Shut down computer once dropbox has finished syncing

[James F.3]

It would be useful if the computer could shutdown after syncing so that everything has been loaded up.

[Deep M.]

Huh? Really? That's useful? I disagree. That sounds tremendously annoying and like just another strange setting of little value to the overwhelming majority of users. The concept of Dropbox is to be lightweight, extremely quiet, and non-invasive to your computers and your life. It is designed to keep your data synchronized with a minimum of hassle to you, and I think it's phenomenal just as it is. Basta on the "featuritis." I don't want my computers being shut down by errant little settings in assorted software that I run.

[James F.3]

I know what you mean by featuritis.

Often I've wanted this feature, though. I figured it could be optional - "shut down computer when finished this sync".
I don't like to leave my computer on all night or on the weekend.

It would also be quite useful to have a little notification pop up when you are shutting down that Dropbox is still syncing.
So often I have got home and realised the file I need hasn't uploaded because I shut down my Work computer in such haste.

[Deep M.]

Actually, a little balloon that reminds you that you are still syncing when you try to shut down might be nice, but that's the limit of it. Remember, the Dropbox concept is not to bother you, but to work WITH you and all your activities on your machines, accepting your activities without complaint. They try to design the client software to be smart and robust, so it doesn't need to be bothering you with all the typical little beeps, bops, and pings that so many other programs do. All those little noids and dings get really annoying, and if you have ever straightened out a machine after its long absence from auto-updates online, you know what I mean. All those seconds here and there responding to prompts and accepting updates add up to a lot of time at the end of the day.

[Adam F.7]

I think James suggestion is an excellent one.

[erikjart]

So do I. I work on 500MB-2GB project files and sometimes need them to synch before I shut down or suspend the computer. It would be very useful to me to for example have a little checkbox item to shut down or suspend the computer when finished synching perhaps below the Pause synching item in the gear-dropdown menu.

I believe you could change the tray icon to indicate it has been activated and/or display some on-top, floating reminder when activated with a Cancel button. Either from when activated or when finished synching and counting down to shut-down command?

I'm sure users who wouldn't need the feature wouldn't need to produce any mishaps by mistakenly activating such a feature any more than they would mistakenly pause synching.

This would be a fitting pro feature since when synching before going from your home studio to commute to an other work place or office you would often want to work up until getting out the door and have dropbox shut the computer down when finished synching and not have to wait when using desktop computers or leave-at-home laptops.

[Koray U.]

Now I'm uploading about 30 GB of file with 100 KB/sec. It will take about 5 days to finish sync. I wish I have optional shutdown option when sync is finnised. My desktop computer now has to be on to the office and unfortunately I install teamviewer software to check from remote and shut it down. 

Whats wrong if you add optional shutdown computer feature?

[Garrett F.]

I can't help but read Deep's responses a little condescending and rude.  Even if you disagree with him you can go about it a little differently and if you truly believe that Dropbox is suppose to work with you then you would agree with James F. in all honesty.  To me just having an auto shutoff OPTION would be amazing.  How is that an inconvenience in any way Deep?  It's actually more time saving and energy efficient.  I'm uploading 35GB of 4K footage as I type this and the syncing is going to take 8 hours.  I have other things to do with my life rather than sit here waiting for this to complete and I don't want to leave my computer on more than I have to if I decide to leave my work desk.  No one is talking about notifications and other random things.  We all like Dropbox the way it is but nothing is perfect and there is room for improvement for this service.

[Deep M.]

Features that interact in potentially dangerous ways with low-level operating system commands are nothing to be taken lightly or implemented unless very necessary. Dropbox is intended to work seamlessly and also with little danger to your computing environment. Assuming that an automated command (user-called or otherwise) to shut down can be thrown safely at some hours-later or days-later time, especially with machines that regularly get auto-updated by many different software vendors, is very dicey. I'm sure it *could* work a lot of the time, but DB has to be extremely careful for all the outlier cases and also assume that many users will make serious mistakes. In this context, a serious mistake could be a catastrophe.
This forum is full of people in other posts who manage to get snarled just using regular features as they are. One who can leave a modern computer running for days while a big sync happens can leave it running a day longer in order to shut it down safely when they have observed success. The benefits of Dropbox are already tremendous, and sketchy features aren't worth the hit they might take if people had trouble.

[erikjart]

Deep M.

How about this: Turning shutdown-when-done on will lock down the entire computer, hog all the HID input and provide a dimming of the entire desktop with a notice in the middle saying "Waiting to shut down when syncing is done..." and the only 2 options then is to wait and let the computer be or hit Cancel and cancel this schedule and retake control?

This way even a first time computer user would understand what is going on and no mistakes are even remotely likely to happen.

The only mistake that could be made would be to hit Cancel cause it could easily be the only interactable GUI-item on screen at this point while providing all the functionality we're asking for.

Doesn't this sound safe enough? 🙂

I have no doubt you understand exactly what I'm describing but for those that don't you could try the "Turn Off The Lights" extension for Chrome (usually used for Youtube) to get the idea.

This idea would give you less interactability yet. Only wait or hit Cancel.

Also regarding other scheduled tasks by Windows Update or by applications, Could not Dropbox check to see if a Windows Update is scheduled and not allow you to turn shutdown-after-sync on if you don't manually disable such readable scheduled stuff?

Peace!