You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

Steve R.8's avatar
Steve R.8
Explorer | Level 3
5 months ago

How can I achieve automatic sync between remote computers?

Automatic sync between remote computers seemed simple some time ago but the remote system has been replaced and Dropbox was installed. There is a remote telescope computer set up at a California observatory that I run from my home in Virginia. I have an active DB account and DB is installed on both systems. At one time in the past with another computer when I saved any data from that telescope to a folder it would sync with my system at home and I'd have all the data from that evening in the morning.

 

With the new computer I've installed a separate drive for the data only and want to have that drive shared so as data is saved it will be copied to my home computer. Seems very basic but for some reason, likely age, I can't seem to get this working. I'm sure it's simple and basic but it eludes me. All drives on the remote computer are setup to share so that's not the issue. I vaguely seem to remember right clicking on the folder and choosing to share with DB but that option is not shone.

 

Suggestions please.

 

Thanks

Steve

Desktop
Sync
  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    5 months ago

    Hi @Steve R.8 

     

    Dropbox will only sync what is inside of the Dropbox directory. So to have it sync to Dropbox and to your home computer (and viceversa) you need to be saving the data to Dropbox.

  • Steve R.8's avatar
    Steve R.8
    Explorer | Level 3
    5 months ago

    So do I create the folder on the E drive as Dropbox/SRO Data? Or do I install Dropbox on the E drive? I appreciate the response.

    • Mark's avatar
      Mark
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
      5 months ago

      You need to install Dropbox wherever and then put all of the data you want to sync pointed at \Dropbox\UserFolder.

       

      Note that Dropbox will install its program files to C:\ and that cannot be altered, but, you can change the Dropbox directory folder via the advanced install options. 

      • Steve R.8's avatar
        Steve R.8
        Explorer | Level 3
        5 months ago

        So can it be changed from the existing install or do I need to uninstall, reinstall, and change it then to the E drive SRO Data folder?  Sorry for being so confused. 

    • Steve R.8's avatar
      Steve R.8
      Explorer | Level 3
      5 months ago

      The current path on the remote drive is "C:\Users\David\Dropbox" so if I want the E drive data to sync the path should be "E:\SRO Data\Dropbox" ?

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!