Possible to share the documents/settings folder between systems?

[Brettster]

I want to change the location of my documents/settings folder to my dropbox. Would I be able to use the same location for another install of Pro Tools on another of my computers? Or would that cause problems?

[Darryl Ramm]

Why?

You should not be sharing your Documents folder elsewhere. Leave it local.

And Dropbox is a world of hurt with changes with recent versions of MacOS. I would run far away, or at least be aware of all the changes and their implications. Lots of info on Dropbox's web site. But jeez what a badly mismanaged rollout.

Relying on cloud storage might cause issues with Pro Tools. Pro Tools has simply never been properly engineered to work with cloud storage. I've posted about that many times. I'm not going to keep repeating it. Use cloud for backups, use it to collaborate by sharing copies of session online, ideally zipped sessions to help avoid folks running them in the cloud.

[albee1952]

I heartily agree^^^ If you need some things to be available on multiple systems(track presets, plugin settings, etc.) copy them to a USB stick and take it with you

[nednednerb]

Only one single example:

1) Imagine your Docs/Settings are sync'd to the cloud.
2) Imagine you change a file on your local computer.
3) Imagine the file modified date had an error.
4) Imagine Dropbox determined the server had the newest file.
5) Imagine you just lost something important.
6) Because Dropbox hit delete, BUT,
7) The file-revert process also hit a bug...

Now maybe the file is out-of-date, with your materials lost.
Now maybe the file is corrupt, with your materials lost.
Now maybe the whole OS is corrupt and things never stop crashing.

Especially, because it was a very important system folder.

My advice (and what I do personally): I use a cloud service (Sync) only for long term backup and sharing. All my sessions and samples, etc, are local, not synchronized. Very regularly, twice a week, I get my backup program to pop up and ask to go through my ChronoSync schedule, which mounts a couple external drives, backs up to them, orders my backups, then 20 min later or so, the cloud sync is caught up the the backups.

Also, I put ALL my cloud/sync folders that I can into one location locally, and bar it from local hard drive backups. Reducing redundant duplication, while making sure things aren't going to be lost alone, is part of the "trick" of keeping organized.

Sync lets me go in and detach the Cloud copy from the Local machine, allowing me to delete the local copy while preserving. I have 2.9 TB backed up.

Besides my computer being stolen in my first or second year of university like 20 years ago, I have all my schoolwork and musical work backed up since about 2004. Whoooo!

I used to use Dropbox. After running into some corruptions myself, and reading many very detailed, extensive generous posts of Darryl's in the past, I turned off my Dropbox, and I stopped getting annoyed.

[Brettster]

well part of my point is moving the settings folder away from apple's documents folder, which is part of icloud and way way worse than dropbox. with dropbox i can make sure that folder is always local, whereas icloud tries to desync stuff all the time.

you guys are very old school i get it, but i've actually worked off of dropbox for many many years now and it's been flawless. with full version recovery and deletion history if things get accidentally deleted, but i haven't even needed that in years. the days of sync conflicts and corrupted files are long gone in my experience.

the only bad thing i've had with pro tools has been due to issues with the settings folder being in my MacOS documents folder, which ive went through in other threads.

i work on several computers and have pressing need for my session templates and track templates to all be consistent and sync'd without fuss. thus the reason for my question.

[its2loud]

I think using a Dropbox folder for your User Media and Setting Location is totally fine. I wouldn't necessarily work off sessions in a Dropbox shared folder but I have before without issues. Always keep an alternative BU.

The User Media and Settings Locations can be changed in the Operation tab in the Preferences. They wouldn't have the option to change the locations for these files if it wasn't possible.

I keep all my session templates in an iCloud shared folder and I've never had any issues.

[chompers2022]

Guaranteed disaster if you use Dropbox for anything other than sharing a typical office style document. IF you havent been bitten by dropbox yet, its coming.

[its2loud]

Originally Posted by chompers2022

Guaranteed disaster if you use Dropbox for anything other than sharing a typical office style document. IF you havent been bitten by dropbox yet, its coming.

This is absolutely misinformation. User experience may vary depending upon how you utilize it.

[Brettster]

Originally Posted by chompers2022

Guaranteed disaster if you use Dropbox for anything other than sharing a typical office style document. IF you havent been bitten by dropbox yet, its coming.

ok i'll keep this in mind as i'm 10 years in, managing 50+ terabytes and teams of employees in my dropbox

[Brettster]

Originally Posted by its2loud

I think using a Dropbox folder for your User Media and Setting Location is totally fine. I wouldn't necessarily work off sessions in a Dropbox shared folder but I have before without issues. Always keep an alternative BU.

The User Media and Settings Locations can be changed in the Operation tab in the Preferences. They wouldn't have the option to change the locations for these files if it wasn't possible.

I keep all my session templates in an iCloud shared folder and I've never had any issues.

thank you for a relatable response. i'm just wondering if multiple systems can use the SAME settings folder or if they each need their own