Dropbox Deletion Behavior

UpdraftPlus Home › Forums › Paid support forum – UpdraftPlus backup plugin › Dropbox Deletion Behavior

Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • November 19, 2014 at 2:45 am #57564
    Bob
    Participant

    I’m noticing the following “strange” behavior with UpdraftPlus backup files synced to my local Dropbox under OS X Yosemite. It’s not a problem per se; in fact, I’m wondering if it’s somehow a new Dropbox or OS X “feature”? But it happens only with UpdraftPlus backup files–not with any others synced from Dropbox. Also, it DOESN’T happen on another Mac that’s still on OS X 10.9.5.

    The behavior happens when an UpdraftPlus backup file gets deleted (via the Dropbox API by UpdraftPlus or directly by me on the Dropbox website). Normally, when a deletion gets synced to my Mac, the file just disappears. But with UpdraftPlus backup files, instead they remain temporarily with a Dropbox “syncing” icon. If I copy one somewhere else, the copy is functional, but it has “deleted [followed by an identifier string]” added to its filename.

    As soon as I restart my Mac, or even just restart Finder, the deleted UpdraftPlus files are gone.

    I’ve used DiskUtility to make sure there isn’t any kind of disk corruption associated with this–there isn’t.

    Any idea what’s going on and what it is about UpdraftPlus backup files that triggers it?

    Thanks.

    November 19, 2014 at 9:52 am #57681
    udadmin
    Keymaster

    Hi Robert,

    UpdraftPlus isn’t involved in this part of things. When a file is put in someone’s Dropbox, there’s communication between the webserver and dropbox.com… what happens afterwards in syncing between dropbox.com and Dropbox clients on other devices doesn’t involve the original application that uploaded the file. It’s just a stream of bytes, and no code gets run from the original app. So, if something’s up with syncing files between the central Dropbox and a device, I’m sorry to say I can’t give any insights on what it might be. Sounds a bit like the Dropbox app gets stuck somehow – is there a way to close it down and restart it without restarting the whole app? Could be due to the size of the files, I guess – but this is just a guess.

    Best wishes,
    David

    November 19, 2014 at 11:45 am #57721
    Bob
    Participant

    Thanks. I didn’t think UpdraftPlus itself was involved. Not sure why I’m only seeing it with UpdraftPlus-created files–maybe the length of the filenames. (I don’t think it’s the file size, since it happens with files both small and large.)

    A bit more research leads me to the conclusion that Finder simply isn’t fully keeping up with all Dropbox updates. As well as the behavior I described, in some cases a newly added file doesn’t appear. I can always see the real state of the directory using Terminal, or by running an AppleScript which forces a refresh of the Finder window. (I can also see it by restarting Finder, but that’s a bit extreme.)

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • The topic ‘Dropbox Deletion Behavior’ is closed to new replies.