Noodlesoft Forums

Dropbox recently launched a "Smart Sync" feature "https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/9293" .

I'm curious if anyone's tried using this with Hazel?

For example: will Hazel still scan a folder if a file/folder is set to "Online Only" instead of "Local"?

I haven't tried it. If you do try it out, please report back here. I suspect it might fail for certain bits of metadata.

Reporting back in case anyone else needs this.

So far, it seems like when a folder is taken to "Online Only" mode via Dropbox, and Hazel scans it it then switches back to "Local mode" and downloads the files to the local machine.

This is likely what most users would want to happen.

Thanks for the report. I'll have to test it out at some point to probe the limits of this but so far what you've observed is a good sign.

I've been utilizing the Smart Sync function to make a lot of folders online only.

I just tried Hazel today and I created a rule to automatically make a copy of all stock photographs I use which are contained in several subfolders under a folder titled 2018 Events and Services.

So far, my smart sync is going crazy and seems to be randomly downloading items that were set to online only weeks ago.

Does it have to download the items to scan?

Yes, Hazel needs to view metadata (and in some cases, the contents) about the file to process them, even if they don't match rules (because it won't know they don't match until they look at the metadata).

Is it possible to set a rule that only applies to synced (local) files?

I'm not sure if it's possible for Hazel to know that. If whatever software you are using that handles those files can put some metadata that indicates it as such, Hazel might be able to process it but it's heavily dependent on the software.

Mr_Noodle wrote:I'm not sure if it's possible for Hazel to know that. If whatever software you are using that handles those files can put some metadata that indicates it as such, Hazel might be able to process it but it's heavily dependent on the software.

Hi Mr Noodle. Any update on whether or not it's possible to stop Hazel from downloading "online only" files in Dropbox when it scans a folder? I've been wondering for months why certain online files have been magically turning up as local again.

Hazel can't work with online only files and I would not recommend using those in any folder Hazel monitors. Hazel needs to check a file's metadata to work so if that causes the file to be downloaded, there's little that can be done.