You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

Homer712's avatar
Homer712
Explorer | Level 4
7 months ago

Using Rsync to Backup Dropbox Folders. Using terminal, I get a skipping file error.

I'm on a MacBook Pro, running Monterey 12.7.4 and would like to use rsync to backup some folders I have in Dropbox. I've used rsync in the past and am quite comfortable using the commands. The issue seem to be that no matter how I enter the path to the Dropbox folder I want to back up (using either Finder or the Terminal to get the path) I get errors. Using the terminal path I get a "skipping file" error where rsync is skipping the Dropbox folder I'm looking to back up.

 

So, I'm thinking, although the path to my Dropbox looks like "/Users/my name/Dropbox" there may be something going on behind the scenes with Dropbox where that isn't the "real" path.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Desktop
Dropbox Backup
Mac
  • BethemBrown's avatar
    BethemBrown
    7 months ago

    Hello Homer712 - glad you got it working.

    The "Dropbox for macOS on File Provider" update mainly fixes some issues with opening online-only files in third-party applications, so if you haven't had problems with that I don't think there's any big advantage with switching to it.

  • BethemBrown's avatar
    BethemBrown
    Helpful | Level 6
    7 months ago

    On mac, Dropbox stores its files in ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox so you could try to use that path instead of /Users/my_name/Dropbox.

     

    Let me know if it works!

    • Homer712's avatar
      Homer712
      Explorer | Level 4
      7 months ago

      Thanks for the response. That location (~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox) is only valid if you update to "Dropbox for macOS on File Provider", which I have not done.

       

      I worked out the rsync issues I was having (I'll blame it on age) so I'm good for now. But, seeing how that was brought up, are there any advantages to switching to the "File Provider" feature?

      • BethemBrown's avatar
        BethemBrown
        Helpful | Level 6
        7 months ago

        Hello Homer712 - glad you got it working.

        The "Dropbox for macOS on File Provider" update mainly fixes some issues with opening online-only files in third-party applications, so if you haven't had problems with that I don't think there's any big advantage with switching to it.

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!