Sync 2 Folders in separte locations

[PG84]

Personal Plus

I have a Mac with 512 GB space. While the SSD is helpful for editing and such, I need to free up some space but I still need my files to be available in dropbox. 

I want to move my project folders that are within that Dropbox folder to an external disk.

I need those folders within the external disk to retain sync with my Dropbox folder. 

I have the backup option set up but I want the files (photos) to be seen directly from the DB app and not through the backup option.  

Is this allowed? 

[Rich · Accepted solution]

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@PG84 wrote:

I want to move my project folders that are within that Dropbox folder to an external disk. ... Is this allowed? 

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No. Previously you could move your entire Dropbox folder to an external drive (though NOT recommended), but with the new update for macOS and Apple's new requirement for storage providers using their File Provider API, Dropbox on macOS will no longer support storing the Dropbox folder on an external drive at all.

[PG84]

What you are saying is my dropbox sync folder will be limited by the storage space in my laptop? 

[Rich]

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@PG84 wrote:

What you are saying is my dropbox sync folder will be limited by the storage space in my laptop? 

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Not necessarily. When the update occurs, all files are marked as Online-only so they appear on your computer but don't actually take up any space. You can then mark files as Available Offline so they are downloaded to your local drive and available at all times. This means you can have much more storage in your Dropbox than you would normally be able to fit on your drive.

If you want ALL of your files marked as Available Offline, then yes, you would be limited by the storage space on your laptop.

[PG84]

Interesting. Thank you for the input.

Indeed, I need to have files locally stored as well. 

This means I can only store my "not frequent" accesed files stored as part of a external storage backup and cannot access the files from the dropbox app. 


I had only just strted using dropbox as a way of freeing up laptop space and having cloud storage easily sync and accesible. If this is not possible (and it is not as you mentioned) unfortunately this would be a reason for me to migrate to another cloud storage provider. 

Thank you for the insight.