Using Sync and Dropbox on the same folders

[jphelp32]

Curious if anyone's tried using Sync on a folder inside your dropbox folder, or perhaps more specifically, on a folder which has a symlink pointing to it from inside your dropbox folder.

I have an always on desktop mac which receives my photos from my camera, and I currently have the photos uploaded to dropbox in order to sync to my laptop. I'm wondering if I were to additionally set up Bittorrent Sync to get direct P2P sync between the desktop and laptop prior to the desktop completing its initial upload to dropbox, would this result in any subsequent syncing conflicts for either DB or Sync.

Just curious if anyone has tried something similar and if there were any issues.

[Disappointed Cat]

I'm also using Dropbox until BTSync doesn't have an android app.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you can only run Dropbox in one location or you'll end up with massive conflicts.

I didn't test it with multiple locations but it only makes sense.

You can also create conflicts if you edit something via Dropbox and a BTSync peer at the same time.

It's also a good way to store encrypted automated backups of synced folders and make use of Dropbox's versioning too.

[d9nut]

I'm doing this - I use to have Dropbox running on all my computers (3 MacBook Pro, 1 iMac, 1 Linux Server, 1 Windows Server) but have now retired this configuration.

Dropbox only runs on the Linux server now alongside BTSync which now syncs my Dropbox folder to my other computers and seems to be working well so far (about 6GB data).

[spikefire]

Have any of you guys run into Dropbox constantly syncing the .syncid file over and over again? Any Ideas on how to fix this issue or prevent it? Forum member, Lightning, suggested running the linux version, but I need Windows on this system for work.

[JimmyTheSaint]

I'm now also thinking of syncing my Dropbox folder in one swell foop. For safety, I could unlink Dropbox from all but one computer and let them all use BTSync, but it would be nice if that weren't necessary. I understand nothing's guaranteed and if I mess up my data, it's my fault, so please advise freely.

My questions:

The important thing to keep in mind is that you can only run Dropbox in one location or you'll end up with massive conflicts. I didn't test it with multiple locations but it only makes sense.

Can someone explain why having Dropbox and BTSync sync the same folder on multiple computers would necessarily cause conflicts? I only ever make changes on one computer, in one mode at a time; I don't go back and forth between computers, Drobox's web site, an Android device, etc. In that case, assuming there are no extended network failures, I don't see how there'd be an especially higher probability of generating conflicts.

Have any of you guys run into Dropbox constantly syncing the .syncid file over and over again? Any Ideas on how to fix this issue or prevent it? Forum member, Lightning, suggested running the linux version, but I need Windows on this system for work.

Is this still a problem?

[Disappointed Cat]

If you change something it will be uploaded to dropbox and propagated to the sync peers. At best dropbox or btsync will overwrite the other's file(s) but it's more likely that dropbox will create "filename (conflicted copy....)" files if btsync is faster. Try it out and we'll know for sure.

The issue with the SyncID file has been solved for a while now.

[JimmyTheSaint]

I see. It's something like: Dropbox and BTSync will propagate the same changes, and then another client's Dropbox (or BTSync, depending on order) will update and cause its own BTSync (or Dropbox, depending on order) to propogate things the other clients will see as new changes, but which aren't really. Now I'm imagining the possibility of thrashing, and so perhaps the massive conflicts you suggested. Now I'm a little scared to try it. Conflicts aren't a disaster, but they can be extremely annoying to clean up if you don't notice them right away.