Notification of Conflicted Copy

[DHK]

Periodically I look through my Dropbox folders and find conflicted copies. I understand how they can occur, but at the time I don't realize for example that another program that accesses the same file is open. If I knew it was open the conflicted copy wouldn't occur, and there is no notification to my knowledge. I may find a conflicted copy months later, which is useless in maintaining data integrity. I'd like to make a request for a notification system that lets you know immediately that you've created a conflict. It is unbelievably easier to fix it at the time, rather than later. This is an incredibly important enhancement to Dropbox to keep our data safe.

[Walter]

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

Thank you for your suggestion, and if you have another idea to share, please do!

[SG23]

Absolutely. Three cheers for Dropbox for at least making the conflicted copies. When I notice one, by using the Compare function in Word I can see easily which bits of which version I want to keep. BUT Dropbox doesn't highlight the fact for me that I've got double versions (inevitable when e.g. you work part of the time on a desktop and part on a laptop), and whether or not a conflicted copy is noticed is somewhat a matter of chance. It would save time and mistakes if a notification popped up

[DHK]

I can't take credit for this, but (for all the Mac users) in searching the topic on the web I found an AppleScript that will find conflicted copies and pop up a finder window with the conflict. I have it automatically run daily. It doesn't help at the time, but at least I know they exist.

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set conflictedFiles to do shell script "cd ~/Dropbox; find -L . \\( -path \"*.dropbox*\" -prune \\) -o \\( -name \"*conflicted*\" -print \\)"

set fileList to paragraphs of conflictedFiles as list

repeat with currFile in fileList

set currPath to (path to home folder as string) & "Dropbox" & POSIX file (characters 3 thru -1 of (currFile as string) as string)

tell application "Finder" to make new Finder window to currPath

end repeat

[SG23]

Thanks very much

[Walter]

This idea is going to need a bit more support before we share your suggestion with our team. 

We’ve updated the status to encourage more users to back you up! 

[Walter]

Thank you for your idea, while we can’t take every idea forward we do regularly re-review and will update you if anything changes!

[Walter]

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

Thank you for your suggestion, and if you have another idea to share, please do!