Making backups to Dropbox

[Mike at ESR]

Having nearly lost some important files in my Windows Users folder, I've started backing up the Users folders on a few computers to Dropbox.  I looked into Dropbox's backup utility, but it seems to constrain me to certain folders and I couldn't see how to use it to back up the Users folder.  Is this possible?

So I use Ease Todo Backup instead, which works OK, but I have the Dropbox app on these computers, so the contents of my Dropbox are on their hard drives.  Now I have to manually delete older backups every few days or the computers run out of memory.

A few solutions come to mind, I just don't know how to do them. 

Can I set the Backups folder I created on Dropbox so that it doesn't sync to the hard drives, while everything else does? 

Can I set a Dropbox folder to automatically delete content older than 3 days old? 

Can I use Dropbox backup on the folders of my choosing?  And if so, would using Dropbox backup help with the problem of the backups hogging the memory?

[Rich · Accepted solution]

---

@Mike at ESR wrote:

... it seems to constrain me to certain folders and I couldn't see how to use it to back up the Users folder.  Is this possible?

---

No. The computer backup feature only backs up key folders, such as Desktop, Documents and Downloads, etc. It can't be used to backup just any folder.

---

Can I set the Backups folder I created on Dropbox so that it doesn't sync to the hard drives, while everything else does?

---

You can use Selective Sync to control which folders are located on your local drive. Note that any folder you remove from the computer will only be accessible using the Dropbox website. Meaning if you remove the Backups folder from a computer, the backup software on that computer will no longer be able to write to that folder.

You can also use Smart Sync, if available to you, to have folders appear locally but not take up space on your drive.

---

Can I set a Dropbox folder to automatically delete content older than 3 days old?

---

No.

---

Can I use Dropbox backup on the folders of my choosing?

---

No.