User Name
Password
AppleNova Forums » Third-Party Products »

How do you use Dropbox?


Register Members List Calendar Search FAQ Posting Guidelines
How do you use Dropbox?
Page 1 of 2 [1] 2  Next Thread Tools
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-07, 00:48

Obviously there is the ability to make something available across your systems. I'm more interested in actual files and settings etc that you have now placed in the DB for use across your system. I currently have two database files for two different database programs.

Would you be able to do something like an alias for your iCal data to point to a folder in Dropbox? Would that work? What about Address Book? Maybe Bookmarks?

How do you use Dropbox?

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
Send a message via ICQ to chucker Send a message via AIM to chucker Send a message via MSN to chucker Send a message via Yahoo to chucker Send a message via Skype™ to chucker 
2009-11-07, 05:22

One trick to do that (for iCal, Address Book, Keychain, etc.) is to move their data folders to within the Dropbox folder, then put a symlink pointing there at their original locations. There are various guides like this one to show you how. You'll want to combine those two commands into one to minimize the time the folder is unavailable, though, like so:

Code:
(cd ~ && \ mv "Library/Application Support/AddressBook" Dropbox/ && \ ln -s ~/Dropbox/AddressBook ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook)
  quote
Gargoyle
http://ga.rgoyle.com
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: In your dock hiding behind your finder icon!
 
2009-11-07, 05:23

We use it as our main "fileserver" syncing our company docs between 3 machines. We have standard stuff in there, clients docs, etc.

One nice thing is that I have setup the Pages Templates to be in there. This didn't work when creating an alias within Finder, but it works fine when I used "ln -s ..." on the terminal.

OK, I have given up keeping this sig up to date. Lets just say I'm the guy that installs every latest version as soon as its available!
  quote
jcoley2
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Darien CT
Send a message via AIM to jcoley2  
2009-11-07, 08:18

I need something to replace Windows Live Sync (aka How Microsoft screwed up another great program, File Share.)

Is DB pretty easy to use?
  quote
chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
Send a message via ICQ to chucker Send a message via AIM to chucker Send a message via MSN to chucker Send a message via Yahoo to chucker Send a message via Skype™ to chucker 
2009-11-07, 09:05

Quote:
Originally Posted by jcoley2 View Post
I need something to replace Windows Live Sync (aka How Microsoft screwed up another great program, File Share.)

Is DB pretty easy to use?
Yes, Dropbox is easy to use. Windows Live Mesh is an alright alternative (its Web interface is terrible, though).
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-07, 09:50

Yeah, I started using DB last night for the first time really. It's working great with my SplashID DB. Now all my systems can stay up to date wish ease. I'd prefer to use my own server for stuff like this, but at least the database for SplashID is heavily encrypted.

Also, thanks for the tips on ln -s guys. I've already handed out cookies.

How about some other great ideas out there?

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
jdcfsu
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
 
2009-11-07, 11:18

As I've said other places, I use it for 1Password, Coda and iPhoto libraries. It's a wonderful system because it's very fast and seemless. iDisk has some things to learn from DB.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-07, 12:05

iPhoto libraries? How big is your library? There is no way in the world I could fit my library on DB and call it a value. How big is a "normal" user's iPhoto library?

Web page code and all is a great idea. I don't do much coding though the concept is of great use to me. The problem I run into is that I have 4 Macs that I regularly use. This makes things like the Documents folder and even Mail store locally on the machine a challenge.

So since I use IMAP but archive messages locally on my machine this might be a great way to have all my Mail databases in sync. So if I store a message locally on Beast I can still see it on Mork or my MB.

Can you have multiple Dropbox accounts on one Mac? As it, my wife have a DB on her login and I have one on my login? This would to totally sweet if you could do that!

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
Capella
Dark Cat of the Sith
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Rochester, NY
Send a message via AIM to Capella  
2009-11-07, 12:31

I only use Dropbox to store my classwork, some ebooks, and my fiction, so I'm fine with the 2GB limit. Given that I'm not syncing two Macs (yet), I have no experience with syncing anything like iTunes or iPhoto or even iCal. But for syncing text documents, Dropbox rocks.

