Can we have more folder options like custom folders or sub-folders to add to Computer Backup?

[helenavelikaja]

Right now, the automated backup option in Dropbox allows me to sync my Documents, Desktop and Downloads folders. By far the biggest - and most important - folder on my computer is the Music folder though. I can imagine for other people it's Pictures. Could we have a way to automatically backup those folders too?

To be really ambitious: would we be able to clone our computer on Dropbox? I used to have an Apple Time Machine that allowed you to do just that. If your computer broke down or was stolen, you could buy a new one, let it download the clone, including not just your documents but your applications and presets too, and you'd be good to go!

Please let Dropbox be the new Time Machine.

[Emmet]

This idea is currently being worked on by our internal team, and is already available for external drive backups. External Drive Backups are available to all of our users. You can find out more about computer backups in our Help Centre.

Computer backup is currently being worked on by our teams. If you are interested in participating in beta testing new features to our backup solutions, you can find out how to opt in here. 

[Shalmirane]

Dropbox's attitude toward this was to ignore junction points, which was the solution for this - so, go figure.

They don't want to backup our data…

[RFWalker3]

Many computers have more than one internal drive. I have such a computer. My C drive is where the OS (Win10) and all programs are loaded, however this drive is only 500GB. I use my D (also internal) for Documents and working space. This drive is 2TB, I also have an E drive, also internal, that I keep pictures and music on. It is 4TB.

I wanted to use Dropbox Backup for the backup of all my data. Dropbox by default loads onto the C drive. It is not uncommon for the SYNC'd data to exceed the size of the C drive. So I have moved my SYNC preference to my E drive and all seems to be OK.

Because of internet speed and size of data I want to keep the smart sync set to local. I have a travel laptop that has a 500gb size so I keep Dropbox SYNC onto C drive and web default set to On-Line. This allows me to access documents and data on my home PC's D and E drives while on the road without filling up the travel laptop C drive.

On my Home PC I want to use Backups to backup Documents and Downloads (my D drive) and Music and Pictures and Videos (my E drive) but the Backup routine wants to have these folders located on the C drive (which is an obvious issue due to size limits). However the backup routine will not "look" across different drives; therefore, Dropbox Backup is of no use (in my circumstance)

It would be most helpful to allow Dropbox Backup preference to look across different internal drives and Backup this data.

RFWalker3

Dropbox user since 2008

[SpaceDebators]

Hello DropBox Community Members!
Please vote for my feature request to slightly modify the pop-up that asks if you want to backup a recently connected external hard drive to ask if you want to backup a SPECIFIC VOLUME on a recently connected external hard drive. Thank you.

[DHK]

There are several considerations in using Dropbox as a Time Machine drive. First is that you don't want to keep the file local. The size would immediately start to be greater than what is on your hard drive (or SSD). Second, how will you bring this cloud Time Machine drive into the Apple ecosystem? Migration assistant and Apple's Recovery mode expect to see attached drives, not cloud based. Lastly, the bandwidth of transferring what could be a several Terabyte backup will be costly in the amount of data transferred on a person's internet account. Finally the time necessary to upload or download such a file would be prohibitive.

[Michael B.89]

It is unacceptable to disallow backup of folders that are not on the same drive as the Dropbox. That is an arbitrary and unnecessary limitation that makes no sense.

We also need to be able to backup any folder or drive on our computer of our choosing. Dropbox, please fix this asap. Thank you.

[MacHelpNashville]

sync desktop and document folders on all machines that have dropbox backup turned on.

it does not sync desktop and documents if you have more than one machine.

one laptop and one desktop would have separate folders with different content.

not very useful day to day.

[Megan]

Happy Tuesday @MacHelpNashville, I hope you're doing well!

Would you mind providing me with some more information in regards to this idea?

What would you like to see on your end, in how our computer backup feature works?

Let me know!

[MacHelpNashville]

it does not sync desktop and documents if you have more than one machine.

one laptop and one desktop would have separate folders with different content.

not very useful day to day.

[Megan]

Thanks for the clarification @MacHelpNashville! 

Keep in mind that you should be able to see "My PC" or "My Mac" and the name of the device in parenthesis (...) on all of your devices. 

All of the backups should sync to the account.

Does something different happen in your case, or would you prefer to have one backup for all of your devices? 

[MacHelpNashville]

I would prefer it be meaningful sync so that the user can enjoy the same desktop and the same documents folder on their local computers.