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Forum Discussion
What to do with conflicted copies?
Our office has two desktop computers. Both of them access the same Dropbox. No mobile devices or other computers are involved.
In the Dropbox there is a database.
The database is _never_ used fro...
Åke E. wrote:
We are also confused because "conflicted copies" should not appear unless two people worked on the database at the same time. So why does this happen?
A conflicted copy occurs when a file has been changed from multiple locations. Something has to have the file open in multiple locations for the conflict to occur. A file doesn't necessarily need to change for a conflict to occur. Simply opening it can cause it, especially in Microsoft products which modify a file simply by opening it, even if you don't save it.
The only way to know which one contains the correct data is to open both and compare them. Also note that it's not recommended to use database files within Dropbox specifically for this very reason.
I use drop box from three machines at the same time. However I only change a file on one machine at a time. I do not have simultaneous access to a single file. You can read a file at the same time, but you may not write to a file from two or more devices at the same time. This is a conflict, what version of the file is the correct version. It is like me interrupting your conversion with some one else. We humans have the same problem in this case.
A work around may be to close the programme or app on one computer when done leaving the other computer to work with the shared file. Thus only one instance of the programme is running on any of the machines at any one time.
I have a similar environment. Before I start using a file I IM other machine that filename is "in use". When I close filename I IM other machine that file is "not in use". We each must confirm that DB has synched before we use and make sure that we each use this protocol.
