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Forum Discussion
Best practices for using symlinks (symbolic links)
Hi there,
I use dropbox on linux with symlinks, but am not sure which is the best/preferred way to use them. Is there a best practice for using this type of configuration?
Currently I use symlink...
Daphne
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffReality check here. a) I use a symlink to include my Desktop accross multiple devices. b) I'm NOT moving my Desktop in the 'Dropbox' folder. Th systems require it to be right where it belongs.
So I guess it's Good Bye after many years of what was a great service.
Agree with AnotherAnon,
I also use symlinks to have all my devices Desktops available on the cloud. I cannot move my Desktops folders to dropbox folder.
What a stupid change by part of Dropbox! If Dropbox do not remediate this soon i will also say goodbye to Dropbox....
This sounds like an edge case, as plenty of users used symlinks the old way without the high CPU or missing file issue. Using ~/Dropbox as the working directory does not fit all use cases. Dropbox as a backup solution has been completely broken with the decision not to support symlinks. Dropbox could fix this by having a selective backup option in the mac app (not selective sync, selective backup), but as it stands now, Dropbox is now useless for me and all those that used it as a backup solution. This was a bad move on Dropbox's part and has forced me and others to seek out other providers.
- Agree, am in exact same boat - I have several things I want to keep backed up / off site, where the actual data directory can't be under my user profile / dropbox folder. Symlinks allowed this to work perfectly until blocked.
I'm currently doing an initial sync with Backblaze. Will post here how my experience is after I have a chance to kick the tires a bit. No symlink support, but it backs up everything with unlimited storage and allows you to create links to send other people to download. I suspect that will be enough to satisfy what I mostly need it for.
Hi Daphne,
Thanks for your response, sounds like sticking with the current setup definitely makes sense.
Also, while setting up dropbox on a live usb stick, I just discovered another reason for using symlinks pointing into the Dropbox folder. Doing the inverse would likely cause the data from each separate host to clobber the other host's data. With symlinks pointing the Dropbox folder I know have the same data across hosts that I want to share in common, which is pretty useful.
From what you describe, I guess as a best practice it would be advisable to not drop any symlinks into the Dropbox folder at all as it sounds pretty risky. I hope a better solution to dealing with symlinks is developed, but until then it sounds safe to avoid using them in any way within the Dropbox hierarchy structure.
Thanks for your help!
Before Dropbox changed it symbolic linking policy, I would add a symbolic link to my Dropbox folder. Dropbox would automatically upload a file whenever I added or changed it that folder. However, Dropbox has changed this feature. Therefore, I no longer need Dropbox. I can use OneDrive if I have to manually put my files in a separate folder to be synched.
Why is this marked solved? It is still broken.
- Daphne
Awesome, thanks a lot, Daphne, I feel confident now setting it up this way!
p.s. the little thumbs up like button doesn't seem to be working for me, but cheers for the help!
I just discovered that Dropbox is replacing my symlinks in my home directory with a copy of the files linked to. For example, I had this symlink, "ln -s /share/xxx/whatever /home/me/whatever" and it looks like Dropbox replaced that symlink with a copy of the entire subdirectory /share/xxx. I use symlinks a lot, and now I have duplicate copies of files everywhere. What I'd like is to have Dropbox leave my symlinks alone! If I can't find a solution for this I'll be looking elsewhere for my backup!!!
- this change on Dropbox’s side happened several months ago and broke this functionality on purpose. There is no workaround if you want to continue using Dropbox, but rather they expect you to put your entire life into the ~/Drobox folder which is impractical. Seems like most of us that used Dropbox for symlink backup have moved over to Backblaze. It’s a real shame, but Dropbox without symlink support is worthless.
Another alternative: The open source project SyncThing ( https://syncthing.net )
