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Can we have the Command Line Interface for Windows/Mac?

Can we have the Command Line Interface for Windows/Mac?

Halil Ş.
New member | Level 1

Even though, there is a command line interface on linux (which has start, stop and, soon, pause options), there seems to be no equivalent feature on windows nor on mac. This feature should be easily transferable. I see no technical reasons why this cannot be possible (especially to mac), is there any?

Latest Update
Jay
Dropbox Staff

This idea has been closed as it has reached the end of the Share an Idea process.

Status changed to: Closed
43 Comments
Richard P.
Super User alumni

I think the main reason its on Linux and not any other platform is because the Linux syncing daemon is entirely separated from the Linux GUI side of things, as well as supporting headless operation.

Those things wouldn't be of use to 99% of Windows and OSX users, so its a basic issue of demand - the syncing daemon would need to be split out from the GUI side of things etc etc.

Halil Ş.
New member | Level 1

Well, thanks for the explanation but we shouldn't forget that each supply creates its own demand 🙂 Anyways, you are right that this feature is indeed needed occasionally for very spesific puposes by geeky users. Still 😕

Alex J.8
New member | Level 1

I would appreciate a start and a stop command CLI-wise!

Ben J.2
New member | Level 1

Even a basic command line for windows that I can use to start, stop, or pause, would be beneficial for some of the automated routines I regularly run on my primary computer.  That way I can pause, run a bunch of automated file processing, and then turn it back on to sync as it pleases.  I've found that intensive processes while Dropbox tries to sync can slow down my computer at times.

Thank you.

Matthias Z.1
New member | Level 1
I would find this feature extremely useful, too. My use case: Regular Windows Backup in connection with Truecrypt and Dropbox. I don't want to run Dropbox all the time to make sure there is only a sync of the truecrypt (or today veracrypt) container after the backup. Whenever the backup container is changed in between, the container file would have an error. Therefore I need to start, check the dropbox status and stop the dropbox connection via command line. Windows Backup and Veracrypt have the ability to steer it on command line level.
Sebastian L.7
New member | Level 1

It is all said and just to add another vote; I agree that a functional command line interface for Dropbox on OSX would be extremely useful!

Tom S.51
New member | Level 1

We like Dropbox but managing it at the enterprise or service-provider level is pretty limited.  A command line interface for Windows would let us at least script some basic things.

Case in point:  Shared folders are automatically synced for every user with access.  For team shares, this is EVERYONE.  That makes it pretty difficult to share a large folder to a large number of users since the sync will immediately swamp their Internet connection and use up all of their disk space.  lf I had a command line interface, I could at least pause syncing for everyone before sharing and until selective sync could be set for each user.

 

Matthias Z.1
New member | Level 1

Another reason for command line usage is "Locky" and all the other encryption viruses going around at the moment. I don't have experiences with it (and I'm glad about this!) and don't know how the dropbox syncronization deals with it. But I guess that for protection of data a batch-based linking and dislinking of the dropbox connection is very helpful.

Oscar T.2
New member | Level 1

I would like to import videos not on dropbox but direct to videos libraries, canI do it and how do I do it.

Maik L.1
New member | Level 1

+1

dirty workaround for start/stop function could be:

stop: taskkill /f /im dropbox.exe /t

start: dropbox.exe

maybe this is helpful

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86 votes received