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How to move (link to) data shared with me without upsetting the owner?

I have a number of teams that share info (song lyrics) through a song lyric package that expects a contiguous folder structure - eg

Root Song folder on dropbox

--- My material subfolder

---Band 1 material subfolder

--- Band 2 material subfolder

Band 1 and Band 2 have shared their dropbox folders with me but for the app to work I need to move(create shortcut to) the folders so they look as though they are located in my Root Song Folder

The problem is a permissions one. I can manage (read/write) my own material and that of Band 1 but I only have read only access to Band 2. I do need to be up to date with all the material so having a copy of either Band is not good enough. It must be a synchronised up to date copy.

Eg If Band 2 material is shared with me read only - I cannot move it into the root song folder. If it is shared with me read/write I can move it - BUT that also moves it in Band 2 source folder and they get very upset if I do that.

We used to use Google drive for this - used to work OK. The latest updates to Google drive APIs have now made it impossible for the app to directly sync the neatly structured Root song folder. It seems that Dropbox doesnt quite have the concept of a pointer/link/shortcut.

I have been told that some users have got a workaround for this but I have yet to find out what that is. ( I know about using a third party such as cloudhq to link current google data with dropbox - it will work but is very messy to setup. I need a more direct Dropbox solution. Can anyone help?

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coppo23

SOLVED:

Thanks to all who have helped. I think its my lack of understanding and have got it working as follows:

If you share a ROOT dropbox folder with someone writeable and they move it within their dropbox it DOES change your copy which is not desired. If you share it read only they can't move it.

If you share a SUBfolder of something in your dropbox with someone - it initially appears in their root folder. They can then move it without effecting your copy.

I made the mistake of sharing a dropbox root folder with a collection of folders that other folk would want read access to. (Quick click - share the whole pot of info in one go!) They had to put up with leaving that collection of folders in their root dropbox folder - of no use with the app we all use. I went back and shared each individual folder in the pot - they can then move them to where they prefer.

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Mark

coppo23 wrote:
I need to move(create shortcut to)

This is where it wont work in Dropbox I'm afraid - Dropbox doesn't sync symlinks or junctions, it just ignores them.

However, you mention the Google API, so if you are good at programming could you do something with Dropbox's API?

coppo23

Thanks. I'd gleaned that from the docs but wondered if Dropbox had its own form of symlink type method? I don't have access to the app source or the time/knowledge to make those sort of changes myslef I'm afraid. The song app has dropbox direct sync ability but does need the cloud data in a fixed structure.

I have heard a rumour on the song app info grapevine that there is a way of stucturing dropbox shared/owned data but have failed to find out how. I suspect from my own research that it may not be possible. The third party approach of using cloudhq to mirror google to dropbox does work but I have upwards of 40 users to port accross - its going to be painful.

Mark

coppo23 wrote:
wondered if Dropbox had its own form of symlink type method?

No it doesnt, sorry.

coppo23 wrote:
I have heard a rumour on the song app info grapevine that there is a way of stucturing dropbox shared/owned data

I wonder if what they are referring to is that within a standard Shared Folder you can rename/move it within your own Dropbox at will without impacting other users. For example you can move them all into a directory (I have one called 'Shared' (!)) and name them whatever you want without the other people in the share knowing you've done so - as long as its not to within another share. However, as you need to maintain folder structure etc. for an app this wont work - because the structure is actually app dependent more than anything else.

coppo23

SOLVED:

Thanks to all who have helped. I think its my lack of understanding and have got it working as follows:

If you share a ROOT dropbox folder with someone writeable and they move it within their dropbox it DOES change your copy which is not desired. If you share it read only they can't move it.

If you share a SUBfolder of something in your dropbox with someone - it initially appears in their root folder. They can then move it without effecting your copy.

Megan

Hi there, @coppo23, happy Monday!

Thanks so much for sharing this with the rest of our Community users.

I think it's super interesting to see the steps that helped you resolve it, and also learn on our end too.

Wishing you an amazing week ahead, and if you need anything else, just give us a shout!

😇

Theresa

Hiya @coppo23 – you’re very welcome to the Dropbox Community! 👋

Delighted to hear your issue been sorted! I spotted in your posts that you’re using Dropbox for you and your bands 🎸🥁. If you’re happy to share, I’d love to hear a bit more about how it fits into your creative process. I’m always curious about how different folks approach their craft – and you never know, your way of doing things could spark a few handy tips or ideas we can pass on to the team here 🤗.

Also, we’ve a musicians group on the Community you might enjoy. It’s a great spot for connecting with others, chatting about your experiences, and picking up (or passing on!) a few nuggets of wisdom 🤓 .

Looking forward to hearing more from you,

T 😺 (Dropbox Community Manager)

coppo23a

I'll do a summary of what we do at some point but am in the middle of moving about 4 groups with 40 or so members over from google drive. I'll get that sorted first and also make sure it works at scale.