Symbolic links to cloud syncing folders

Technology and Internet
#1

I am a graphic designer with a number of clients and I maintain cloud syncing folders for most of them.

The problem is some want to use Dropbox, some want to use Google Drive and some want to use OneDrive (yeah… I know!).

I have maintained folders for each of them in the various cloud syncing folders but it is difficult sometimes remembering which one uses which.

I would like to set up a single folder (called something like “Cloud syncing” with sub-folders for each client, along with the other stuff I keep in the cloud) that I can sync to all three services via the use of symbolic links.

I know it’s possible - I’m just not sure how and there’s too much at stake to stuff it up.

I would really appreciate it if someone could walk me through the process - remembering I’m a lowly graphic designer… not a software engineer.

Love to hear your ideas on the best way to do this.

Thanks (-:

#2

Could you use IFTTT instead? Pretty sure you can create a recipe to sync files between services.

#3

A very basic method would be to use favourites in Finder. If you show the sidebar in Finder you can drag a folder to it (whether from within dropbox or google drive it doesn’t matter) and then they’ll all be shown there. It would depend on how many active clients you had I guess - any more than 10 or so and it might become cumbersome.

Or you could create an alias for each folder (like a shortcut) and have a folder full of aliases. Create a (real) folder in your documents and call it Clients. Open a second tab/window of Finder, and navigate to the first client folder within dropbox or wherever, right click and select Make Alias. This creates a shortcut to that folder. Drag that into your first tab/window so it is saved in the Clients folder.

Hope that makes sense!

#4

There are a number of cloud synchronized services. I suggest you look into them. I use cloudhq

#5

Tom

Thanks for the reply but I don’t think you’ve understood my question.

I want to synchronise three cloud syncing accounts - Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive - so whenever I add an item to one of them it gets added to the other two.

More importantly I want to remove the need to have three local folders on my computer with exactly the same content as each other.

I don’t see how adding folders to my sidebar is going to achieve that.

Thanks for the response anyway.

(-:

#6

Thanks for that suggestion… I’m looking into CloudHQ right now, though the couple of reviews I have read suggest that it is pricey. It could be worth it though, if it saves me time and reduces my upload traffic.

I’m looking at a review comparing five different services and CloudHQ sits in the middle price-wise so it may be a contender.

#7

CloudHQ is reliable and supports a broad range of cloud platforms like Office 365 which is why I like it. I use it primarily as a one drive replacement because we use office 365 and one drive is terrible for desktop sync

#8

No, I didn’t understand what you were after. I read it as you had different files for each client, and each client used a different cloud system, in which case my suggestion works - one file on your computer, stored in each cloud system’s local directory on your hard drive and synced to the client via the cloud, but grouped together for your ease of use into one folder using aliases. Anyway it sounds like you might have a potential solution with CloudHQ. :slight_smile: