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Status:
Closed
Can we have an option to lock files we're working on to avoid conflicted copies?
My business partner and I (often working from different locations) are constantly working on the same documents and trying to save our work at the same time. Result: lots of conflicted copies of files. I would love to have something in the Dropbox UI that allows us to see if another person is working on the file or has the file open. It would save us a lot of FLAME texting. We love each other but this is one thing that makes us want to kill each other.
Are there any plans in the works for a complete automatic file locking mechanism?
We are using AutoCAD products and would love to move completely to Dropbox, but not without automatic file locking between offices.
I.E.
User1 in Office A Opens DrawingOne
User2 in Office B attempts to open DrawingOne and but the properties on the file DrawingOne is set to locked so he gets notification from the file system and User2 can now only open the file with Readonly permissions
- Rich
Super User II
Dropbox doesn't discuss what features may or may not be in the works. We wouldn't know of such a feature until it was released or officially announced.
Personal opinion, they'll never do this. People have been asking for such a feature for years to avoid conflicted copies, and it has never happened. It's not as simple as locking a file that's in use because each person has their own separate copy of the file. Even in Office with the Dropbox badge, it won't prevent two people from editing the same file; it only notifies that someone else has it open.Thanks for the insight, Personally I do think it is quite possible to ensure 99.9% certainty.
Every time a File open occurs right now, Dropbox always checks to ensure that the file is the most up to date version before allowing it to be opened.
This means that as soon as that requiest is made and recieved at the Dropbox server, thier server code checks the properties on the file and retrieves the file version and compares it to the Users local copy. If they don't match then the reply to the query initiates the download of the delta (the differences between version), Once the delta download is complete, the local dropbox client writes the new sector to the old sector and updates the file system, then the program is allowed to open the file on the local computer for editing.
The Dropbox client then sends a broadcast on the local file system to let any other local dropbox clients know that it has the new version of the file for local network updates.
All of that is happening right now.
Since the server is already checking and comparing the file version on the server copy of the file, and the client is already checking the local file properties to get the version information, it is simply not communicating the file lock status.
There will be no collisions at the server in 99.9% of cases.
The only issue is
The only real issue comes from One individual working offline.
I think the answer to that is... you are working offline, expect a conflicted copy and having to merge (If it is an Office doc then that can be delit with through the badge merge).
Two individuals opening the same file within 1 or two seconds of each other will be the 0.01% of cases. There will almost always be an individual who won the locked case.
For that 0.01% of cases, the answer is equally straight forward though, after writing to the File Lock parameter, wait 0.1 seconds and then check the file lock again to make sure you own it and a state issue hasn't allowd another thread to over-write your lock or vise versa.
That take care of the state issues.
As for multiple server farms and the replication time, every company gets the option to set the preferred data farm location. That way any data synced to another region always has lower priority.
On the client side if a file lock is lost, a big notification appears as a final safeguard.
That is My 2 cents.
There seem to be a few good reasons this can't be detected automatically, but wouldn't a good workable compromise be to allow people manually "lock" and "unlock" a file? I would find that immensely useful.
- Mark
But again, as has been said, thats not easily doable.
Every file is personal and different. It is a totally and utterly different set up to the way a network works.
I want to stop multiple people opening and editing the same file.
Once a file is open - it cannot be opened by another user until the inital user has closed it.
How can I do this?
Thanks.- Nate_C
Super User
If you are using Microsoft Office, Dropbox has a built in "badge" integrated with Office that notifies if multiple people are trying to edit the same file concurrently. For other files though, Dropbox does not support this. However, if a conflict occurs, Dropbox will create a "Conflicted Copy" instead of overwriting one of the versions.
Thanks Nate, I had noticed the badge would pop up every now and again - but sometimes it doenst show up when others are in the file.
Keeping the file locked while another user was in it would be a nice feature.
I agree. It's not a true check-in/check-out feature. Sad. :(
Is it possible to share a folder with a coworker, but lock one file within that folder so that it cannot be opened or downloaded, and the user cannot email it to themselves?
- Jane
Dropbox Staff
you can add a password, set an expiration date & disable downloads), that would be helpful in case you’d like to adjust access to sensitive material. From there, it would be worth noting that this shouldn't affect any device-specific settings, however it may help you accomplish what you have in mind to a certain extent.
- WalterStatus added:Delivered
Hi All!
I just merged several threads under this discussion as they seemed to be related so this is a heads up not to get confused while reading through the posts up to the last page.
I'm happy to let you know that we're currently in the process of rolling out our 'File Locking' feature.
File locking is a feature available to Dropbox Business users that prevents a file from being edited which allows teams and collaborators to coordinate who is editing a file and avoid conflicted copies.
Keep your awesome ideas coming people!
Es wäre wirklich Hilfreich, wenn eine automatische Bearbeitungssperre von Dateien aktiviert wird, sobald eine Person/Konto die Datei offen hat und damit arbeitet. So können Dateien in Konfliktstehend mit deutlich reduziert werden. Derzeit ist es nur möglich die Händisch zu machen aber leider denkt man nicht immer daran dies zu aktivieren und zu deaktivieren.
- NancyStatus changed:DeliveredtoClosed
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