Can dropbox be used for backup with time machine. How do I set it up?
"STRONGLY recommended that you don't" isn't an answer to the question. I totally get that you don't want to repeat the discussions that have already been had, but maybe link to one of them so that we have the info needed to our own informed decisions. Thanks, at least, for letting us know that we need to continue our search to find those other threads. I just don't think this response should've been marked as a "solution."
Mr. Mark, your recommendation is not valid in my case as i do not want to buy an external hard drive and carry it along everywhere i go. I just want to upgrade to Catalina and i want to make a quick clone of my hard drive, just in case and a cloud solution seems perfect to me.
@Mark wrote:Its STRONGLY recommended that you dont - there are lots of threads on here about where it doesnt play well.Its also worth remembering, and pointing out, that Dropbox isnt a back up tool. Its a syncing one and so you really shouldnt rely upon it as a back up one.
dropbox's rollback functionality makes it a fantastic user friendly, realtime, always online and offsite backup solution as i found recently after a malware hack that encrypted all our files and backups. dropbox was the only backup resilient enough to survive and it was easy to restore everything.
you can call it whatever you want but its far superior as a backup solution than anything else on the market. using timemachine on top of that would be the icing on the cake.
Annoying that this "solution" is the first thread that pops up when you search for "time machine" on this forum and when you search "time machine and dropbox" on Google. It's not a solution. "There lots of threads" just a go search, helpful.
Well, I did from the start and this is the first thread that shows up which offers zero answer but search more. Had I known it's not a helpful thread, I wouldn't have clicked on it after searching. Waste of time. Too bad thumbs down isn't an option in order to sink this post into oblivion, so it stops coming up as the #1 search result for this question. My apologies for being salty, but just frustrating when you're already searching for a solution and this non-solution is the top result.
Precisely my frustration as well. Go find those other conversations, but this is the one that show up in all the searches!
I would kindly request that links to the other posts relating to this problem be made available here.
I have found my solution and i'm trying it out. I have partitioned my main SSD and created a DP 200GB partition. I changed the setting in advanced to point to the new disk and folder. I will be trying SmartSync and selectively downloading files i work on. I mix music so my files can be huge. I hope download of files is fast enough-i'll see.
I'll be backing up all my drives except the DP partition. I'll let DP sync the updated and if i loose the partition, i'll just reaccess the files on the dropbox server forcing local downloads when necessary.
I've just migrated to Catalina (hardware and software incompatibilities have made me wait this long !) the used disk space for the system disk is indicated as less that 10gb. I have multiple logical OS system disks (Sierra, Majove and Catalina) on my main SSD also for hardware/software compatibility. I am hopeful that I can eventually share the DP disk of booting other OS versions but this is not essential. I can transfer specific files if necessary.
Anyone else doing stuff like this ?
Cheers
So as you say, dropbox is not a substitute for backing up. And you also say, do not use Time Machine with Dropbox. So, then, is one stuck without a backup solution if one uses Mac OS?
I don't like being solely reliant on the cloud, whether dropbox or icloud drive. So TM is a must (i backup to multiple physical drives - 3 at last count!)
So looks like I will have no choice but to ditch DropBox, unless Dropbox confirms that OSX Monterey Time Machine and Dropbox are "compatible".
Are there any updates on this? Could this work? (i.e. saving the Dropbox folder to a Time Machine backup in macOS Monterey)I understad that restoring from that backup to a machine that has Dropbox running could be problematic, so I can live with a limitation that if I want to restore from the Dropbox folder in Time Machine backup then I have to do it while Dropbox is not running and syncing on that machine.Could this work if I exlcude these from the Time Machine backup and never attempt restoreing the whole Dropbox folder but only individual files/folders?~/.dropbox/~/.dropbox_bi~/Dropbox/.dropbox~/Dropbox/.dropbox.cache
Hi @hologroove, how are you today?
The best option we'd suggest of course would be to not backup the folder at all and simply reconnect and sync your data from the web as it's the safest way to go on about it.
However, in theory, this could indeed work. We would have to keep some important parts in mind though:
The first thing you need to keep in mind, is to ensure that the app is up to date, before you start the restore. You can easily do that by hovering your mouse over the little Dropbox icon, the one next to your WiFi and checking its version.
You can see all of our latest versions here.
Now, the next thing is to make sure that the app is indeed not running. Another one would be that the selected folders you choose to backup are ones that are like archival (ie wont have any updates), then this would work in theory yes.
Even after following all these steps, we can't guarantee that everything will go as planned, but you can always give it a go and if anything unexpected happens, you can contact us in order to help you.
If you need anything else, let me know!
Hi @Megan !When you write: "Now, the next thing is to make sure that the app is indeed not running. " you mean that when doing a Time Machine restore, right?I was thinking to enable the "Back Up Automatically" option for Time Machine and then Dropbox would be running while Time Machine is doing the backups.
Hey @hologroove, exactly what I meant. 😊
You can give this one a go, see how it goes, and we're always here to assist if things don't go exactly how you have them in mind.
I require local backups of my files. Backing up to a single cloud solution is absolutely not an option. (All eggs in one place). I do not use the new file provider option from apple.
I have my full Dropbox content on an external Mac system disk as a temporary solution until storing local Dropbox files on an external disk that is not a Mac system disk is available.
This is a limitation of Dropbox solution not a solution to the real problem that exists out there. A debate and argumentation to analyse and provide a real solution should be initiated without delay imho.
Indeed. But then one does need to use another backup solution. I use Time Machine for backup and Dropbox for syncing. In the past, I have been told that this is a dangerous combination. Presumably that is no longer the case? Thanks.
Hi @aknyc, we don't recommend using another backup solution at the same time as Dropbox, as this can result in permission issues, corrupted data, or even data deletion.
