Mac Desktop Sync to Box or Dropbox

This is a solution for enterprises that have mac laptops, and College Faculty that refuse to backup their data, even though you have a file and print server available.

Some rooms don't have great wireless connections or they go to large national conferences where wireless is slow/non-existent. I don't want them to use USB sticks because then the data ends up lost or stolen.

The University of Buffalo has a contract with Box Software for legal reasons, but this same process will work with Dropbox.


Open up terminal(search for it) and run the following commands

mv desktop desktop.bak
ln -s /Users/username/Box\ Sync/ ./Desktop

• Change username to your Mac login username
• Change Box\ Sync(note the space) to Dropbox if you use Dropbox.

There are other folders to sync; in your Mac Home Directory, you can decide what's best for your environment.

1. Documents
2. Downloads (this probably isn't something that needs to be backed up as it's
   generally going to be files that you can get again)
3. Movies
4. Music
5. Pictures

Reboot the computer, the icons won't appear next to the names but it will sync.

If the person is experiencing issues at home with speed opening documents they will have to temporarily turn off syncing(and then turn it back on when they are back at the office)