Does Boxifier need to be running to prevent Dropbox from removing ‘protected’ folders when a removable disk is ejected?
Or is it OK to start Boxifier only to configure Dropbox folders and then exit it?
*cough* *cough* *cough*
Hi there,
Is there any reason why you would like to close Boxifier? I’m trying to have a better understanding of what you’re trying to achieve.
P.S: Great reminder 
I somehow missed this thread.
Is there any reason I wouldn’t want to close Boxifier 
I generally don’t leave applications open consuming resources and cluttering up my tray bar if they are not in use. But I don’t know how the ‘protection’ feature works, so I don’t know if it’s safe to close Boxifier while Dropbox is still running.
Boxifier is very light on the system. We also don’t like applications consuming resources unnecessarily 
If you don’t want the tray icon cluttering up your tray bar please check this thread:
To answer your question, yes, Boxifier needs to stay running.
Boxifier isn’t running on my computer, but then again my boxified folders on removable disk is not normally synced (they’re not usually selected in “selective sync”). I got curious in your question, so I did some more testing.
As far as I’m aware, there’re three different kinds of protections that Boxifier provides, and in my test cases, all of them work just fine without Boxifier running.
- Built-in protection: local boxified folders would not be deleted when unchecked in “selective sync”.
- Built-in protection: if local boxified folders are on removable disk, remote folders would not be deleted when the disk is ejected.
- Optional protection (set in “change protection” option): files in local boxified folder would not be deleted or changed no matter what happens to the remote folder.
Actually, a protection mechanism relied a program constant running seems pretty fragile, and it’s a good thing that Boxifier protection doesn’t actually rely on that.
Concluding from my own testing - no, Boxifer does not need to stay running.
I don’t vouch for my testing, but I would not run Boxifier except when adding/removing boxified folders or changing protection mode. You can do some testing on your own.
As you’ve seen in your testing, Boxifier is designed to achieve its functionality even if the main executable is not running. The team behind has a long background in designing resilient systems with very light impact on system resources. We put a lot of thought in designing around edge cases and we continue to do that.
That said, not running the main executable gives you no gain in performance, because Boxifier is designed to be very light on your system. That’s why we asked why anyone would want to not have it running. Maybe there is a use case that we didn’t take into consideration when designing it? Is there a strong reason for not keeping it running? If so, we’re listening.
The important thing to remember here is that not having it running prevents you from being notified when something important happens. That’s why we recommend that you keep it running.
Moreover, Boxifier in its current form is just the beginning. We have a lot of stuff in the pipeline (stay tuned) and you might miss some of that functionality if you keep the main executable closed.
I have nothing against Boxifier running in particular, but my reasoning really works the other way around:
What function I need that can only be achieved by running a background process? If none, I close that program.
I want to have folders outside of Dropbox folder to be safely synced with Dropbox, and Boxifier gives me that function without itself running, so I don’t keep Boxifier running, and I consider it a plus for Boxifier. It’s a simple general principle and not directed towards Boxifier. If I were to relax that principle, then not only Boxifier, but a bunch of other programs should also be running, and together they could affect performance.
Performance aside, from time to time I would check task manager to see which processes are running to make sure nothing funky is happening, and I recognize every single one of them. So fewer running processes makes my checking easier. Again, it’s a general principle that helps me organize the working of my computer, nothing directed towards Boxifier in particular.
Thanks for the reminder, I would check updates and changelog when a new version is available, and decide whether to keep Boxifier running depending on the new functionality.
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