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Time machine forces smart sync to download files locally!
There is a huge problem when using smart sync as a Mac user who has time machine setup to automatically back up the entire hard drive (including the dropbox folder). If this is the case the time machine backup will trigger each an every one file that is set to 'online only' to be downloaded locally. If the amount of data on dropbox exceeds the hard drive space it slows down the entire computer!
- The files aren't on the computer so your backup software can't back them up. If it tries to access the files, Dropbox is likely bringing them local just like it's supposed to do (no different from when you access a file that's Online Only; it's downloaded). Dropbox likely can't differentiate between you accessing a file or another application accessing the file.
Your best bet would be to add an exclusion to your backup set so that it doesn't attempt to backup any files that are marked as Online Only.
18 Replies
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- Jane
Dropbox Staff
- Rich
Super User II
The files aren't on the computer so your backup software can't back them up. If it tries to access the files, Dropbox is likely bringing them local just like it's supposed to do (no different from when you access a file that's Online Only; it's downloaded). Dropbox likely can't differentiate between you accessing a file or another application accessing the file.
Your best bet would be to add an exclusion to your backup set so that it doesn't attempt to backup any files that are marked as Online Only. Hi guys, thanks for taking the time to reply to this. I completely get as to why this is how dropbox behaves at present, i.e. that the time machine request triggers the download of the file. However, I wonder whether there is a way to prevent dropbox from doing so if it is a 'read trigger' by time machine?
What I really would like to continue doing is to be able to backup my dropbox folder to my time machine automatically as this gave me extra peace of mind that I physically have a copy of my important files. It was good enough for me to have this physical copy only of the files that are physically on my hard disk, i.e. I used selective sync.
Having smart sync is however a great new feature for me as I have a ton of files on my dropbox that I do not need regularly but which I really love being able to find via spotlight etc.
So it looks like I'm between a rock and a hard place and for now need to exclude my dropbox folder from time machine and run a scripted backup from time to time from the command line to an extrenal drive using rclone. Given I'm using a laptop this is far less comfortable than using time machine over Wifi and I might of course forget to do the manual backup quite frequently.
- Jane
Thanks very much Jane, it would be fantastic if there was a solution for this at some point!
- Jane
That sounds like a great answer. How do you do that? How do you add an exclusion to a Time Machine backup that targets Dropbox online-files only?
AFAIK you only select files and folders in the Exclude window. There is no "file type" pattern matching or anything. And as soon as you select an online-file only, it looks like the Mac starts downloading it right there in the Exclude dialog box.
I am hoping that since you suggested it, you know how to do it. I have hundreds of gigs in my Dropbox folder and there isn't a way for me to quickly identify in this dialog which are selectively synced or not. Please share, thanks!
AM
That sounds like a great answer. How do you do that? How do you add an exclusion to a Time Machine backup that targets Dropbox online-files only?
AFAIK you only select files and folders in the Exclude window. There is no "file type" pattern matching or anything. And as soon as you select an online-file only, it looks like the Mac starts downloading it right there in the Exclude dialog box.
I am hoping that since you suggested it, you know how to do it. I have hundreds of gigs in my Dropbox folder and there isn't a way for me to quickly identify in this dialog which is selectively synced or not. Please share, thanks!
AM
- Jane
Jane, I appreciate the answer, but no that's not what I was asking.
I want to know how to tell Time Machine to *ignore* the Selective Sync files. I think you or someone else suggested that.
I came here just now, a couple months later, because the same bizarre behavior just happened again. I'm guessing it has to do with Time Machine, which is running, but I'm not certain.
Here's what happened: I imported an .mp4 video on my Mac into another program and then started getting multiple alerts that Dropbox was downloading all sorts of selectively synced .mp4 files, none of which was the .mp4 I imported. After the 3rd or 4th alert I thought to take a screenshot:
Looking at the Dropbox menu from the title bar, there was nothing about it downloading these files, not in Notifications nor Recent Files. But the alert kept popping up with names of different .mp4's. I tried turning on Pause Syncing, but that didn't stop the alerts.
Why did this happen? Was it Time Machine? Did I happen to try to import a selectively synced .mp4 and that "woke Dropbox up" to start downloading other mp4s? I'm 90% sure that the .mp4 I imported was in my Downloads folder, outside of Dropbox.
I thought to look at my Notifications, and it appears Dropbox was unsuccessful:
As I said, "IDS_quotes.mp4" was *not* the video I was importing. I don't remember the names of the other ones, but they weren't the same video either.
I'm going to post this to tech support too, but in case it has something to do with Time Machine (which is running on my Mac, and is set to backup my local Dropbox folder too), I thought I'd post it here.
Plus, reply to your post, since it's apparent I wasn't clear.
AM
