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Forum Discussion
Dragging file -- copy vs. move
I use Dropbox to move files between Mac computers (OS 10.11 and 10.13) and Windows computers (Win7). When I drag a file from the Dropbox folder to a Windows local folder, it COPIES the file. When I...
Malbone wrote:
Why the inconsistent treatment of the same action?
Whether a file is moved or copied when dragged is controlled by your operating system. Dropbox has nothing to do with it.
I can't speak to a Mac ( Mark can comment on that ), but on Windows, a drag and drop between locations on the same drive is considered a move, and a drag and drop between locations on different drives is considered a copy. There are modifier keys that you can hold on both operating systems to change what happens when dragging files. On Windows, holding CTRL will force a copy, holding SHIFT will force a move, and holding CTRL-SHIFT will create a shortcut.
Obviously there is a way in each system to reverse the default action, but why make the user remember to do that?
Ask Microsoft and Apple. It's entirely on them.
Rich
Super User II
Super User II
Malbone wrote:
Why the inconsistent treatment of the same action?
Whether a file is moved or copied when dragged is controlled by your operating system. Dropbox has nothing to do with it.
I can't speak to a Mac ( Mark can comment on that ), but on Windows, a drag and drop between locations on the same drive is considered a move, and a drag and drop between locations on different drives is considered a copy. There are modifier keys that you can hold on both operating systems to change what happens when dragging files. On Windows, holding CTRL will force a copy, holding SHIFT will force a move, and holding CTRL-SHIFT will create a shortcut.
Obviously there is a way in each system to reverse the default action, but why make the user remember to do that?
Ask Microsoft and Apple. It's entirely on them.
According to my experience the Dropbox folder is treated by users as a shared [network] folder.
So the expected default behaviour of the drag-and-drop between the Dropbox folder and local folders is the copy [instead of move] operation.
The move operation leads to the loss of the original files in shared folder when user means to copy it to a local folder from a shared [network] folder. That causes a bad user experience with Dropbox.
The Dropbox should have an option to set the default action of drag-and-drop between the Dropbox folder and local folders. The default should be copy.
BTW the Google Stream (Google Drive) drag-and-drop between the Google folder and local folders the default operation is the copy and that is the way as it should be.
