Dropbox - Synced to Network Share

[MJay241]

Hi. 

Just curious into asking about syncing a Dropbox agent to a Windows network share to allow other people to access and modify files. The idea was to have an agent sat on a Windows File Server, sync the Dropbox agent to a specific folder and make it a network share for other people to use files within. 

I am aware this is unsupported by Dropbox, but is this against TOS in any way and something that most certainly shouldn't be done? Or is there a better way that this can be done?

Many Thanks! 

[Walter]

Hey @MJay241, thanks for using Dropbox and welcome to our Community!

While it's not against the Dropbox ToS, it's not recommended to store the Dropbox folder on a network drive as a number of issues may arise. 

Have you considered using a shared folder instead?

I hope this helps!

[MJay241]

Would you mind at all explaining Shared Folders?

Deffo a newbie to Dropbox so would love to know if it would be worth the investment etc...

[Mark]

I cannot say this enough - do not do it. You will almost certainly end up with data loss and corruption. If the drive disconnects at all it may be seen as a total deletion of all data and replicate this across everwhere. Also. Dropbox wouldn't get a flag that files edited by others on the drive had changed and so not sync these changes. 

[Walter · Accepted solution]

As for shared folders, you can start by taking a look at this Help Center article.

Let us know if you have any other questions @MJay241 

[Ram9923]

Hi thank you for your answer but I  have a few questions.

can you explain to me why it wouldn't just see it as a device that gone offline? like when I use my pc and it suddenly goes offline my data is safe why is it different when I share it through lan?

and also can I use like other folder that will be shared on the network while this folder will be synced with the dropbox folder will that help?

The thing is we have the devices connected to the same network and we have a limited internet bandwidth and each time someone uploads a 10 mb file since we have at least 10 devices that will download them it will take 100 mb ofcourse when it's a100 mb it's not a problem but it get's worst when we use larger files so if you have other suggestions I'll be pleased to hear them

Thank you for your time and help ❤️

[Rich]

---

@Ram9923 wrote:

like when I use my pc and it suddenly goes offline my data is safe why is it different when I share it through lan?

---

When Dropbox is installed on your computer with the Dropbox folder on your local drive, if the computer goes offline it simply cannot communicate with Dropbox. The application still has access to your files because they're local. It doesn't see it anything other than a communication issue.

When Dropbox is installed on your computer with the Dropbox folder located on a remote drive (external, removable, network, etc.), if that drive goes offline while the Dropbox client is still running it can no longer see the Dropbox folder. It can (and often does) interpret the missing folder as a mass deletion and it will begin to sync that deletion to your account.

---

and also can I use like other folder that will be shared on the network while this folder will be synced with the dropbox folder will that help?

---

Another complication that you will face is how Dropbox is notified about changes to your files. When you install Dropbox it registers itself with your operating system to receive notifications of any changes that happen within the Dropbox folder. This is how it knows what to sync. If the Dropbox folder is on a network share and other devices are altering the files in that folder, Dropbox won't be notified of those changes. It will only detect changes made by other people when it performs an index, usually when the client is launched.

Dropbox simply does not support storing the Dropbox folder on a network share or any other external drive. Is it possible, yes, but it's completely unsupported and data loss is almost certainly guaranteed to occur.

---

if you have other suggestions I'll be pleased to hear them

---

If you must work this way, I would suggest investing in a NAS device that has a sync utility on it, such as a QNAP or Synology NAS. These network connected drives have their own apps and most of them offer their own version of a Dropbox application (created by them, not Dropbox) that can connect to your account and sync files.

Have everyone access the NAS directly, and use the sync app on the NAS to connect to Dropbox. It's not a perfect solution and these third-party apps can stop working as Dropbox makes changes to the API, but it's the best solution for your situation.