Remote copy dropbox -> dropbox

Help and Support
1

I have a local folder which is quite large, which is synchronized with dropbox (via normal dropbox application).

I’m doing the initial backup of it to an encrypted remote in dropbox itself (in another area). (For two reasons: a cloud backup - today I use external HD and used crashplan - and the preservation of versions beyond the 30 days of the dropbox)

I thought that instead of doing the whole upload from my local machine, I could make an initial copy directly from the folder in dropbox to the encrypted backup folder in dropbox.

When the backup was finished I would start using rclone sync from my local folder.

The command I am using:

rclone copy "Dropbox:TD" "Dropbox_encrypted:TD"

However, if I understood the logs correctly, it looks like a new copy is being made from my machine.

The log file:

2017/11/22 14:59:11 INFO  : filexxxxxxx.doc: Copied (new)

Should not this message be something like “copied (server side)”?

The information I’m seeing in the “stats” (transferred bytes x time) for the large files reflects the upload speed of my connection.

How can I be sure the copy is being made directly in dropbox, and not from a “temporarily downloaded” file from my machine?

My Rclone.conf file:

[Dropbox]
type = dropbox 
app_key = 
app_secret = 
token = {"access_token":"...

[Dropbox_encrypted]
type = crypt
remote = Dropbox:encrypted_backup
filename_encryption = off
password = ...
password2 =...
2

I think you are encrypting the files in the transfer. This has to be done on your local machine - dropbox doesn’t have the keys to the encryption, so will involve a download and an upload.

People who do this sometimes rent a VM and do the transfer from there if they have a lot of data.

3

Of course … I didn’t think of that…:roll_eyes:

I did a test with an unencrypted destination and it worked perfectly (“server side copy”).

Ok, I’ll take that solution. Something like a DigitalOcean droplet, right?

4

Yes - you can get cheaper though.