Hi there, I have a pretty big DropBox folder (80GB) I want to move over to iCloud so that I can use iCloud as my backup drive and so that I can manage the files on my Mac without having them on my computer natively. How do I move the photos and videos from DropBox to iCloud? I want to save all the photos I take with my phone to my iCloud folder but I don't want them to save on my actual phone itself. How do I set this up? Thank you in advance!
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iCloud help
- Thread starter kreasonos
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You can just copy the files from your Dropbox folder on your Mac to the iCloud Drive in the finder:
When I tried it Dropbox actually wanted to delete the files, so I had to use the copy pulldown in the finder, and then paste the files rather than a simple drag/drop.
If the files only exist in iCloud then it is not a backup drive. A backup is a copy of the master file, best located on another device. Assuming you would care if you lose them, you need to keep them in multiple locations (3 backups, 3 media types, 3 locations).
When I tried it Dropbox actually wanted to delete the files, so I had to use the copy pulldown in the finder, and then paste the files rather than a simple drag/drop.
If the files only exist in iCloud then it is not a backup drive. A backup is a copy of the master file, best located on another device. Assuming you would care if you lose them, you need to keep them in multiple locations (3 backups, 3 media types, 3 locations).
First, I'd keep a copy natively on your computer (could be a USB flash drive, external drive, something, anything) and then a secondary backup on an external platter drive as your secondary backup. Do not -- not -- rely solely on a cloud backup. You'll regret it when something goes wrong.
Assuming you have a proper local backup, there is a terminal command you can use, and it is much better than using finder for big data moves (I'd rather not go into the reasons why, but permission screwups is one of several reasons). The command is ditto. So in your terminal command line, it looks like ditto [source] [target].
Also useful: you actually can drag and drop your source folder and target folder into the Terminal command line after typing ditto. That is you type ditto, then a space, then drag your Dropbox folder from the Finder into the Terminal command line, then drag your iCloud folder into the Terminal command line, and you're done.
Anyone with unix/linux/command line experience knows of what I speak.
Finally, if it was me, I'd keep Dropbox. Works great across Mac and PC, including iPads, iPhones, etc. Better than iCloud in my opinion.
Assuming you have a proper local backup, there is a terminal command you can use, and it is much better than using finder for big data moves (I'd rather not go into the reasons why, but permission screwups is one of several reasons). The command is ditto. So in your terminal command line, it looks like ditto [source] [target].
Also useful: you actually can drag and drop your source folder and target folder into the Terminal command line after typing ditto. That is you type ditto, then a space, then drag your Dropbox folder from the Finder into the Terminal command line, then drag your iCloud folder into the Terminal command line, and you're done.
Anyone with unix/linux/command line experience knows of what I speak.
Finally, if it was me, I'd keep Dropbox. Works great across Mac and PC, including iPads, iPhones, etc. Better than iCloud in my opinion.
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Interesting, I use Linux but I've never heard of the ditto command. DropBox does work really well but it's a real pain to manage. When you take a lot of photos on your iphone and backup to DropBox regularly, you can end up with 1000's of screen shots and other photos unorganized in your DropBox folder and going through them can be painful. DropBox just dumps everything from your phone into your DropBox camera uploads folder. I guess iCloud would do the same thing but I was hoping to manage the photos on my Mac without having to store them natively on the SSD. DropBox downloads all the files into the folder on your computer, all 80gb's of them in my case, then you can use the file manager to manage them which you want to do, because managing them on DropBoxs' website is a disaster. Never the less, thank you for the reply, definitely useful to know.
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Thank you very much! So far, I've only been saving my photos into the DropBox cloud and natively on my computer. But, as you said, it's better to add another external storage device for safe keeping. They are all photos of my son and videos of my son so that's why they're so important to me. : )
Ok, I guess that is a benefit of having the DropBox app on your phone.
[doublepost=1542640197][/doublepost]
Interesting, I use Linux but I've never heard of the ditto command. DropBox does work really well but it's a real pain to manage. When you take a lot of photos on your iphone and backup to DropBox regularly, you can end up with 1000's of screen shots and other photos unorganized in your DropBox folder and going through them can be painful. DropBox just dumps everything from your phone into your DropBox camera uploads folder. I guess iCloud would do the same thing but I was hoping to manage the photos on my Mac without having to store them natively on the SSD. DropBox downloads all the files into the folder on your computer, all 80gb's of them in my case, then you can use the file manager to manage them which you want to do, because managing them on DropBoxs' website is a disaster. Never the less, thank you for the reply, definitely useful to know.
[doublepost=1542640285][/doublepost]
Thank you very much! So far, I've only been saving my photos into the DropBox cloud and natively on my computer. But, as you said, it's better to add another external storage device for safe keeping. They are all photos of my son and videos of my son so that's why they're so important to me. : )