Dropbox and time-machine restore

[ahostmadsen]

I got a new computer, which I’m setting up from a time-machine backup. The issue is Dropbox. I don’t want Dropbox to make duplicates of all files. I do believe Dropbox has a mechanism for detecting identical files, so that it will not make duplicates. Any experience with that?

The alternative would be to not restore the Dropbox folder from time-machine, but rather download it from the cloud. But I prefer not to do that for various reasons.

 

[NoBoMac]

Hmmm... been a couple of years, but seem to recall that I restored via Time Machine and had to do nothing special. Dropbox did not duplicate anything.

 

[ahostmadsen]

Right, I just did it, and it worked painlessly. The files I worked on since the TM backup were updated correctly by Dropbox; no duplication.

 

[ahostmadsen]

Dropbox took a few minutes to check files. On the other hand, iCloud photos is still running on updating the library. My previous experience with TM restore is that it takes about a week (!) for iCloud to compare the local library and the cloud library. It does not seem to create duplicates. It seems it first has to convert all pictures and videos (those which are not from iOS devices), upload them in full, and then compare. It constantly runs processes like

com.apple.photos.ImageConversionService
com.apple.photos.VideoConversionService

As opposed to my previous experiences, when these totally maxed out the CPU (for a week!), now they run fairly quietly in background. But then it may take a month for them to finish!?

In the future, perhaps I should not restore the photo library from TM backup? I must be faster to re-download the whole library than this month long comparison!

 

[ahostmadsen]

On the other hand, judging from this it has already gone through 40% of photos in 3 days, so perhaps a week is right.

 

[NoBoMac]

In the future, perhaps I should not restore the photo library from TM backup?

Maybe. Hopefully someone else can chime in on this as I've avoided iCloud for photos. I backup my master library on a regular schedule to multiple drives and upload to a cloud account I have, so have not seen the need for iCloud for photos.

 

[ahostmadsen]

Maybe. Hopefully someone else can chime in on this as I've avoided iCloud for photos. I backup my master library on a regular schedule to multiple drives and upload to a cloud account I have, so have not seen the need for iCloud for photos.

To me the great thing about iCloud photos is the way it manages space on iOS devices. It dynamically manages how much of photos is downloaded based on available space on the device. I believe only iCloud photos can do that because of deep access to the operating system.