Dropbox is a great cloud storage solution, save for one issue: All files and folders synchronized to the cloud must be in a specific share folder. The default share Dropbox creates is called “My Dropbox.”
You can however use symbolic links to have other folders synchronize to the service without having to physically copy files or folders to the default share. See video for details.
Note for Mac OS X and Linux users: Yes, you can use symbolic links in your respective operating systems to accomplish the same thing.
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Why is it advantageous to use symbolic links? Why not just copy and paste the files you wish to upload?
Example: You use a photo management program like Picasa or Windows Live Photo Gallery. All your photos are in a specific folder. If you move the folder, you have to reindex everything all over again in the photo management program. If you copy files, you’re wasting space because now you have duplicates. If you symbolically link, no space is wasted and you don’t have to reindex anything nor change any settings.
Thank you for the video. The problem with doing it that way is, that your folders do not get updated right away. If you want them updated right away, move your folder into Dropbox, and then create a Symbolic to where the folder was.
eg. mklink /D “C:PathToDesiredFolder” “C:UsersSteveDocumentsDropboxDesiredFolder”