Dropbox alternative that works with Mac "packaged" files hierarchies.
April 22, 2014 6:59 PM Subscribe
I could keep trying different options but I'm on a deadline and would love a recommendation for a reliable, "package" friendly solution.
I'm working in Storyboard Pro with Mavericks and so far:
-Google Drive keeps intermittently kacking out.
-Box won't accept Storyboard project files.
Storyboard projects contain many nested subfolders, holding many, many more tiny vector graphic files. I don't need more than a couple of gigabytes of space but it needs to be free.
I've left Dropbox because of the Rice appointment, not because I dissatisfied with the product.
Isn't this question effectively a recommendation of Dropbox?
I haven't used Storyboard files, but I've used large files and https://hubic.com and https://www.copy.com seem worth your evaluating them.
posted by michaelh at 7:31 PM on April 22, 2014
I haven't used Storyboard files, but I've used large files and https://hubic.com and https://www.copy.com seem worth your evaluating them.
posted by michaelh at 7:31 PM on April 22, 2014
OneDrive is 7 gb free--I have no problems with it, but I don't use Apple products.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:37 PM on April 22, 2014
posted by crush-onastick at 7:37 PM on April 22, 2014
Compress your package before storing it (in OS X, right-click on the project bundle file or folder and select Compress "Foo").
The compressed file is a Zip file — one stream of bytes, not a collection of folders and subfolders like a package/bundle.
You can then store the Zip file with any cloud storage option. As a bonus, your package is compressed and will take up less space, and therefore it shouldn't take as long to upload or download (unless it is full of bitmap images or already-compressed music).
Whoever you give the link to the file to should be able to extract the file with any number of common decompression utilities. For instance, OS X's extraction routine is written into the Finder — users just double-click the Zip file to extract; other platforms have decompression tools which integrate with the file explorer/manager tools built into the operating system — again, just double-click to extract.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:02 PM on April 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
The compressed file is a Zip file — one stream of bytes, not a collection of folders and subfolders like a package/bundle.
You can then store the Zip file with any cloud storage option. As a bonus, your package is compressed and will take up less space, and therefore it shouldn't take as long to upload or download (unless it is full of bitmap images or already-compressed music).
Whoever you give the link to the file to should be able to extract the file with any number of common decompression utilities. For instance, OS X's extraction routine is written into the Finder — users just double-click the Zip file to extract; other platforms have decompression tools which integrate with the file explorer/manager tools built into the operating system — again, just double-click to extract.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:02 PM on April 22, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'd suggest trying Bittorrent Sync if you just need to sync between two computers and not with the cloud. If that doesn't work and you're technically savvy, then set up a cron to run rsync.
posted by furtive at 9:22 PM on April 22, 2014
posted by furtive at 9:22 PM on April 22, 2014
If you go the Bittorrent sync route, have a look at this post regarding mac metadata sync.
posted by Brent Parker at 10:03 PM on April 22, 2014
posted by Brent Parker at 10:03 PM on April 22, 2014
I haven't used the mac version myself, but spideroak supports mac and works very well between linux and windows. 2 GB of storage is free. It also has the added benefit of being more privacy oriented than dropbox.
posted by theyexpectresults at 11:55 PM on April 22, 2014
posted by theyexpectresults at 11:55 PM on April 22, 2014
I'm using Barracuda Copy which has loads of free space and seems to do just fine with my package files (in Scrivener, so they are much smaller, but they're still messy lil bundles of fun).
posted by raena at 1:57 AM on April 23, 2014
posted by raena at 1:57 AM on April 23, 2014
Dropping Dropbox - what's a replacement? discusses just this problem, for people who are quitting Dropbox for concerns about Rice on the board. SpiderOak and Bittorrent Sync are the two I hear the most about.
The Mac requirement shouldn't be too hard; Macs now just store (almost) all of the data in simple files. If the product supports Mac it should support your Mac files. (Can't explain Google Drive's failure except that it's generally terrible.)
posted by Nelson at 9:33 AM on April 23, 2014
The Mac requirement shouldn't be too hard; Macs now just store (almost) all of the data in simple files. If the product supports Mac it should support your Mac files. (Can't explain Google Drive's failure except that it's generally terrible.)
posted by Nelson at 9:33 AM on April 23, 2014
Response by poster: Thanks for all the replies.
The Storyboard files I'm working are incremental backups that I want to be synced on every filesave. I work to tight deadlines and every day involves a lot of pencil mileage, so saving as I go is important to me.
Looks like I'll try Copy next. The Boing Boing discussion looks great.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:17 PM on April 23, 2014
The Storyboard files I'm working are incremental backups that I want to be synced on every filesave. I work to tight deadlines and every day involves a lot of pencil mileage, so saving as I go is important to me.
Looks like I'll try Copy next. The Boing Boing discussion looks great.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:17 PM on April 23, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
I'm not sure who's on Microsoft's board.
posted by kbanas at 7:21 PM on April 22, 2014