Genesis of requiring a "Dropbox folder," versus designated folders

Re:Genesis of requiring a "Dropbox folder," versus designate... by kylec on Thursday April 28, 2011 @04:14PM (#2494904)

By and large I agree, but as I'm using Dropbox for more and more things, I really would like 2 small adjustments to existing features:

1. Allow me to sync any folder - i.e. don't require the creation of a "Dropbox" folder.

2. Modify Selective Sync so that I can omit folders on the client from syncing.

If those two features existed, I could select my home folder to sync and exclude Music, Photos, etc if they were too large for my account. I don't need a complicated remapping interface for syncing when this is done, and it maintains the mental model of a single folder that's synced.

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Re:Genesis of requiring a "Dropbox folder," versus designate... by SoftwareMaven on Thursday April 28, 2011 @04:23PM (#2494939)

I started writing this comment thinking how great this solution would be, but the more I thought about it, the more confusing it seems to get. What happens if I sync my home folder and I don't uncheck ~/Library? But I really did want my Firefox profile synced.

I think to do multi-folder sync, you really are going to have to provide a mapping interface: Folder A in the dropbox goes to Folder X on this computer and Folder Y on that computer. Complicated and definitely a power-user feature.

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Re:Genesis of requiring a "Dropbox folder," versus designate... by d0m on Thursday April 28, 2011 @04:59PM (#2495059)

A possible solution would be to put "shortcut" where your folders in the Dropbox folder. Dropbox could then abstract that "shortcut". So, say on my desktop I create a shortcut to my mp3/ folder, I would see a "Mp3" shortcut on my iphone also. So, that fix the "What if multiple folders have the same name" problem since it's not about folders anymore but about shortcuts that need to have different names.

So, it's a simple solution that would make power user happy but still leave the easy install, easy comprehensibility, etc.

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Re:Genesis of requiring a "Dropbox folder," versus designate... by DrJokepu on Thursday April 28, 2011 @06:03PM (#2495278)

Also, I use Windows and Ubuntu at work and Mac and Fedora at home. All of them have different "home" folder structures and terminology. It would be a major pain in the back to map them with each other properly.

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