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Sequoyah's avatar
Sequoyah
Explorer | Level 4
6 years ago

Syncing documents folder in Mac OS 10.14

So now that Dropbox has decided to FUBAR the way we use symlinks in dropbox, :sob: I am left wondering how to sync my "Documents folder. I am willing to move the folder into Dropbox, however, it seems that isn't possible as I can only copy it over and am left with two copies as I can't delete the original folder. I also would like to create a symlink in my user folder to replace the documents folder.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to make this work?

Delete
Desktop
Mac
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  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    6 years ago

    Thanks for getting back to me, Sequoyah. 

    Sounds like you're on the right track - awesome work! 

    The Documents folder on your User's path should be one of the default folders placed there by the OS, which may explain why you're able to hide it but not remove it.

    In any case, if you have any other questions, just give me a nudge. 

    In the meantime, I hope you have a lovely day ahead! 

  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    6 years ago

    Hey there Sequoyah, 

    I'd be more than happy to help!

    In general, it's recommended that you move the actual data into the Dropbox folder, and then create a symlink where the data was previously located.

    That way, the symlink is outside of the Dropbox folder, but the data will sync inside of it. 

    You can find more information about symlinks in this article. 

    Hope this helps!

    • Sequoyah's avatar
      Sequoyah
      Explorer | Level 4
      6 years ago

      Lusil,

      Thanks for the response. I think I figured it out.

      I basically just created a documents folder in Dropbox and copied the contents over from the Documents folder, hid that folder from the sidebar in the finder and created a symlink back to the User folder.  Not ideal but it works. It might be worth mentioning somewhere that the Documents folder in the User folder can't be deleted.

      Thanks again for the response.

      • Lusil's avatar
        Lusil
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        6 years ago

        Thanks for getting back to me, Sequoyah. 

        Sounds like you're on the right track - awesome work! 

        The Documents folder on your User's path should be one of the default folders placed there by the OS, which may explain why you're able to hide it but not remove it.

        In any case, if you have any other questions, just give me a nudge. 

        In the meantime, I hope you have a lovely day ahead! 

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