or Create a profile

Home → General Questions →

Dropbox folder location?

This discussion is public.

richard's Avatar

richard

14 Nov, 2018 04:01 PM

I'm evaluating MD, in part because the syncing between machines is an attractive option.I have the latest version (2017.10 (1706)).
Trying to set up sync, it looks as if a Dropbox folder is much the best option, but I am not offered that as an option, just "Dropbox Connection" or "Shared Folder". I presume that is because in the console I can see a message:

dropbox folder should be at C:\Users\Richard Philpott\Dropbox and exists=false

I find it hard to believe that that the Dropbox folder location is really hard coded. Is there no way to use this sync method if your Dropbox folder is on another drive? And if so, why is this requirement not specified in the KB article that explains how to set up sync?

Thanks,

Richard.

  1. 1 derekkent23's Avatar derekkent23 on 14 Nov, 2018 04:21 PM

    I am not support staff, just a user

    It is my understanding to use Dropbox Folder, which is the best method, Dropbox Client must be installed on the C drive as this is the default location. Installing it on another drive mean Moneydance cant find it and if it could there could be data integrity issue (data corruption) as data would have to be copied from one hard drive to another. Due to the way Moneydance is continuously saving bits of data this could be problematical.
    As for the KB article I assume they just expected people to use the Dropbox client default location.
    So to use Dropbox Folder syncing you need to set the system up as intended.

    Hope this helps.

  2. 2 richard's Avatar richard on 14 Nov, 2018 04:29 PM

    Thanks for the quick reply, Derek.

    It's not about where the Dropbox client is installed, it's the data folder location that's the issue. And I'm not talking about having the Dropbox folder on a network drive, just on a different local drive/partition - I don't see how this can cause any data data integrity issues.

    Anyway, thanks again, and I await an official answer with interest ...

  3. 3 dwg's Avatar dwg on 14 Nov, 2018 07:54 PM

    I'm a fellow user.

    The display of the Dropbox Folder option is simply based on installation of the client with its folder in the default location, it is not interrogating the system about dropbox.

    When you have installed dropbox with a custom folder location instead of selecting Dropbox Folder, select Shared Folder and in the resultant display navigate to where you have created the Dropbox Folder.

  4. 4 richard's Avatar richard on 14 Nov, 2018 08:27 PM

    Thanks dwg, that's helpful.

    I wasn't expecting MD to interrogate the system, but assumed that it it couldn't find the folder at the default location it would ask me to specify it.

    It stupidly hadn't occurred to me that as Dropbox is handling all of the PC<->cloud syncing, it doesn't make any difference to MD whether the folder is shared via Dropbox or as a network share. The only question remaining is why bother to have Dropbox folder as a separate option at all?

    Anyway, problem solved, thanks again.

    Richard.

  5. 5 dwg's Avatar dwg on 14 Nov, 2018 08:43 PM

    Think of the Dropbox folder option as a shortcut.

    Options have to be geared towards the most basic of users, so making an assumption that the user has installed dropbox and placed the folder elsewhere would probably see a flood of questions in the forum of user that chose the option but didn't have dropbox installed, but chose it say because they liked the sound of being able to use moneydance offline.

  6. richard closed this discussion on 15 Nov, 2018 12:20 PM.

Comments are currently closed for this discussion. You can start a new one.