We’re using a Western Digital MyBook Live Duo NAS Drive. When I right-click a share in Windows Explorer or the Network, it gives me the option to sync with Boxifier. However, when the sync is “done”, all that has been synced is the shortcut for the share.
If I try to sync folders within the share, I get the same option…and the same result.
I’m pretty technically savvy, but I can’t help but think I’m missing something here. Any help would be gratefully received.
Richard
Hi Richard,
What you see is the shortcut in the local Dropbox folder. However, the contents of your NAS drive are not copied to your local Dropbox folder (that wouldn’t make sense) so that’s why all you see there is the shortcut. The shortcut is placed there for convenience (so that you can easily navigate to the folder being synced) but we will probably remove them in the following update as it seems they are a source of confusion for some users.
The contents of the folder from your NAS drive are in your Dropbox account and you can see them by going to the Dropbox website and checking the Dropbox->Boxifier folder.
Hi, Bogdan…
Thanks for the reply.
Actually, copying the files from an NAS so that they appear on all Dropbox syncs makes total sense.
Let’s say that your main computer is a laptop; Boxifier should recognize that your master files are being stored on the NAS, a bulky, tethered piece of hardware you would most likely not want to take with you. By syncing to the local folder on the laptop, Boxifier would give you access to your Dropbox files remotely without having to deal with the speed and/or connectivity issues that can be inherent in some NAS scenarios.
By instantly “assuming” that all NAS shares are local, it in fact defeats the purpose of syncing an NAS with Dropbox unless you happen to have a file server (as we do) that can run Boxifier, thus not syncing the files locally to the file server. Without the file server, it would be inconvenient at best.
That is a different scenario. If you simply want a folder from your NAS to be available on your laptop when you can’t access the NAS then you can use the Offline Folders feature in Windows. Simply right click the folder, go to Properties and select “Make available offline”. Boxifier solves a different problem, syncing that folder to your Dropbox account. It is not intented to sync a folder from your NAS to your local drive. The Offline Folders feature can be used for that scenario.
If you have a 500GB folder on your NAS that you want to sync with Dropbox, but only a 120GB drive on your computer/laptop, it wouldn’t make sense to copy 500GB to your 120GB drive. Moreover, it wouldn’t be possible.
That’s what Boxifier makes possible: syncing your 500 GB folder from your NAS to your Dropbox account even if you only have a small drive on your laptop/computer and can’t afford to copy that folder to your computer.
Not to be contentious or ungrateful here, but your reply just doesn’t make sense.
What is the point of Boxifier, then, if not to sync folders with Dropbox and have those files be available for “local” use and sync with Dropbox when away from the office? I use Dropbox to access and sync files between computers. I’m guessing most Dropbox users do. So you’re saying that Boxifier is meant to ONLY work with a user’s online Dropbox account and not sync locally to computes along with the rest of their Dropbox files?
Again, honestly, that just doesn’t make sense.
You’re also making a huge presumption here, namely that every user is going to try syncing an entire NAS volume to Dropbox. I suppose that’s a possibility for Dropbox for Business, but even then I can’t imagine anyone just wholesale syncing a business NAS to an open Dropbox account without taking into consideration file size, security permissions, etc.
At any rate, while I don’t consider this solved, per se, I have found a workaround. Thanks for spending the time on it.
Thanks for the reply.
From our experience, people using Boxifier use the NAS/external drive to access their files and not the local Dropbox folder. That’s what they like about Boxifier: being able to work from their original location (external drive/ NAS) while also having that folder synced with Dropbox.
I understand that your use case is different. You also want a copy of the folder from your NAS to your local Dropbox folder on the computer where you have Boxifier installed. It is a very rare scenario and we haven’t received this request before. As I said before, there are workarounds that one can use to achieve this but as it is a very rare scenario, this is currently outside of the scope of Boxifier.
However, if more people request this then we will take it into consideration for a future version of Boxifier.
Just to be clear on this: I’m not saying it only works with a user’s online Dropbox account. That folder on your NAS will sync locally to your Dropbox folder on your other computers linked with your Dropbox account. I’m just saying it is not a common scenario to also want a copy of that folder on your computer when you can also access it from the NAS.
That makes more sense to me. Thanks for clarifying.
I have gone ahead and removed Boxifier and have installed it on a local file server where I will not want the Dropbox files to sync to.
However, it is not allowing me to register the software again; apparently uninstalling it does not un-license it, whcih is fine.
Can you reset my license so that I can use the software on the other computer instead?
Again, many thanks.
