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Forum Discussion

paulpeterson's avatar
paulpeterson
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

Alias Folders

I had to re-sync Dropbox recently and when I sync the app on my iMac Dropbox creates locked alias folders for Desktop, Downloads and Documents. Do I have to wait for the files to sync and the localiz...
Computer Backup
desktop
Download
sync
paulpeterson's avatar
paulpeterson
Explorer | Level 3

Thanks for your response @hannah 

 

I definitely do want these backed up to Dropbox but not sure like with other Dropbox folders that are backed up they are alias folders and not local folders?

Hannah's avatar
Hannah
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
4 years ago
Oh, it's great that you'd like the desktop folders to be backed up!

And that's kind of how the backup feature works. 

Your actual desktop folders are in your Dropbox folder and the original folders serve as shortcuts to the folders in the Dropbox folder. 

If you ever want to disable the feature and move the folders back to their original locations, you can follow the steps in the article I gave you above. 
  • paulpeterson's avatar
    paulpeterson
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    Thanks 🙂

     

    I am still confused by this - that u can't have the OG files and still update to Dropbox. 

    If I logout of Dropbox or am not online where are the files to these folders - they should display on the computer not as alias folders

     

     

    • Hannah's avatar
      Hannah
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      4 years ago
      Thanks for the feedback about this, Paul, I will definitely pass it along.

      As for the files, they are still on your computer, they're just in Dropbox. So, even if you're offline, you can still access them from there.
      • paulpeterson's avatar
        paulpeterson
        Explorer | Level 3
        4 years ago

        I think the problem is that I need a duplicate back up of my files.

         

        So there is a copy on the computer and a copy on Dropbox.

         

        At the moment there is only a copy on Dropbox.

         

        If I back up to a hard drive that is synced and a duplicate copy.

         

        How can I achieve this with Dropbox Sync?

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