When will online-only files work on Linux?

[edugsdf]

I need to save space on my hard drive. Online-only files would be the perfect solution, but it still does not work on linux fedora.

When will we have this solution?

[GrahamLees]

"however it doesn’t natively support Linux" which is rather odd in a way since IIRC the underlying OS for DB is more than likely Linux anyway.

[tonyb4]

Exactly 🙂

[oidarnam]

Someone on this thread mentioned the possibility of using RCLONE with Dropbox (or other cloud storage services) and a VFS mount to simulate/approximate Smart Sync functionality. I started looking into it awhile back. I seem to recall that there were some potential limitations, caveats, and pitfalls with this approach...can't remember the details now. Some clever person might be able to get it to work like Smart Sync...maybe.

[Hypersphere]

I regret that I do not have an answer for workarounds for the lack of SmartSync in Dropbox. My own solution has been to add hard drive capacity to my Linux machines.

The SmartSync issue on Dropbox was raised at least as far back as 2018, and thus far the Dropbox team has failed to implement this feature in Linux. Although I have been "getting by" without SmartSync on my 6 Linux machines, I think it is shameful that Dropbox has not responded to this need for its Linux users.

If a company is going to offer commercial versions of a product for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows, it ought to provide the same functionaltity  in all three versions. For example, I use a number of computational molecular modeling programs including BioSolveIT SeeSAR and Infinisee, CCDC suite, CCG MOE, ChemAxon suite,  LigandScount, Molsoft ICM-Pro, OneAngstrom SAMSON, OpenEye suite, Schrodinger Suite, and YASARA-Structure. All of these programs have completely functional versions for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. I fail to see why Dropbox is unable and/or unwilling to make the Linux version of their product function at the same level as their Mac and Windows versions.

[GrahamLees]

There is a Cloud Storage solution called Expandrive which IIRC takes a different approach to DB concerning file syncing.

What this solution does is to tokenise the files stored remotely on their servers so that all that is stored on your local drive are small tokens which relate to the full sized file, so effectively taking up very little space - certainly not the native file size to any extent. I'm not certain of the numbers but as an example, 4TB of data on the Expandrive servers would translate to a very small amount of data on the local HD.

I guess this could have its own problems. The advantage of DB is that the native file is available locally so it can be amended offline and will be synced later when te connection to DB is restored whereas the token which relates to the file cannot itself be used locally.

It's a matter of horses for courses I guess but perhaps the DB team could consider offering something on these lines for the Linux community if they are struggling with SmartSync.

[tonyb4]

@Hypersphere if you are running 6 different Linux machines, have you looked at NextCloud at all? 

I understand its open-source and supports all platforms including Linux,Windows,Mac 

I also have read online that they have an equivalent of 'smart-sync' that was introduced in 2019 with Linux support

I have not had chance to set it up and test it yet as I am still in the dropbox billing cycle and would need to build a dedicated machine to run it

However, I only need about 5-6TB of space, so I could effectively setup a 10TB server just to run NextCloud with not much cost to be honest. 

From a privacy point of view, its also a lot more secure to maintain and keep your own data as opposed to putting it on dropbox servers. 

Any thoughts on this and have you had a chance to have a play with it? 

[Hypersphere]

@tonyb4 Thanks for your suggestion about NextCloud. Just now, I checked the NextCloud website, including their comparison of features between the Community and Enterprise versions. It appears that the Community version has quite a few important limitations.

At present, my issue with Dropbox regarding their lack of full support for their Linux version is mostly a matter of principle rather than practicality. This is because my employer has recently signed a contract with Dropbox, and to take advantage of their Enterprise version, I have migrated my personal account to the corporate one. In addition, I have already added additional SSDs along with NAS to my local machines. Nevertheless, the Dropbox Linux issue remains, and I will be urging my employer to look at other solutions for file synchronization.

[chrisrossi]

This is killing me. Please, Dropbox, please?

[NanoExplorer]

It isn't as good as smart sync, but I have had a lot of luck with selective sync. It's available in preferences on linux, and lets you select folders to be not available on the device. The files won't be visible at all on the system, but the most important thing for me has been that the files don't take up space.

[GTATech]

6 years and still no SmartSync for linux users!