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.
Status:
Closed
Can we have more folder options like custom folders or sub-folders to add to Computer Backup?
Right now, the automated backup option in Dropbox allows me to sync my Documents, Desktop and Downloads folders. By far the biggest - and most important - folder on my computer is the Music folder though. I can imagine for other people it's Pictures. Could we have a way to automatically backup those folders too?
To be really ambitious: would we be able to clone our computer on Dropbox? I used to have an Apple Time Machine that allowed you to do just that. If your computer broke down or was stolen, you could buy a new one, let it download the clone, including not just your documents but your applications and presets too, and you'd be good to go!
Please let Dropbox be the new Time Machine.
Great! I'm looking for a way to add any folder you want to the backup/sync. I would use it to sync my "fonts" folder between my Mac's so they are always up to date!
Currently included with the Computer Backup functionality are the following folders:
- Desktop
- Documents
- Downloads
Please also include the default locations for Computer Backup during setup and in [Manage backup]:
- Music
- Pictures
- Video
Some folks may wish to have all "Libraries" as a selectable option, beyond the defaults.
Thanks for the consideration!
You can use the dropbox app and include these folder in the app and store you files there and it will stay backed up in dropbox.
Ross_SDropbox Staff
Oh interesting! I can pass this feedback on to my collegue who deal with this.
Creating a full OS backup creates some issues, for example we sync any file that changes - with system files they often update everytime the computer runs, so we need to ensure we are not in a constantly syncing state - but one step before a full disk backup is an interesting area.
There's real value in ensuring that all your important personal files (music folders etc) are included in the syncing, and that's certainly the goal.
Many thanks for highlighting this.
After removing the ability to follow/respect symlinks while syncing, I'd hoped that the “Back Up Folders” feature would be a serviceable replacement… but, alas — it's restricted to only a few, select folders.
Could we get support for backing up arbitrary folders such as e.g., Music or Pictures?
Hi,
I have a question about the "Back up" on Dropbox.
The feature allows you to backup Desktop, Documents, and Downloads, however, I want to choose a specific folder under the documents folder.
For instance, My documents have a lot of folders, one of them contains software with hundreds of Gigabytes, on the other hand, I have a folder with my school work that I would like to backup.
How can I choose one folder under documents to be back-up?
Thank you,
Alex Attia
Please provide an option to sync arbitrary folders on our computer. Even if it's a limited number of base folders, heck, even if it's just three (or, perhaps, eight, sixteen?), that would be fine. Limiting this feature to three specific pathnames on a specific hard drive as is the case for the new backup feature severely limits its usability.
Agreed! The backup feature feels fairly severely limited if I can't tell it what to back up.
Backing up just Desktop, Documents and Downloads is not very helpful.
Desktop - generally nothing but shortcut icons. Maybe some temporary current work.
Documents - a massively over-subscribed space where just about every program I ever install will create its own folders and files. Not a useful place for me to put my own work files in.
Downloads - a totally ephemeral, throw-away space.
Backing up _only_ these is probably a bit pointless for many users.
Completely agree--if they would just allow Dropbox to sync arbirtrary folders, we could put this all to rest. Not sure what the attachment is to the Dropbox folder anyway--generally, it's where OTHER people are sharing/putting files that sync to my computer, and where I put things I want to share with others. If this were the only way to use this service, you wouldn't ever need the larger storage plans, like the one I've been paying you for years for, and can't even use since you removed the ability to sync files behind symlinks.
Dear Drobox-Team,
now you introduced the possibility of backups. I have a speacial wish for all the apple / mac useres it would be great to use drobox as a timemachine backup disk.
Best
Fest
Add an option to backup external hard drives (besides the Desktop, Documents and Doenload folders) using the new Dropbox Backup.
Hello Support,
Can the Pictures folder be added to Dropbox Backup within Windows 10?
That would be very usefull!
Yes, please! I bought a dropbox plan, assuming you could backup whatever folder you want (this sounded basic enough), but I was sorely disappointed. Not only is it currently limited to those 3 folders, you can't even sync them if they're not in their default locations or if the dropbox folder isn't on the same drive!
Please allow full customization of which folders can be backed up, this will make the backup feature actually useful for a lot of people.
