I've got a puzzling dilemma that I've been trying to solve for weeks. I want to fill-in about 500 GBs from an external hard bulldoze to my Dropbox Pro account.

  • My computer's hard drive is nowhere well-nigh as big equally my EHD, so I tin't just motion the file to the Dropbox folder.

  • I've tried using MacDropAny past Zibity to create a symbolic link, but when my EHD is no longer connected, Dropbox seems to assume these files have been deleted, and propagates the deletion to the cloud.

  • I've also tried using GoodSync to do a one-mode sync to the cloud, but upload speeds seem to exist so slow that this is turning out to be impractical. (Dropbox's own streaming upload seems to be orders of magnitude faster.)

  • Finally, I've considered moving my Dropbox binder to the EHD, but this seems very inconvenient for any times when I don't happen to have my EHD plugged in.

I've been trying to find other options, and I but oasis't establish anything that would seem to adapt my needs. Tin can anyone suggest a solution that will permit me to upload this binder in a convenient and relatively speedy manor? Thank you!

asked Apr 26, 2015 at viii:15

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3

  • Um, so subsequently you've uploaded everything, the resulting dropbox is also big for a local hard bulldoze, right? That means you can but access your files via web (because you're external hard drive isn't available all the fourth dimension and your local storage is too small). Is that what y'all want? No local dropbox folder?

    Apr 26, 2015 at nine:01

  • No, I just selective sync whatever my current project folder happens to be.

    Apr 26, 2015 at 9:ten

  • Um... What kind of symbolic link did the app create? I tried ln -s on Bone 10 but Dropbox doesn't seem to sync. Or is that because your external hard drive has the same file format as your OS 10 drive? (I have a NTFS+ external hard bulldoze)

    May 13, 2015 at 11:eighteen

3 Answers 3

Y'all tin endeavour to practise this:

  • reattach the drive and put the symbolic link once again
  • allow information technology sync until all of the content is in dropbox
  • remove the drive
  • let Dropbox erase the binder content
  • remove the symbolic link
  • on the web, click on the push button to testify deleted content
  • mark the binder for retrieval
  • in your Dropbox customer, in selective sync marker the folder so that it does not sync with your Mac

That should do what yous want. And recollect, you can also utilise the selective sync for some sub folders, so that y'all tin can nonetheless take some of the content in your Mac and without the drive.

answered Apr 26, 2015 at 10:51

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iv

  • Did information technology work? It worked for my former supervisor 😉

    Apr 27, 2015 at 21:09

  • Thank you for the suggestion! I currently uploading with the symbolic link as you suggested, but with my upload speeds, this volition have days. lol. I'll let you know how information technology turns out.

    April 27, 2015 at 21:24

  • Wouldn't information technology exist easier to simply mark specific folders to not be synchronized later the upload to the Dropbox is complete and and then removing the symbolic link. This way Dropbox would never fifty-fifty consider those file to be scheduled for deletion.

    Apr 29, 2015 at 17:06

  • @SilverWarior actually, you are quite right 😃

    Apr 29, 2015 at 20:26

Remember, Dropbox is sync service not a backup service. If you want, you can manually upload the contents on the external difficult drive (EHD) to a binder (archive) that y'all have unchecked in selective sync. Anything y'all send to that folder will and so non sync with the local computer. This is essentially what I practise for my Dropbox at piece of work. My personal PC has a full sync, while my piece of work Dropbox but has piece of work related folders available.

answered Apr 30, 2015 at 16:12

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Dropbox works with symbolic links, I have verified it with various files which works flawlessly. I am currently uploading 500GB usb drive via symbolic links to my local dropbox binder via the Client app on my mac. I noticed that my USB drive didn't permit me to create new folders or symbolic link until I took ownership of information technology (it´south formatted with Mac OS Journled) and it´s enclosed items.

As Im currently syncing roughly 450GB of photos, I´ll let you know whether there is whatsoever issues during my progress.

answered Aug 26, 2017 at eleven:49

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