Dropbox

Dropbox Use-Cases & Speed Test
There are three ways you can use Dropbox – 
 
 Via a Browser 
 Via a local synchronized directory using Dropbox app on a "normal" operating system (Mac OS / Windows) 
 Via a plugin within a NAS operating system (like "Cloud Sync" on a Synology NAS). 
 
 Dropbox excels at local synchronization.  
 Dropbox App Speed Test 
 55GB on 1GB line. 
 Should take <20 mins if line isn’t congested. 
 13 minutes so the upload speed was ~72 MB/s. ✅ 
 It’s basically a wash for upload/download of files Google Drive vs Dropbox, especially given congestion variability.  
 Dropbox on NAS 
 (Like a Synology) Works great, just don’t put active project files on there. 
 Dropbox on an External Drive 
 OWC did an amazing write up of how to use an external hard drive as a Dropbox. It is here . I’ve done this on/off for years. Big warning: if the drive gets disconnected while dropbox is running, Dropbox will think you deleted your entire Dropbox. Thankfully, DB keeps a log of events and you can undo that event and then resync your drive. Once you realize this, you will be relieved, but it will take a lot of time. Since this has happened to me I recommend: setting it up to online only for everything, but sync your whole dropbox, then sync folders and files as you need them, and do the things that are less of a priority over the weekend. 

Dropbox Troubleshooting & Tips
Re-Syncing a Drive 
 For moving an external hard drive Dropbox to a new computer without (re)downloading. 
 Dropbox has a guide for this here . But I've had to do this so many times that I've re-written it to be a bit more digestible.  
 Basically, on the new computer or in the new location that you want DropBox (DB) to put the newDB folder:  
 
 Start a DropBox Sync from scratch to the new location, so that DB actually starts downloading all the online files to the new location. 
 Pause the Sync, to stop the downloads.  
 Copy your existing DB files into the new location (overwrite anything that was just downloaded).  
 Resume Syncing - DB will first check the DB folder, be astounded to find all the files magically there, and proceed to only sync the latest updates, if any. 
 
 To clarify how to start a DB sync from scratch in a new location (for example, in the event of already having all the files on a hard drive but in a different location, like myself & the OP), I had to actually: 
 
 Unlink my DropBox (Prefs>Account>Unlink). 
 Re-Link it and point to the new desired location. 
 Pause the Sync 
 Move all the DB files from the old location onto the new location, overwriting anything already there. 
 Resume Syncing 
 In my case this worked perfectly, and DB was "up to date" after a short while. 
 
 Dropbox Not Showing Sync Icons / Mac 
 
 Make sure Dropbox is allowed in Security + Privacy → Finder and → Accessibility 
 Quit Creative Cloud, Google Drive, Sync, OneDrive 
 Quit DropBox and relaunch it 
 
 Dropbox “MooV” Error 
 This is an error when After Effects or Premiere tries to load a file from a cloud service and the file exists in the directory, but it isn’t downloaded (eg “0 Bytes”).  
 
 Make sure the file is downloaded and “offline” 
 Make sure sync icons are good 
 Make sure there isn’t some bugged cache thing happening, duplicate the file to the desktop and import from there. If it works, your file is bugged - dupe it and rename it in the directory you want it to be in. So annoying.