Suggestions for syncing shared Dropbox folder to local folder

Question

First question here so let me know if it does not belong here.

I use Dropbox for sharing files with collaborators on some projects. When working on the project, I prefer to do it in a local folder. When I have finished some task, I copy the updated version of the file to the shared Dropbox folder on my computer. I have the Dropbox app on my computer, so I am copying between folders on my computer and not uploading via a browser.

Problems arise when someone else updates the file without me noticing (yes, I know there are Dropbox notifications but I don't always notice) and we end up with two parallel versions of the same file that need to be merged.

Does anyone have any simple solution to this problem? I would guess that someone else has encountered the same problem. For example, how can I automatically sync any updates from the shared Dropbox folder to my local folder.

I know git is probably better for this reason, but it is not possible in this case.

I am using macOS.

Answer 1

I understand that you are manually uploading your files to the DropBox cloud file provider.

The easiest solution to this problem is to use an automatic synchronizer. At the first glance, apparently DropBox may be installed only on the MicroSoft Windows operating system.

Maybe you can switch to a cloud file provider that is available on the MacOS operating system. Try the Google Drive cloud file provider. This one appears to be available for the Macintosh machines, also.

It also depends what kind of files you are using. You could write the same documents at the same time with your colleagues on the Google Docs web-site. It allows synchronous writing of the same documents.