Time machine forces smart sync to download files locally!

[touchepas]

There is a huge problem when using smart sync as a Mac user who has time machine setup to automatically back up the entire hard drive (including the dropbox folder). If this is the case the time machine backup will trigger each an every one file that is set to 'online only' to be downloaded locally. If the amount of data on dropbox exceeds the hard drive space it slows down the entire computer!

[Anne-Marie a.]

Jane,  I appreciate the answer, but no that's not what I was asking.

I want to know how to tell Time Machine to *ignore* the Selective Sync files.  I  think you or someone else suggested that.

I came here just now, a couple months later, because the same bizarre behavior just happened again. I'm guessing  it has to do with Time  Machine, which is running, but  I'm not certain.

Here's what happened:  I imported an .mp4 video on my Mac into another program and then started getting multiple alerts that Dropbox was downloading all sorts of selectively synced .mp4 files, none of which was the .mp4 I imported. After the 3rd or 4th alert I thought to take a screenshot:

Looking at the Dropbox menu from the title bar, there was nothing about it downloading these files, not in Notifications nor Recent Files. But the alert kept popping up with names of different .mp4's. I tried turning on Pause Syncing, but that didn't stop the alerts.  

Why did this happen? Was it Time Machine? Did I happen to try to import a selectively  synced .mp4 and that "woke Dropbox  up" to start downloading other mp4s? I'm 90% sure that the .mp4 I imported was in my  Downloads folder, outside of Dropbox.  

I  thought  to look at my Notifications, and it appears Dropbox was unsuccessful:

As I said, "IDS_quotes.mp4" was *not* the video I was importing. I don't remember the names of the other ones, but they weren't the same video either.

I'm going to post this to tech  support too, but in case it has something  to do with Time  Machine (which is running on my Mac,  and is set to backup my local  Dropbox folder too), I thought I'd post it here. 

Plus, reply to your post, since it's apparent I wasn't clear. 

AM

[Jane]

Hey there (@Anne-Marie a.), thanks or reaching back out to me on this discussion on the issue & apologies for the slight delay in replying on my end.

Are you still experiencing the same behavior? I’ve made sure to run a search on our system on my end, I’ve located your newest ticket & I can see that my colleague has been awaiting your reply, in order to investigate what happened. You may have a look at your inbox for their latest message at your earliest convenience & please keep them updated with the requested info on this email chain, as it’s best for us to keep all relevant info in one correspondence. 

I hope that this gets resolved soon for you & I’m always here in case you’d need further assistance in any way, just keep me updated in your next reply & I’ll do my best to check back with you. I’m wishing you a wonderful rest of your day ahead! 

[Anne-Marie a.]

Hi Jane, I have not seen it happen again since that day.  It must  have  been  sunspots  or  some other  celestial event  causing a glitch. 😉 Thanks, I'll  find and close  out the tech support  request.

[Jane]

Ah, that’s great to hear Anne-Marie a. & thanks a lot for circling back to me to let me know of the outcome. I’m always around, so feel free to ping me back again in case you have more questions in the future & take care until we talk again!

[Bsimms]

I ran into this problem as well and I think I have a pretty good workaround.  I use Forklift to backup folders via synching.  If you use Forklift and synch your DB folder to an external, the first time it will local synch anything that is online only, but once it has been synched once you can then go back to the DB folder and turn everything back to online-only.  New files and changes will get copied over when you run Forklift again, but not the online only stuff remains untouched.  Seems to be working perfectly for me.

[davemill]

I recently went through the same SmartSync/TimeMachine conflict that so many Mac users have complained about on the forums. As a loyal DropBox user (who plans to keep using and recommending DropBox!) I wanted to make one thing clear to the Dropbox team: 

You disappointed us. 

Dropbox has been a delight as long as it's been available. Everyone I show it to loves it and many start using it. It has never caused a technical glitch, and seems as well integrated into the Apple Finder as any Apple product. We love it.

Then you announced SmartSync along with a price increase. It sounded like a great deal, the answer to our dreams. And it exploded in all of our faces. 

Guys, you knew this would happen. My guess is that there are a lot of Apple Fanboys at Dropbox, and that many of you use Time Machine. You have always delighted us in the past. Why did you dangle this new feature in our faces and not warn us of the conflict with Time Machine? 

Yes, I love DropBox. Yes, I will continue to use it without Smartsync. Yes, I will continue to recommend it to friends. And Yes, we expect to see warnings in BIG RED LETTERS on all of your SmartSync support pages that it conflicts with Time Machine. Heck, you can probably figure out a way to identify whether Time Machine is enabled on a particular Mac and warn users in real-time. Let's get back to DropBox Delight!

[Jane]

Hey @davemill, I’ve now moved your post under this discussion, so as to add your voice to the feedback we’re gathering on the Community regarding this behavior. We are trying to make Dropbox the best it can be, so I’ll make sure your constructive feedback reaches the right pair of eyes as we take your feedback seriously. 

Thanks for choosing Dropbox & I'm always here in case you'd like to share your thoughts or observations Dave! 

[Michael S.49]

I switched to Carbon Copy Cloner when I ran into this problom upon upgrading to Dropbox Pro.  I do like to have a local backup of my dropbox folder and am content to have it only contain the files that are currently local in my DB folder.  Carbon Copy Cloner seem to not have a problem with this.

[megsmakesart]

I just had my Dropbox folder excluded from my Time Machine backup under Options. As Dropbox backs up to Dropbox, there's really no need to back the files onto an external harddrive.