Cloud Sync my time machine folder to dropbox

I recently upgraded my dropbox account to the full 1 TB account hoping to use it as a remote backup to the time machine backup on my Synology. I created a folder in my dropbox called Mac Backup. I chose my Time Machine directory on the NAS as the local directory of the sync. I unchecked all dropbox folders accept the Mac Backup folder I just created. Under settings I have it to "upload local changes only" and encryption on. Once it started, it appeared to start syncing something. I assumed it was working so I left it to do its thing. After waiting overnight I went back to look at my dropbox, and see that whatever synced only used about 1mb of space. Since my time machine folder is 700gb, I assume its not working. Its tough to actually see what synced because it shows up at one encrypted file on dropbox. Am I doing something wrong here? Is this even possible to do what I want to do?

Hmmm...

Dropbox is a Sync Platform, not a backup platform... if you Mac is logged into the same Dropbox account as the NAS, well, that's trouble, as the Mac will download the image that the NAS is sending up and that's a vicious circle there...

TimeMachine is a near term backup platform, but isn't really a good solution for long term - and trying to upload/sync a timemachine image isn't a very good idea - it's just how time machine works there...

My recommendation - keep the TimeMachine backup hot on the Synology box, this is near term.

Dropbox is just file sync - small files are better than big ones here - it's just how dropbox works.

Long term backup - consider something like Backblaze or Carbonite (and there are other, but these two are fairly Mac friendly)

Also consider image backups like CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper - there, might find a way to keep a snapshot rolling across different days, even though they don't do versions...

ADrive - is what I've used for some time now, having tried 10 or 15 others.
Best price. Works well.

I agree with sfx2000 that Dropbox is not meant to be a back solution. I upload my entire data on a server or you can say private cloud and access it through internet using Syncrify. So like this I am able to back up my data and I also have access of it from anytime and anywhere.

If you really want to sync large Time Backup file via Cloud Sync, also make sure the filter setting is not restricting this file from being uploaded in Cloud Sync.

sfx2000 said:

Hmmm...

Dropbox is a Sync Platform, not a backup platform... if you Mac is logged into the same Dropbox account as the NAS, well, that's trouble, as the Mac will download the image that the NAS is sending up and that's a vicious circle there...

TimeMachine is a near term backup platform, but isn't really a good solution for long term - and trying to upload/sync a timemachine image isn't a very good idea - it's just how time machine works there...

buy phen375 http://ohdivinehealth.com/phen375-reviews/

My recommendation - keep the TimeMachine backup hot on the Synology box, this is near term.

Dropbox is just file sync - small files are better than big ones here - it's just how dropbox works.

Long term backup - consider something like Backblaze or Carbonite (and there are other, but these two are fairly Mac friendly)

Also consider image backups like CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper - there, might find a way to keep a snapshot rolling across different days, even though they don't do versions...

Click to expand...

i totally agree. dropbox are only for sync purposes and not a backup flatform. finding the right backup platform is really something that you have to sure of because some very important files might be gone if you insist to put it in a platform that you think is for backup. just like what happened to me.

From a technical standpoint, this is not something that I have tried. It may have to do with how the time machine files are actually configured. the latest backup is really a bunch of symlinks to older files that haven't changed with some new links to new files. Due to the way these are configured, you can't just copy the time machine to a new location.

In order to get this done, I think you would have to create a new base location for your dropbox sync on the NAS, then use some rsync tool to copy the contents of time machine to the dropbox folder. I would use a subfolder inside dropbox, that way you can disable syncing that folder on your local devices.

Like the others have said, dropbox may put things in the cloud, but it may not be backup and is not the best to restore the whole system. In fact, I use cloud sync more as a way to preserve dropbox data in case it gets deleted from the cloud on accident and not the other way around. Cloud sync is also a good way to upload large files to the cloud as it will always work in the background and you don't have to have your laptop open, etc, to transfer.

Here is what I do:

1. Backup time machine to my synology.
2. Use cloud sync to backup my cloud accounts (DropBox, OneDrive, AmazonCloud)
3. Use crashplan to synology
4. Use crashplan to the cloud

Most of the files that I really need are kept on dropbox, they are synced on dropbox, but backed up using time machine and crashplan. If my laptop dies or gets stolen, I would first try to recover via time machine, if that is corrupted or missing, I'll try crashplan local and then crashplan from the cloud.

Like sfx2000 said, if you want to store a snapshot of your HD offsite, it's probably best to use Carbon Copy Cloner (it has schedules) to export to a sparsebundle every so often, but it's better to use dropbox in concert with other methods because you don't want to depend on dropbox for your only offsite archive only to find that you can't restore from it for some reason.

bdresch said:

I recently upgraded my dropbox account to the full 1 TB account hoping to use it as a remote backup to the time machine backup on my Synology. I created a folder in my dropbox called Mac Backup. I chose my Time Machine directory on the NAS as the local directory of the sync. I unchecked all dropbox folders accept the Mac Backup folder I just created. Under settings I have it to "upload local changes only" and encryption on. Once it started, it appeared to start syncing something. I assumed it was working so I left it to do its thing. After waiting overnight I went back to look at my dropbox, and see that whatever synced only used about 1mb of space. Since my time machine folder is 700gb, I assume its not working. Its tough to actually see what synced because it shows up at one encrypted file on dropbox. Am I doing something wrong here? Is this even possible to do what I want to do?

Click to expand...

i wasn't able to upgrade my dropbox like yours because i still have plenty of storage left. but as far as i know, dropbox is just a sync platform and not for backup purposes. that made the error on your part.