Guidance on using Dropbox as "main" DB?

Engine DJ Software Engine DJ (Mac & PC)
1

Does anyone have any guidance / best practices on using Dropbox as your main DB?

Use case: I would like to have two synchronized copy of all the files and databases. An iMac desktop in my studio (which as an external RAID5 hard drive attached), and my Macbook Pro for traveling to gigs with.

Currently I have my “primary” music DB/files are stored in

  • /Volumes/Raid5/Engine Library
  • /Volumes/Raid5/Music/*

Dropbox’s storage location is on the same drive.

  • /Volumes/Raid5/Dropbox

When I sync to Dropbox, the DB is created and files are copied to:

  • /Volumes/Raid5/Dropbox/Engine Library
  • /Volumes/Raid5/Dropbox/Engine Library/Music

That means it’s duplicated in two places.

Could I just keep the Dropbox one so that the music/DB are always sync’d across machines? When creating new playlists on the desktop, will it later appear on my laptop and vice versa? When I add new tracks how would I add it directly to the DB located on dropbox?

2

I would also like to understand this better. I have a 2TB Dropbox account but Engine only sees a 30GB ‘local storage’. Any idea how to enable Engine to see my online Dropbox storage so I can back up my entire collection?

3

After some experimentation (and some nail biting) I figured out a way to make this work.

Goals:

  • Be able to keep a library synchronized across two machines (desktop and laptop).
  • Maintain my “primary” DB / music stored on Dropbox

PROCESS Note: this only applies to Mac. I don’t know the process for Windows.

Warning: Back everything up. And I mean EVERY-F**KING-THING. I’ve screwed up a few times and nearly lost everything in process. So be super careful.

  • Move Engine Library and music files to Dropbox
  • Set Dropbox folder location to external hard drives for each computer
  • Disable Engine DJ’s Dropbox feature
  • On iMac desktop: /Volumes/Raid 5/Dropbox/Engine Library => /Users/chris/Music/Engine Library
  • On my Macbook Pro: /Volumes/SSD/Dropbox/Engine Library => /Users/chris/Music/Engine Library
  • NEVER open Engine DJ on both my laptop and desktop at the same time. Only use one at a time.
  • ALWAYS make sure that Dropbox has finished sync’ing before opening Engine DJ.
1 Like