Folder Action to Copy Files to DropBox

Questions & Suggestions
1

Hi,

I'm not sure if this macro exist, if so I apologize.

This is what I need:

  • I create a lot of music scores, and almost all of them need edits AFTER the initial release.

  • After editing the score in Dorico or Sibelius, I print a PDF to a folder with the same name as the title of the score.

  • Often the file exist in the folder already, so I allow my music program to overwrite any existing file.

  • Now I need to copy this file to a specific folder on DropBox, also with rights to overwrite any existing file.

  • So an automated action/macro that can do this, is that possible?

Regards Stig

2

How about something like this?

Copy to Dropbox (with Overwrite).kmmacros (23 KB)

Macro screenshot

Keyboard Maestro Export
Keyboard Maestro Export1378×2440 371 KB

Change the Folder Trigger and Destination Folder paths to your own.

3

Hi
I tried your macro, but all that happened was that the destination folder was erased!

4

Interesting. I'm not sure why that might be. Just to be sure, these are the only things you should change in the macro:

Screenshot

Pasted_Image_13_01_2023__14_06
Pasted_Image_13_01_2023__14_061378×2440 348 KB

If that's what you've done, I'm unsure as to why it's not working for you. I've tested a few times here and it works nicely.

5

I'm sure it can be done in KM. I use Hazel for situations like this. I got the idea from MacSparky.

6

Perhaps a silly question -- but why are you storing files in both a "local" directory and in Dropbox? Why not just print-to-PDF to the appropriate Dropbox folder, overwriting when necessary?

1 Like
7

Yes, that's a relevant question! I think I need the music to be stored on my local harddrive for security reasons. But storing them directly would of course solve the problems!

8

Define "security".

If you mean "preventing data loss by hardware failure/theft/loss" then Dropbox is probably much more secure than your own computer -- and you will, of course, have your own backups should disaster happen. (You do have backups, don't you?)

If you mean "Dropbox can be hacked and my data stolen!" -- don't put your data on Dropbox, and you don't need a macro to do so :wink:

(There is a third category, which is "Dropbox makes it far too easy for me to accidentally share my private data with the world". That comes down to user training and, as the user, is entirely in your hands...)

While there are many ways to use Dropbox, the most common (at least until either your computer's drive or your Dropbox account runs out of space) is to have a "Dropbox" folder on your computer whose contents are automatically synced with Dropbox. So you write the file to that folder and, again, you don't need the "copy to Dropbox" bit -- it's done for you.

9

FWIW I also make copies of all my final Logic Pro session bounces to Dropbox (with Hazel). I do this because I want the files to exist next to the session files for easy reference and also available in Dropbox when I'm not with my Mac. I suppose I could have the original files in Dropbox and aliases in the session folders, but my sessions are on a dedicated hard drive and I'd worry about orphaned aliases down the line.

2 Likes
10

Yep, "because I keep stuff on an external drive" is a good reason to do this (though I'd class that as a subset of "run out of space" -- that may not be the reason, but the result is the same).

11

Hi again!

I wonder if someone else read my post and could point me in a direction to solve this:

I have a folder "Choir" with a lot of pdf files, and I need to be able to sync this folder with my "ChoirDB" folder to secure that all my scores are updated. The files that I want to be a part of the update are all set to have the attribute: Color green. Is there a way to do that?
regards Stig Christensen MUSICMIND