Put a tiny symlink into Dropbox and it can back up an entire folder elsewhere on your computer

Thing is, if you want to back up files to Dropbox, copying them into that folder means they're taking up space twice on your hard drive, and just moving them to Dropbox takes them right out of your organizational flow. Upload a file from a Dropbox app or their web interface and it'll be downloaded onto your computer. Place a file in that folder and it's synced to the cloud. Whatever you do with the symbolic link (or symlink) is applied to the linked file.ĭropbox works by creating a folder on your computer that is synced with their servers. A symbolic link is similar, except that instead of creating a pointer it creates a redirect. You might be familiar with alias links on your Mac - it creates a shortcut that points to another file, open the shortcut and it opens that file. It all works through the magic of symbolic links. Turns out, there's another way, one in which you can keep your folders and files right where they are and have them backed up and synced with Dropbox. But there were two basic options for backing up my files to Dropbox: either copy them over regularly, or just move them onto Dropbox (oh, the humanity).

I can open the Dropbox app on my iPhone or iPad and get to all the files in there with ease and speed. Uploads and downloads sling through the web as fast as my connection can handle. Dropbox, on the other hand, is blazing fast.

How to enable smart sync dropbox on mac