Snapshot backup of Dropbox to USB Drive

[NEILFS]

Hi all,

I've been searching and searching but very little documentation or previous posts, which means I am either missing something very each and obvious or trying to do something which can't be done.

I've been using BC to sync a users Dropbox folder to a USB drive, only copying changes and making the "right" side the USB drive identical to the left source.

I note that BC can now connect directly to Dropbox, which is great as it saves the user running the backup from having to maintain a complete copy of all Dropbox data on their computer.

But I note that without using the Touch function, time and date information isn't copied.


So what I want to do is script a left to right sync. Left being the Dropbox connection and the right being the USB drive. Doing the initial copy and them later running the Touch could cause a file updated between the two operations to be missed.

Anyone found a way of doing this or give me any pointers?

Am I asking too much and do I still need to maintain a local copy of all the Dropbox data?

Thanks, Neil

[Aaron]

Hello,

When copying from Dropbox to a local/usb drive, you should see that a file's Last Modified date is preserved. Folders are updated (similar to a copy in Windows Explorer) and could be reset with Touch. Are you seeing files not preserving this data when copying to your USB drive? If you repeat the test copying to a test folder on your user's Desktop\, what behavior do you see?

To maintain a copy of all dropbox items, do you also need versioned copies (any time there is a difference, also back up the older version)? Or just a full mirrored copy of everything on dropbox? The later should be easy, while the former would require manual selection and Copy To Folder of items about to be replaced by a sync mirror (using a Folder Compare set to Show Differences, Expand All, Select All Files, Shift+Arrow keys to select only the different files on the destination side).

These steps could be scripted, but I would suggest troubleshooting with the graphical interface first so we can figure out exactly what settings and steps are needed, and then determining what script to use to accomplish those same steps.

**Please note there is no UNDO command in BC4, so please verify any preview information and test with test folders/files first while learning the commands or scripting.**

Quick Update: "Snapshot" is a specific command in BC4, under the Tools menu -> Save Snapshot. It refers to a virtual file that can store a folder structure and basic comparison information, but no file contents. In case you see "snapshots" referenced in the Help or forum, this is likely what it is referring to.