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.
Status:
Closed
Can we have more folder options like custom folders or sub-folders to add to Computer Backup?
Right now, the automated backup option in Dropbox allows me to sync my Documents, Desktop and Downloads folders. By far the biggest - and most important - folder on my computer is the Music folder though. I can imagine for other people it's Pictures. Could we have a way to automatically backup those folders too?
To be really ambitious: would we be able to clone our computer on Dropbox? I used to have an Apple Time Machine that allowed you to do just that. If your computer broke down or was stolen, you could buy a new one, let it download the clone, including not just your documents but your applications and presets too, and you'd be good to go!
Please let Dropbox be the new Time Machine.
I would also be interested in this.
- Emmet
Community Manager
Status changed:InvestigatingtoAcceptedThis idea is currently being worked on by our internal team, and is already available for external drive backups. External Drive Backups are available to all of our users. You can find out more about computer backups in our Help Centre.
Computer backup is currently being worked on by our teams. If you are interested in participating in beta testing new features to our backup solutions, you can find out how to opt in here.
- "Backup" would be different from "Sync". Backup would be similar to traditional backup where local changes get pushed up to the cloud. Sync is similar to what Dropbox currently does by synchronizing all of the devices with each other and the cloud.
- Have per folder option on each device to
- Do nothing
- Backup
- Sync
Folder Foo on Device Bar would be designated as Bar:Foo and would be available on Device Bah to by Synced if it is Synced on Bar. Otherwise, it would not be seen on device Bah.
To make this industrial strength, Users could be added in the tier of things so in the above example for user Joe, it would be Bar:Joe:Foo and then various sharing options could be added in.
The last bit isn't something I personally would need or use but it seems like it would be a cost effective addition. Enterprises would love it.
O.k., so, "it's currently being worked on", after how many years of us clamoring for this feature? Is there a timeline? Or is this to be expected at an indefinite point in the future, a couple more years from now? If the latter, I might as well switch to Google Sync now.
By the way, while you're at it, how about making at least the minimal features you have now actually work? We still cannot backup any folders whatsoever, if we have moved the targets that the standard Windows shell folders point to (Desktop, Documents, Music, Pictures, Downloads, etc.), to a non-standard location. Note that moving the targets of these shell folders is standard Windows functionality, that has been supported by Microsoft Windows for decades.
Tbh, when the automatic backup feature was implemented, I was sort of flabbergasted that I could only backup those certain folders and not, say, user/work/[client]/[current job]/[folder]. Like.. *Why??* Ease of use seems unlikely, given that the selective sync feature is already more complicated than this... but if that is the case, could we at least get a "choose other folder" button down below or something? I suspect this feature is simplified beyond usefulness for a LOT of people. If I wasn't locked into dropbox due to work, I would have already switched to another cloud service because of this issue.
I'm an independent contractor. My primary need for dropbox is automatic back up of specific folders that contain active, current *work* files. NOT my pictures, or music, or desktop folders where I keep personal files.
To achieve this right now, I have to keep my active working files in a separate dropbox folder, then manually copy/paste them into my local folder structure each day. This is a source of ongoing frustration and stress. Having two, identically named copies of my most important active files on my computer makes simple things like file searches, quick access lists of recent files, and relinking files within documents fraught with potential disaster. My entire workflow is hampered by ensuring that I'm working with the correct copy of the file. And of course, being a flawed human, I will occasionally screw up when I'm on a very tight, important deadline...
My work process involves the frequent generation of very large files that do NOT need to be backed up, so it's impractical for me to repurpose one of the existing backup-able folder options in order to keep a unified file structure. Dropbox would be eating my upstream bandwidth all day uploading gigabytes of unnecessary data.
I have tried some third party solutions, but none have proven reliable. (if anyone has any hot tips, share pls 🥺?)
Look into GoodSync. Not free, but it will allow you to sync any folder you like to a folder you designate on DropBox. I have used that for a couple of years now (after DropBox killed the option to set up a sync option via symbolic links), and it's always been reliable. Of course, having to use a third-party solution to accomplish something that the DropBox desktop client should be doing is just ludicrous.
Your other option is to use Google Drive; this will indeed allow you to backup and sync any folder on your computer. I am currently contemplating abandoning DropBox for Google Drive for this reason.
It's absolutely ridiculous that I can't automatically backup my work email which obviously isn't in windows pictures or music. I use the app for work and not for play or for hobbies and therefore I have no need to backup photos or music, what the hell is this for? I have a dropbox subscription but if they don't change this I will switch to another application because it is frustrating to pay for a service and still have to do things by hand which leads to errors.
I was very disappointed to discover that a I can't have dropbox automatically sync a folder on a drive that's not the system drive in my computer let alone one of the few folders that are allowed. It's pretty bogus that I give dropbox intimate access to my systems and it can't do specific folders automatically. I've been a subscriber for years and always used it in a basic way because I didn't have the need for automation but I was under the impression that it was there if I need it. Well, now I really need it and I'll have to find an alternative such as Google Drive or pay extra for GoodSync...
I was also disappointed to find out that there is no way to add custom folders to DropBox backup. I'm pretty shocked the feature request has been out there this long and still no dice, considering this ought to be a pretty trivial thing to add. Perhaps I made a mistake in selecting DropBox.
Waiting for this basic feature!!
I can't use mklink for symbolic link and can't sync external directories or shared folder, my laptop only have 500 GB and phone 128 GB, Why do I pay for 2TB?
