How to Synchronize Folders Located Outside of My Dropbox Folder to Dropbox Server
Previously we mentioned about Dropbox that can synchronize all data kept in My Dropbox folder to Dropbox server so that you can share and backup your data easily. However, the synchronization only works in My Dropbox folder and its subfolder to Dropbox server, others folders that are located outside of My Dropbox folder are not able to synchronize. You may wonder how to remove this roadblock to make it more useful? Just imagine if you have lot of folders which are located outside of My Dropbox folder and yet need to be backup to Dropbox server, it is impossible to copy these folders each and every times to My Dropbox folder manually whenever there is any files is updated or added. Now there is a solution which can help to remove the roadblock and help you synchronizing all files and folder that are located outside of My Dropbox folder.
In order to synchronize files and folders that are located outside My Dropbox folder, you need to create a linkage among My Dropbox folder and folders that you want to synchronize to Dropbox server which can be done using Junction. To use Junction feature, you must get Link Shell Extension install at your computer. To synchronize folder outside of My Dropbox folder, follow below steps:
1. Download Link Shell Extensions and install it.
2. Open windows explorer, navigate to the source folder which you want to synchronize to Dropbox server, then right click on the folder and choose Pick Link Source as appear from the context menu.
3. Navigate to My Dropbox folder (it is located at C:\Documents and Settings\{user name}\My Documents\My Dropbox), right click My Dropbox folder, then choose Drop As -> Junction.
4. Repeat step 2 and 3 if you have any other folders that would like to be synchronized to Dropbox server.
Once above steps are done, you will notice these source folders are already duplicated in My Dropbox folder and any update to source folders will automatically be updated to the duplicate folders. Once duplicated folders are updated, Dropbox will detect the changes that have been made to the duplicated folder and synchronize them immediately to Dropbox server.
If you are a fan of Dropbox user, this is probably a good solution for you to backup any folders that are located outside of My Dropbox folder automatically.
Related Articles
- Download Dropbox to Synchronize, Backup and Share Files Easily in Windows PC
- Live Mesh Online Synchronization and Remote Access Service with 5 GB Free Storage Space
- g2Peer to Let You Share Files Located on PC Using Gmail
- How to Allow FTP Users to Access to Out of Home Directory (chroot) Files and Folders
- Synchronize Folders In Windows 2000 and Windows XP Via Free USB Syncer
- Download Free CarbonFTP 1.3 for Synchronization Files
- Add “Empty Folder Contents” To Vista Right Click Context Menu To Delete Files Without Removing Folders
- Tips of How to Delete Folder Contents While Maintaining Folder Tree Structure in Windows XP PC
- Easy Way to Add, Remove or Delete Send To Menu Shortcut in Windows
- Fast Empty Folder Finder to Clean Up Your Desktop System
Entries (RSS)
January 7th, 2010 14:55
@Brozkeff,
Exactly, I’ve tried to do it the way this article explains, but DropBox WILL NOT MONITOR A JUNCTION FOLDER. DropBox will only monitor the original folder. Here is what you need to do:
Step 1: Move the folder you want shared/monitored to the DropBox folder. DropBox will then start its upload/update process on these files/folders.
Step 2: Right click this folder and select “Pick Link Source”
Step 3: Navigate to the original location of your folder and “right-click” an empty space or the parent folder and select “Drop As” -> “Junction”
December 30th, 2009 20:22
Contents of Junction’d folders won’t sync until you restart the system or Dropbox app.
(Dropbox won’t notice when run that something has changed in some of the folder.)
The solution offered is that you move the folders you want sync to the My dropbox folder and then you Pick link source and drop it as Junction to the original locations.
Not so convenient but to me it seems there is no better solution yet on MS Windows (Vista).
August 8th, 2009 10:27
This is great! I do a lot of design work in Photoshop (Windows Vista), and then most of my coding on my laptop (Running Linux).
Drop box has been great for things like a todolist.txt, but I never thought of using drop box as a way to sync my current code between two computers! And the fact that I can use ln type functionality in windows is fantastic! This is exactly what I needed, thanks for sharing this method.
May 13th, 2009 23:36
I thnk is much easier to use an direct access.