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Possible to use aliases/symlinks to achieve seamless file path across multiple Mac devices?

I might have a bit of a niche issue here but I have just gotten a new Mac for my studio and in the past I have always named my laptops and desktops exactly the same, that way no matter where or what I am working on, dropbox being stored locally would always have the same file path and never need redirecting.

For example any scenes, textures, output paths etc made on both computers would always be at

Macintosh HD/users/samename/dropbox/Project/file.jpg

This allows me to load and render massive animation projects back and forth between machines without the need to change or look for anything referenced inside. The new machine does not have the largest hard drive and will need to rely on external storage, breaking this system.

I am looking for a solution here that does not require me adding an identical external drive to the other machine and moving dropbox there. I have tried using aliases but that does not seem to work, only changing the file path at surface level for myself, not within any program.

Could symlinks, something im not familiar with yet, solve this? Is there a solution somewhere I am not seeing?

Any help would be truly appreciated

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Jay

Hi @benmachado, thanks for messaging the Community.

Currently, symlinks aren't supported within the Dropbox folder, although symlinks to the Dropbox folder are possible (when referencing from outside the Dropbox folder).

What you're looking for is something within the OS itself to fix a location that would be the same across all devices, which would be something that we wouldn't have any information on at this time.

I'll leave this thread open for other users to reply with their suggestions for you!

benmachado

I might have figured out a workaround - by creating a separate volume on the internal hard drive of the laptop and naming it the same as the external drive on the desktop, they both effectively utilize the same file path for all files moving forward. I will have to ammend every file I open once, but that should be the last and only time.