"A blind, deaf, comatose, lobotomy patient could feel my anger!" - Darth Baras
twitter ; amateur photographer ; fanfiction writer ; roleplayer and worldbuilder
  quote
kdcny
Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
 
2009-11-07, 13:20

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
Can you have multiple Dropbox accounts on one Mac? As it, my wife have a DB on her login and I have one on my login?
I don't believe you can, but if there are people out there who've done it, I'd like to know how.

I've got multiple accounts on my Mac and Dropbox installed, but it's one Dropbox that's accessible to all accounts. It was pretty odd, in fact, since I didn't necessarily want the files available (with full read & write capabilities) to all the accounts, but that's how it was installed.
  quote
jdcfsu
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
 
2009-11-07, 13:23

I pay for the 50 GB DB and between iPhoto (15 GB) and my web sites stuff I use about half that.

You aren't supposed to be able to have multiple DB accounts running at once, but I think Lifehacker ran an article about how to set it up yesterday or today. So it is possible with a work around.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-07, 13:30

I suppose the answer then would be to have two sub folders within the DB so her files go in there and mine in my subfolder. Must be one way they keep from people getting up to 6GB free.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-07, 16:41

Well, Address Book worked great across Dropbox but iCal not so much. I guess there are more files I'm missing. I put the Application Support/iCal folder there but that isn't enough apparently.

Edit: Found the missing piece.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-08, 21:22

Would it be "safe" to put keychain files in Dropbox?
  quote
jdcfsu
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
 
2009-11-08, 22:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
Would it be "safe" to put keychain files in Dropbox?
I use my 1Password keychain in Dropbox.
  quote
torifile
Less than Stellar Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
Send a message via AIM to torifile  
2009-11-08, 22:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdcfsu View Post
I use my 1Password keychain in Dropbox.
Same here.

The thing about dropbox is that I never really set out to use it in a particular way, it's just sort of become ingrained in my workflow. I'll often think "it'd be nice to have that file some place accessible." My first thought used to be my thumbdrive but that's Mac formatted and I usually need to get it on a PC. Then I'll remember to store it in my dropbox. It started out with just a few files like that and now it's quite a few more.

I now install it on every computer I use. And this is despite the fact that I've got .mac. It's just much more automatic.

If it's not red and showing substantial musculature, you're wearing it wrong.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-08, 23:02

Well, I just don't want to buy 1Password. I had the free version from MacHeist, and it's good but not enough for me to buy it. Maybe with me using DB more I just might for the sake of ease.

Keychain is free and does most of what I want. I just don't know if it's an encrypted file/database like 1Password or SplashID. I keep SplashID there, but it's encrypted.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-11, 00:07

I found out the hard way that Dropbox doesn't care if one of you computers have 10.5 and the others have 10.6. I lost my contacts and calendars because of this. Mork is still running 10.5 while the rest of my systems are running 10.6.

I was able to recover my data from a TM backup though so all is well in the end. It also brought to light that I don't need all my computers backing up my DB folder with Time Machine. So now only one of my Macs backs it up while I have excluded it on all the others.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
jcoley2
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Darien CT
Send a message via AIM to jcoley2  
2009-11-11, 20:12

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
I found out the hard way that Dropbox doesn't care if one of you computers have 10.5 and the others have 10.6. I lost my contacts and calendars because of this. Mork is still running 10.5 while the rest of my systems are running 10.6.
Bummer . . .I was going to use this on a mix of 10.5 and 10.6 platforms.
  quote
jdcfsu
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
 
2009-11-11, 20:22

I don't understand the issue... I use DB with a 10.6 MacBook Pro and a 10.5 iMac without any issue.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-11, 22:59

The problem is that iCal and Address Book versions are different and when you "upgrade" the database to 10.5 from 10.6 there is a conflict. Then trying to go back to 10.6 it fails. I actually lost all my contacts and calendars due to this.

