropbox together, but should one restore a Dropbox folder file from TM, that is when potential problems may occur?

Can one not jusy disconnect the device from Dropbox before restoring from TM, and then reconnecting, to work around this potential issue?

[Megan]

Hi @aknyc!

Backup tools, such as Apple Time Machine, and syncing software (such as One Drive, Google Drive, Sugar Sync, and others), should not interact with the Dropbox folder's contents.

If you want to, you can always go ahead and use them together, but we can't suggest this on our end.

[JHW]

The contents of the Dropbox folder do not now seem to be explicitly tallied in any home directory's displayed "Size", yet seem to be included in the user's home directory total "Size".  This is confusing or, at least, has confused me.