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Status:
Closed
Can we have an option to lock files we're working on to avoid conflicted copies?
My business partner and I (often working from different locations) are constantly working on the same documents and trying to save our work at the same time. Result: lots of conflicted copies of file...
Are there any plans in the works for a complete automatic file locking mechanism?
We are using AutoCAD products and would love to move completely to Dropbox, but not without automatic file locking between offices.
I.E.
User1 in Office A Opens DrawingOne
User2 in Office B attempts to open DrawingOne and but the properties on the file DrawingOne is set to locked so he gets notification from the file system and User2 can now only open the file with Readonly permissions
- Rich
Super User II
Dropbox doesn't discuss what features may or may not be in the works. We wouldn't know of such a feature until it was released or officially announced.
Personal opinion, they'll never do this. People have been asking for such a feature for years to avoid conflicted copies, and it has never happened. It's not as simple as locking a file that's in use because each person has their own separate copy of the file. Even in Office with the Dropbox badge, it won't prevent two people from editing the same file; it only notifies that someone else has it open.Thanks for the insight, Personally I do think it is quite possible to ensure 99.9% certainty.
Every time a File open occurs right now, Dropbox always checks to ensure that the file is the most up to date version before allowing it to be opened.
This means that as soon as that requiest is made and recieved at the Dropbox server, thier server code checks the properties on the file and retrieves the file version and compares it to the Users local copy. If they don't match then the reply to the query initiates the download of the delta (the differences between version), Once the delta download is complete, the local dropbox client writes the new sector to the old sector and updates the file system, then the program is allowed to open the file on the local computer for editing.
The Dropbox client then sends a broadcast on the local file system to let any other local dropbox clients know that it has the new version of the file for local network updates.
All of that is happening right now.
Since the server is already checking and comparing the file version on the server copy of the file, and the client is already checking the local file properties to get the version information, it is simply not communicating the file lock status.
There will be no collisions at the server in 99.9% of cases.
The only issue is
The only real issue comes from One individual working offline.
I think the answer to that is... you are working offline, expect a conflicted copy and having to merge (If it is an Office doc then that can be delit with through the badge merge).
Two individuals opening the same file within 1 or two seconds of each other will be the 0.01% of cases. There will almost always be an individual who won the locked case.
For that 0.01% of cases, the answer is equally straight forward though, after writing to the File Lock parameter, wait 0.1 seconds and then check the file lock again to make sure you own it and a state issue hasn't allowd another thread to over-write your lock or vise versa.
That take care of the state issues.
As for multiple server farms and the replication time, every company gets the option to set the preferred data farm location. That way any data synced to another region always has lower priority.
On the client side if a file lock is lost, a big notification appears as a final safeguard.
That is My 2 cents.
- Mark
Brian B.39 wrote:
Every time a File open occurs right now, Dropbox always checks to ensure that the file is the most up to date version before allowing it to be opened.
No it doesnt.
It does no check, at all, to ensure this.
You can test this by having a file open on two machines and getting conflicted copies.
https://www.dropbox.com/help/syncing-uploads/conflicted-copy
There seem to be a few good reasons this can't be detected automatically, but wouldn't a good workable compromise be to allow people manually "lock" and "unlock" a file? I would find that immensely useful.
- Mark
But again, as has been said, thats not easily doable.
Every file is personal and different. It is a totally and utterly different set up to the way a network works.
Not entirely certain I understand inner working of Dropbox client, but this is the feature that is both necessary and possible to develop.
It could be turned off on per-folder basis by admin so to save network bandwidth if required.
Offline file access for modification should be prohibited IMHO and user should be given option to save under different filename if they need to modify so they are aware of changes, but again option should be given to enforce it or not.
Imagine two users changing 100 cells each in excel sheet simultaneously that gets doubled as result. Who will compare and merge data? Users, Company IT or Dropbox support? :)
