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Forum Discussion
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 mach...
- 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.
Jane
Dropbox Staff
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
I just had my Dropbox folder excluded from my Time Machine backup under Options. As Dropbox backs up to Dropbox, there's really no need to back the files onto an external harddrive.
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
