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How to make a DropBox backup to an external drive

J

joelfriedman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2011
19
1
Washington, DC
Hi all.

I'm on 15.3.1 and I share files between a Mac Studio and MacBook Pro. I have many, many work files up on my Dropbox - teaching materials, my music scores, etc. Over 2 TB of files, too much to set all to live on either of my boot HDs. Most of the folders/files are set to be online only so they don't eat up my HD until I bring them down as needed for work. It all works well, and this way I can access them from both my desk top and laptop, from really anywhere, without worrying about file conflicts or multiple copies, etc.

Lately I've been thinking that I really should have a backup of all these files, not in the cloud, not on someone's service, but my own - on a hard drive, just in case. I've just started exploring this and it seems the DropBox doesn't allow either using TimeMachine or straight file copying to an external. Is there a simple way? I'd hate to have to set EVERYTHING in DB to be downloaded onto my boot drive, copy it manually to an external, and then reset everything to be online only on DB. That is not simple. There are apps like Cloudmounter etc. that are supposed to do this. Anyone have experience with these apps? Just a side note: I've already run into Appstore commercial apps that are either Chinese or Russian that CLAIM to do this... Um, not sure I want to upload all my files to them in our current world!

Thank you. I'd appreciate the help.

  1. I can't use TimeMachine to do this...
  2. I would have to download ALL my DB files to my internal boot drive and then manually copy them over to an external drive, which seems a bit insane
  3. I could use a 3rd party something like Cloud Mounter. Is there a consensus? How does it work?
 
Dropbox does store files in Dropbox folders locally, so you can access them when offline. They're local and in the cloud and stored on other people's computers with whom you may share the folder or file. If they are updated anywhere, they then sync to Dropbox cloud and then the local copy on your computer. I wasn't aware of an option to store them in the cloud only but if there is such an option (update: I see that there is), you could turn that off again to get them local. If you lack the internal drive space- which is fully understandable at that much storage vs. Apple storage pricing- move the Dropbox folder to an external drive of size and store them (locally) there.

If you open the folder where you store Dropbox files (on the Mac, right click the Dropbox icon the menu bar and choose open Dropbox folder) and then click "Browse Time Machine Backups" you should find that you can browse older versions of those files unless you have explicitly chosen to not TM backup the Dropbox folder. I just checked this to be sure and I can definitely browse older Dropbox folder & file versions via Time Machine as described. But again, if you have chosen some option to NOT store them locally, then I presume there is no backup in TM. But the above switch can fix that.

If you have excluded them from Time Machine backups, you could include them again within Time Machine so they would be backed up.

Unless you need to share all 2TB at all times, most probably shouldn't be in Dropbox anyway. Get them on a drive you control, backup that drive with at least one fresh offsite backup and only use Dropbox for current files you want to share between devices or with others.

If you do need to share 2TB at all times, consider getting your own NAS like maybe one from Synology, set up your own cloud storage and store them there, sharing access just like you do in Dropbox with anyone else that needs access to them. Then you'll control all of them and can pay yourself $0/month for that access. Your own local NAS and thus cloud would be immediately accessible storage of size for you that is NOT taking up space on the internal drive on your computer(s).

To #2, opening the Dropbox Finder window, you can easily drag & drop or copy and then paste Dropbox folders to any attached drive. Once you've done so, you might use a tool like Chronosync, Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper or similar to regularly keep what is in Dropbox duplicated to that external drive too.
 
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Carbon Copy Cloner has an option to download (materialise) any file which is currently in the cloud. Further, after backing up, CCC then releases the file so that macOS can make it cloud only again. Once a file has been backed up, it will only be materialised in subsequent backups if it has changed. How well this works with 2TB in the cloud and a much smaller boot volume would need to be tested. Download the trial and see how you go.

You also should consider the points made by @HobeSoundDarryl. Particularly as you don't seem to be sharing with anyone else, you should consider other ways of storing and synchronising your data. If it were me, I would store everything on the MacStudio (or a NAS) and use Chronosync to synchronise an active subset to and from the MBP.
 
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Thanks all. I have a Synology NAS that I use for my TM backups as my previous Seagate ext HD died on me. I can't swing another setup at the moment, although I'm intrigued with the idea of a private network, but I do have files I share with others as needed on certain projects. It sounds like the simplest way would be to get a 4-5 TB external HD and update my ancient copy of CCC. Any suggestions? I don't need real speed, so a solid USB 3 drive would do? @gilby101 I'm guessing that to do the initial copy onto the external I'd have to have all the folders/files ON my internal drive (green checked) so they'd be correctly copied onto the external or are you sayin that CCC would handle this? I thought you can't properly copy DB files that aren't on your drive. @HobeSoundDarryl you know, I am not 100% if my TM backups include DB! :eek: Especially since between my Mac Studio desktop and my MBP some files are on their cloud and some are downloaded onto my computers at any given time, and it rotates depending upon what I'm working on and on which device. I also thought you couldn't have your DB on an external, but I could be wrong.
 
No, That cloud would be inside your Synology box. So if the house burns, gets flooded or robbed and the Synology is lost, that cloud storage is lost too.

Synology would stand in for Dropbox for your needs. You already own it, so you can use it as your own cloud of any size (storage). If so, you also need to back up those files and ideally have at least one fresh backup offsite.

This can be accomplished several ways including by connecting a backup drive to Synology and backing up from Synology. However, a simple way could be to attach a big HDD to your Mac and regularly using Chronosync to keep these files in Synology cloud backed up to the HDD. Then store the HDD offsite in a safe place. Regularly fetch it to update it with new or updated files then back to offsite storage.

I use 2 HDDs for onsite-offsite rotation. Backup to A, take it with me to the bank, swap it with B which will then be my local backup storage for a few weeks until I swap them again.

In your case, make these big enough and they could double as 2 more Time Machine backups too. So then you would have this approx 2 TBs of files securely backed up in a few places as well as your Mac(s) too. Odds in actual loss would get very long with 2 or 3 backups, especially with one fairly fresh one stored offsite. Unlike now, you would have 100% control of your files.
 
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Dropbox does respect symbolic links so there should be a way to get Dropbox to download files that are currently "cloud only" to an external drive with the file folder on the external and the symbolic link of that folder inside the Dropbox folder.

Can Dropbox sync symlinks?

Learn about symbolic links (symlinks) and how to use them in the Dropbox folder on your computer to reference other files in that folder.
help.dropbox.com help.dropbox.com

It's easy to find various methods, via a web search, to create symbolic links in macOS. You can choose the method that suits you.
 
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