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Using Dropbox and Logic.


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Hi: I was wondering if anyone else uses Dropbox to save Logic projects. I work on projects during the day then save to Dropbox before going home. Then in the evening while in my easy chair I can continue to work on the project. So far I have only saved software instruments. Not any audio files. I would like to hear ideas on this as to pros and cons. Or any other ideas on syncing projects between two Macs. I hope this is of interest to others. Thanks
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I regularly use Dropbox to send & receive audio & midi files between myself and a collaborator who uses a PC with Cubase and have had no problems. You do need to make sure that everyone involved uses the same numbering system for the files otherwise it gets confusing. Other than that, it's all good.
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Now that with LPX symlinks work again, I've got synced Logic ~Library/Application Support/Logic folders on my desktop and laptop, so every time I save any preset like channel strip etc (and even got a custom folder for sample instruments, which I manually duplicate on my external sample drive periodically), I've got them available on both machines as soon as the up/downloading happens in the background. Love it.
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  • 2 years later...

How is Dropbox working for everyone these days?

 

I store Reaper projects on Dropbox and never had any issues. The files are opened from a handful of Macs and PCs at different locations.

 

Logic packages seem to work great too, but some users have had corrupted files. I'm now considering archiving some Logic projects on Dropbox..

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Be careful when using project files.

Dropbox has problems with OS X packages and will convert them into folders.

Eric, my understanding is that this is because LPX project files are really just ZIP-like archive files, and that Dropbox recognizes this, and presents them as folders in the web interface. It is, indeed, a pain.

 

Note, though, if you install the Dropbox application on your computer, so that you open Dropbox as a replicated folder on your local hard drive, the LPX project files are presented in their "monolithic" file structure.

 

My collaborator and I trade project files via this method, using the installed app on both sides. It makes it pretty seamless.

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I work daily with Dropbox. Have my projects including all files (not zipped) there. No issues. Never. 

 

Don't worry about big sizes of Logic projects. When you save, not the whole package will uploaded, just the updated files within that Logic "file". Of course, when you record a lot of audio tracks, maybe at 24bit 192kHz, it will take some time to be uploaded. Otherwise, no worries. For example: My average project folder size is about 3-4GB. And my upload speed is something like 7MBit/sec. Fast enough for me. 

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For what its worth, my daily professional practise is to use a dropbox folder for all my Logic projects. I just work in the DB folder. That way its in sync with all my machines around the studios and home.

 

Never had a problem unless two machines have the same project open at the same time. Highly unlikely.  

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For what its worth, my daily professional practise is to use a dropbox folder for all my Logic projects. I just work in the DB folder. That way its in sync with all my machines around the studios and home.

 

Never had a problem unless two machines have the same project open at the same time. Highly unlikely.  

Same here, except that at some point symbolic links stopped working, like 9 > 10 update or something, but that was fixed later. I have my user .csts, sampler instruments etc and a huge bunch of samples and recent active projects in DB and have had it like that for years, love it.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 months later...

I have had issues with Dropbox and Logic.

 

I had one very large folder containing several logic projects which I uploaded to dropbox in an emergency situation to create space on my hard drive for a session, when I'd left my external drive at home.

 

The Logic files uploaded on Dropbox don't resemble a logic project folder structure anymore. It's a complete disaster. What looks like it should be the .logicx file is now named ".musicapps-project-folder" (sits alongside the Audio Files / Freeze files folders). Downloading that file now from dropbox results only in a text file. Inside other project folders are only now 3 types of folders I don't recognise - named 'Alternatives', 'Media', and 'Resources'. Inside the 'Alternatives' folder is a folder called '000' which contains .plist files and a jpeg of the main logic window, like a screenshot. The Audio files folders are empty.

 

The combined total of the upload was 100gb, there obviously was a problem on the upload and I didn't check thoroughly before deleting them from my hard drive due to the pressure of starting another session. It took a long long time to upload but there seems to be very little there. Lesson learned! I'm pretty sure these projects are not recoverable now - I have the audio stems backed up, so I could re mix them if I ever need to, but Dropbox does not seem reliable to me - I will never again use it for storing a sole copy of anything.

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The Logic files uploaded on Dropbox don't resemble a logic project folder structure anymore. It's a complete disaster. What looks like it should be the .logicx file is now named ".musicapps-project-folder" (sits alongside the Audio Files / Freeze files folders). Downloading that file now from dropbox results only in a text file. Inside other project folders are only now 3 types of folders I don't recognise - named 'Alternatives', 'Media', and 'Resources'. Inside the 'Alternatives' folder is a folder called '000' which contains .plist files and a jpeg of the main logic window, like a screenshot. The Audio files folders are empty.

