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How to Sync my second hard drive again to Dropbox

I run a telescope imaging system in California while I live in Virginia. I've had Dropbox installed for a good number of years but some time back I had to stop syncing as the system was in repair. For some reason I can't seem to get sync back on. I have created the folder where the images download from the camera on the California computer located on the E:\SRO_Data drive and at home I have setup Dropbox on the F:\David_SRO\Dropbox\.dropbox. I added new files to the California drive yet nothing is syncing. The whole purpose of Dropbox for me is transferring these 35 MB files as they are acquired and save in California so I don't have a massive amount of data to download in the morning after an imaging session which is nightly if the weather is good.

I don't see how to activate syncing these drives and must be missing something obvious and will take note if/when I can get this working again.

thanks for any assist

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Jay

Hi @Steve R.8, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Files in another folder wouldn't be automatically synced to your Dropbox account, unless you'be enabled the Dropbox Backup feature, or have another third party app or service to act as a go-between to sync them to Dropbox.

Could you let me know how exactly files were synced from the E: to your Dropbox account?

This will help me to assist further!

Steve R.8

I honestly don't recall. I had set this up 5-6 years ago. I know Dropbox is installed on the remote computer and it has a dedicated drive and folder for the images to be saved to when down loaded from the imaging system, E:\Dropbox. On that computer I have the E drive with only one folder, Dropbox. As the images are downloaded from the telescope they are saved to that drive and a folder that is created by the imaging script such as M109. Each image has a specific name that indicates object name, date.time, and filter used so no two images are the same name.

Then the home computer has Dropbox installed and designated drive F:\David_SRO\Dropbox which currently has nothing in it. This is where the remote data would download when synced.

Seems I used to have it so when new images were downloaded to the remote system it would save to my local folder at home automatically.

I'm not sure what more I can do to explain the setup. This is all of course over the internet and I have 100Mb connection (fiber) as does the remote observatory site.

Jay

Since E:\SRO_Data isn't a Dropbox folder, it can't directly sync to your account like normal, so it sounds like some other software would've been used to transfer the information to your Dropbox account.

Steve R.8

So how do I make it a Dropbox folder?

Steve R.8

Or better yet, where can I find step by step instructions on setting up Dropbox. I think key is the fact that when I go to my home computer and look at Dropbox it appears as the above screen capture and I'm not sure where that physically exists but the folder is empty. I'm in the process of replacing the NUC at the telescope location and will need to setup that computer as well, hopefully before sending across the country. And I expect my age and poor memory isn't helping a lot here either.

Jay

You'll need to reinstall the Dropbox desktop application on the remote machine to be certain it's working normally, and then test it by adding a file there to see if it appears on your local computer.

Steve R.8

I think a college has pointed me to Preferences section to set the Sync settings. At the moment it appears to be promising. I'll check in later, possibly tomorrow to see how this evenings run goes. Should have several hundred files if successful. Otherwise I'll start from scratch maybe.

Thanks for the assist.

Steve R.8

I got tied up with running a remote telescope so back again. I'm actually about to send a new NUC out to the telescope site across the country and need to set this computer up to transfer the images files as they download. I can't say my home system is syncing so I'm asking is I uninstall the home computer and reinstall then install on the new computer would this resolve the syncing error? Do I risk any of the already stored data?

Walter

Hey @Steve R.8 - if you're facing a syncing issue on both of your devices, then reinstalling the app would be a good troubleshooting step.

The files you see on the website when you log into your account will not be affected by that process.

Let us know of any updates!

Steve R.8

So I've installed Dropbox on the new computer in my office that is replacing the one at the telescope out in California. What I want to sync from that computer is the new image data that will be save in drive E in the SRO Data folder (E:\SRO Data) so what steps do I need to perform to have Dropbox sync those with my home computer on the drive and folder I want that data copied to? In this case the local drive would be (F:\SRO Data). And also keep all the other folders that now exist in my Dropbox account not sync to the remote Telescope computer?

Steve R.8

What is likely causing issues if that I've had this Dropbox account maybe 10 years and originally set it up so my home computer was saving other data as well as the remote telescope data. At this point I see no need to continue with the "other" non imaging data from the remote computer. So I propose to make sure all the data that now exists in teh Dropbox account be backed up to one of my local drives and deleted from DB altogether. After that, only new data saved from the remote telescope and saved on it's E drive and the folder Named SRO Data or maybe even anything saved on that drive which would make more sense sync with my home system.

Rich

@Steve R.8 wrote:
What I want to sync from that computer is the new image data that will be save in drive D in the SRO Data folder (E:\SRO Data) ...

That's not something that Dropbox can do. Dropbox can only sync the files that are located in the Dropbox folder. You either need to move your SRO Data folder into the Dropbox folder, or you need to use another application as a go-between, to automatically copy files from E:\SRO Data into your local Dropbox folder so Dropbox can sync them. If you're on Windows, Microsoft's SyncToy can do that.

... so what steps do I need to perform to have Dropbox sync those with my home computer on the drive and folder I want that data copied to? In this case the local drive would be (F:\SRO Data).

Like above, Dropbox can't sync files to your F:\SRO Data folder.

And also keep all the other folders that now exist in my Dropbox account not sync to the remote Telescope computer?

You can use Selective Sync to remove folders from the local drive of a computer. Keep in mind, though, that each new folder you create on Dropbox would sync to the remote computer and you'd have to go back into Selective Sync on that computer to de-select it.

Steve R.8

Now I'm super confused, likely the difference between being 60 then and now 70...Somehow I had the computer at SRO (Sierra Remote Observatory) set to sync it's data to my home computer via Dropbox, no other device/program involved. Where can I look on the old system for Dropbox's configuration?

As stated above, how do I move/create the Dropbox folder to be Drive E on the remote computer? Doing that would sync DB so on my home system I could copy those files to the local drive? Somehow I had this working and I don't recall coping the DB files and saving locally.

OK, I just finished cleaning up the account and deleting a ton of old data that has been backed up, created a text file and saved to Dropbox on the remote system which did come through at home.

I have no idea why it works now but I won't say it;s working until I take some images at the remote site and they show up here. What I may not be remembering is that maybe, just maybe, I would find the data the next morning after a nightly run and copy over using Beyond compare but I would need to see if the Dropbox account will show up in Beyond Compare. And yes, it does. That must be the missing link. I will report back either way.......