I think the real issue came having both versions open at the same time. I'm not going to test again right now though, but I'm pretty sure that's the issue though.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
jdcfsu
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
 
2009-11-11, 23:24

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
The problem is that iCal and Address Book versions are different and when you "upgrade" the database to 10.5 from 10.6 there is a conflict. Then trying to go back to 10.6 it fails. I actually lost all my contacts and calendars due to this.

I think the real issue came having both versions open at the same time. I'm not going to test again right now though, but I'm pretty sure that's the issue though.
Ah, ok, that makes sense now. I do know that Dropbox has issues when both computers are using the same file simultaneously. I lost an iPhoto event because of it. Luckily the original pictures were in their place and all I lost was the meta data in the .xml file, but still.

90% of statistics can be made to say anything 50% of the time.
Website | Twitter
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-11, 23:27

I've thought about it and really only put it on Mork because I could. Fact is I really don't want to worry about my data on Mork in the event it get lost or lifted. While it's highly unlikely that I'd lose it but rather it be stolen.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
torifile
Less than Stellar Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
Send a message via AIM to torifile  
2009-11-12, 06:43

As turtle said it depends on the files you've got on there. I use it solely for normal file like docs or spreadsheets. I'm running - 10.5.8, 10.6.1, XP, win 7 rc, win 7 final across the machines I use dropbox with.
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-13, 23:24

Does anyone know which files/folders I need to put in Dropbox for my Safari Prefs and Bookmarks? The idea is that Safari operates the same no matter which machine I'm on.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2009-11-14, 00:28

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
Does anyone know which files/folders I need to put in Dropbox for my Safari Prefs and Bookmarks? The idea is that Safari operates the same no matter which machine I'm on.
~/Library/Safari/

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2009-11-14, 10:15

Thank you sir!
  quote
jcoley2
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Darien CT
Send a message via AIM to jcoley2  
2009-11-14, 10:44

I am little confused how to use DB. (I guess it was the late night drinking). It does not look to work like Foldershare. Help me get over the basic idea behind DB I just installed in on two computers.

Once I have the DB icon under my "Places" on Finder, I thought I would just drag certain folders over to the Drop Box and out would then sync them between computers.

But when I did this it appears to actually move the folders into the DB folder. Am I doing something wrong? Or is that the way it works? (I wanted to leave the folders in my Documents folder.)

Thanks in advance and sorry to be so dense.

Now that I got a job, I can buy more Apple products!
  quote
chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
Send a message via ICQ to chucker Send a message via AIM to chucker Send a message via MSN to chucker Send a message via Yahoo to chucker Send a message via Skype™ to chucker 
2009-11-14, 11:28

Quote:
Originally Posted by jcoley2 View Post
Once I have the DB icon under my "Places" on Finder, I thought I would just drag certain folders over to the Drop Box and out would then sync them between computers.

But when I did this it appears to actually move the folders into the DB folder. Am I doing something wrong? Or is that the way it works?
Yeah. AIUI, Dropbox is currently limited to syncing its own folder. You can use links to sync files while maintaining their existing positions, but I don't think you can simply tell it to "sync folder X as well". Of course, if you simply want to sync ~/Documents, and only that, just tell Dropbox to sync exactly that.
  quote
jcoley2
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Darien CT
Send a message via AIM to jcoley2  
2009-11-14, 11:31

Quote:
Originally Posted by chucker View Post
You can use links to sync files while maintaining their existing positions, but I don't think you can simply tell it to "sync folder X as well".t.
You mean link with a shortcut?
  quote
Posting Rules Navigation
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Page 1 of 2 [1] 2  Next

Post Reply

Forum Jump
Thread Tools
Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Dropbox jdcfsu Third-Party Products 38 2015-08-30 19:42
Dropbox For iPhone Jason Third-Party Products 1 2009-09-30 15:16
DropBox Beta... scratt Third-Party Products 48 2008-09-12 09:41
Amazing Program - Dropbox iThink therefore iMac Third-Party Products 0 2008-03-12 10:46


« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:11.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004 - 2024, AppleNova