Files Shared Between Computers; "Make available offline" & "Make online-only"

Question

Hello all. I'm a music producer and I work between two different Mac computers (a Mac mini desktop setup and a MacBook Pro for when I'm on the go). I'm currently using a folder inside of Dropbox to store all of my DAW song files (DAW stands for "Digital Audio Workstation"; it is the software I use to produce my music and save those song files into Dropbox).

I've been confused about something concerning the way Dropbox handles the relationship of my song files between computers. I tried putting all of my song files in "Make online-only" mode. At first, I thought this would work, but I ran into an issue with my production software. Recently, the software started notifying me that many of my song files are either broken or unreadable. I studied about this online a bit and I believe it has something to do with the files being set to "Make online-only" in Dropbox. I really wanted to keep the files online and work that way if possible, so that I could save some internal drive storage on both of my Macs, but I've realized now that I probably can't do that and I'll need to set both of my Macs to make files in Dropbox "available offline."

That said, I need some clarification on what will happen if I work this way... When I work on files set to "Make available offline" mode, I'm aware that these files are being stored in the internal storage of each of my Macs, correct? I'd prefer to not have to take up too much internal storage, but I can live with it if that's what will have to happen to keep the files readable to my software..

ALSO... This is my biggest concern... Since it looks like I will have to work in "Make available offline" mode, when I make updates to a song file on one computer, will both computers still automatically update, like when I was working in "Make online-only" mode? This is a crucial aspect of my workflow that I'll be needing because if I'm out of town working on several songs at a time on my MacBook Pro, I need the song files to be updated back at home on my desktop Mac as well.

Thank you for reading and I hope I can get some advice on this because it would really help me fix my workflow.

Maester · Answer

Hey! I’m in the same situation, although currently using a Windows 11 PC and a newly purchased MacBook Air M3 until I can save up for a Mac Studio.

I have a "Working" folder that I’ve been manually copying to a USB drive to work on projects off my Air at school and other places. It’s risky, slow (around 20GB), and not using the power of my Mac.

I’m considering using Dropbox as a "digital USB," but I’m concerned about potential sync issues. For example, what if I save a project on my Air, wait for it to sync, but my PC doesn’t get the updated version and loads an older cached version instead? Or what if the new version gets stuck in the cloud? This could cause the files to be out of sync, maybe get overwritten, and lost?

I'm new to this completely, really confident with tech in general but have no experience with working off the cloud.

I know I'll have to be careful and always checking up on how it's syncing, but how concerned should I be? What's the likelihood of failure? Anything specific I should do to reduce risks?

To recap I want to work off my PC (soon to be Mac Studio) on some DAW projects, then be able to go to my Air and work off them as well. Then back to the PC. This would be pretty frequent changes, almost, if not daily.

I know I'm asking a lot but I'm sure its possible in one way or another.

Thanks!

Hannah · Answer

Hey @astokesmusic, you are correct in this as well.

As long as your files are set to available offline and the Dropbox application is running on both computers, your changes will sync and you won't have to manually change their state from offline to online-only or vice versa.

The downside is that your files will take up space on your computer, but you won't have any issues otherwise.

astokesmusic · Answer

@Rich Ahh I see, thank you! So.. I’d like to stay away from having to do a lot of manual setting changes between “make available offline” and “make online-only.” That said, if I just make everything available offline on both computers, Dropbox will automatically update changes made on one computer to another in terms of both of their “available offline” files, correct? Therefore, I don’t have to go in and manually change files one at a time from “online-only” to “available offline” and back to “online-only” after I’ve completed some work?