 

Putting a Logic package and/or Logic folders in dropbox can be dangerous because of what happened to you, unfortunately.

When you zip it, the Logic folder is self-containing and dropbox doesn't interpret anything.

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I have had issues with Dropbox and Logic.

 

I had one very large folder containing several logic projects which I uploaded to dropbox in an emergency situation to create space on my hard drive for a session, when I'd left my external drive at home.

 

The Logic files uploaded on Dropbox don't resemble a logic project folder structure anymore. It's a complete disaster. What looks like it should be the .logicx file is now named ".musicapps-project-folder" (sits alongside the Audio Files / Freeze files folders). Downloading that file now from dropbox results only in a text file. Inside other project folders are only now 3 types of folders I don't recognise - named 'Alternatives', 'Media', and 'Resources'. Inside the 'Alternatives' folder is a folder called '000' which contains .plist files and a jpeg of the main logic window, like a screenshot. The Audio files folders are empty.

 

The combined total of the upload was 100gb, there obviously was a problem on the upload and I didn't check thoroughly before deleting them from my hard drive due to the pressure of starting another session. It took a long long time to upload but there seems to be very little there. Lesson learned! I'm pretty sure these projects are not recoverable now - I have the audio stems backed up, so I could re mix them if I ever need to, but Dropbox does not seem reliable to me - I will never again use it for storing a sole copy of anything.

 

That's bad. Gladly I never had any issues, and I have several hundred GBs in my project folder on DB. Around 30 sessions, in folders containing a lot of Logic files amongst other files and file types.

 

When I look at the Logic project files thru the browser, they look different, yes. They look like a folder. Don't worry. That doesnt' matter.

When I upload a new fodler containing all those files, then go home and synchronize there, everything looks as expected.

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[quote name="moonboy"

That's bad. Gladly I never had any issues' date=' and I have several hundred GBs in my project folder on DB. Around 30 sessions, in folders containing a lot of Logic files amongst other files and file types.

 

When I look at the Logic project files thru the browser, they look different, yes. They look like a folder. Don't worry. That doesnt' matter.

When I upload a new fodler containing all those files, then go home and synchronize there, everything looks as expected.[/quote]

 

Good to know that it can work, but don't take it for granted is my advice - at least always check! If you're using the app to sync then there's a copy on your hard drive as well, which is better practice - but I had a situation where I HAD to clear space on my laptop quickly, so I had to upload direct to the DB website as I couldn't use the dropbox folder on my computer.

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Ah... I see, that's maybe where the issue is. I only use the desktop app. Here and there I use the browser, but never uploaded a Logic file this way. For audio files, or any other "normal" file types, this works like a charm.

 

I don't take it for granted, no. I always make a copy of the sessions I worked on today to an external disc. Plus daily backup of everything to another external disc. DB works since 5-6 years perfectly for me. What I don't take granted, mostly, is that I cannot get online. The higher risk lies there, in my experience ;)

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  • 1 year later...
or just stop using dropbox which is becoming worse and worse constantly.

 

I cannot agree with that statement. But as always YMMV.

What is becoming worse?

 

I had nothing but great experience with DB. I believe it's now over a decade. Except once, where one of my computers suddenly didn't sync properly and I couldn't get the current version of the project. The project was, of course correctly saved on the studio computer. So I had to copy the session from the external backup drive, no biggie.

 

I guess DB is not going to work, if multiple user have access to the Logic session file, and edit it simultaneously. That's a risk. Logic is not built and meant for that. For a single user, that just wants to have access from multiple computers to "one" session, that is always updated, DB is an awesome solution.

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New imposed device limit, new desktop client being a memory hog (more than 0.5gb) due to chromium, new desktop client default (and unchangeable behaviour) that double click now opens a file in applications instead of showing it in finder,...

 

Frankly, I'm moving to icloud as soon as ios 13/catalina introduce direct link sharing

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I see. None of that bothers me. So as I said YMMV. It is not per se bad and unusable. It works flawlessly for me.

 

And the new feature like "Wetransfer" makes it even better for me. No need to upload something, no need to share a folder. But use existing folders/files and just create an easy download link like Wetransfer.

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that's not new, that's been around for ages - before the app was memory hugging garbage even. I really liked it, but my laptop has 16GB of RAM, i can;t afford DB chugging 0,5GB of it for running the most basic of all apps.

Chromium framework killed it

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