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I agree. Nothing beats pure text files. These days though, I save them to my Dropbox folder so they're accessible anywhere. I feel like I'm getting the best of

I agree. Nothing beats pure text files. These days though, I save them to my Dropbox folder so they're accessible anywhere. I feel like I'm getting the best of both worlds this way.

graeme 12y ago
I do this. What happens if Dropbox deletes a file though, on the server? Then it would vanish from the computer as well. If it was an important but rarely checked file, you might not notice for months or years, by which time it might be difficult to retrieve a copy. Does anyone have more info on the likelihood of this + the possible ways to solve it if it happens? It occurred to me that most of my important files are potentially deletable via Dropbox.
- winter_blue 12y ago
  They wouldn't delete your file randomly for no reason, unless for a bug. But user data is top priority at Dropbox (it's what their business is all about), so you're extremely unlikely to loose it. They most likely have lots of redundancy. Now if you accidentally delete something and want to recover it, you have 30 days to do so with a free account. With a paid account, your history is kept forever (basically files are never deleted).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- CamperBob2 12y ago
  It's best if you don't think of Dropbox as a backup service. People treat it that way (and I'm guilty of it too) but a file-sync provider is really a very different thing at heart.
- fencepost 12y ago
  Dropbox is not a backup. Dropbox is a file sync service with some limited backup features. AFAIK it also hasn't actually ever reported profits, but it's well enough backed and dominant enough that it's unlikely to disappear. What should happen in the case of missing a file deletion until beyond Dropbox's 30-day versioning windows is that you retrieve the file from your automated backups of at least one of the computers that Dropbox is syncing to.
  - graeme 12y ago
    >What should happen in the case of missing a file deletion until beyond Dropbox's 30-day versioning windows is that you retrieve the file from your automated backups of at least one of the computers that Dropbox is syncing to. What would you use for these automatic backups? I use backblaze for my whole computer. However, I think they also only keep file changes for 30 days past change date.
    - zyxley 12y ago
      I use Crashplan, which is a little slower and clunkier than other services but keeps infinite versions of files, including deleted files (unlike Backblaze).
      - graeme 12y ago
        I could try Crashplan again. When I attempted it before, it never successfully synced, despite hours spent emailing system reports back and forth with their support reps. I would pay Backblaze double if they kept past versions.
        NeutronBoy 12y ago
        Tarsnap (https://www.tarsnap.com https://www.tarsnap.com) is great and easy to configure, if you can deal with not having a GUI. Colin Percival (the guy who maintains it) is also amazing with support - he was responding to my emails on Christmas day!
    - 12y ago
- richchetwynd 12y ago
  You can always backup both your Dropbox and Evernote to a single place. I'm the founder of https://revert.io https://revert.io and that's exactly what we've built our service to do. Love any feedback if you want to try it out. Thanks!
  - 8bitpony 12y ago
    This looks great, I've signed up.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - gcr 12y ago
    On new accounts, Dropbox only allows a paid upgrade to store one year of file history.
- deleted 12y ago
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- hobarrera 12y ago
  If you're so scared that your files are so easily deleteable, why don't you keep backups?
  - graeme 12y ago
    I do, but if Dropbox deleted a file, it would be deleted off the synced backup too, unless I get something with infinite version history.
    - k-mcgrady 12y ago
      Why would you sync the backup? Just backup the contents of your Dropbox folder to a hard drive every night. Then it's on the hard drive and Dropbox can't access it.
    - walterbell 12y ago
      Incremental backups or deduplicating storage (ZFS)?
    - hobarrera 12y ago
      So you keep your files and your backups in dropbox? Rule 1 of backups is "don't keep your files and your backups in the same place". Pretty much common sense.
cfallin 12y ago
As a slight enhancement on pure text files: Org-mode [1] for Emacs! I really only use the outlining, and sometimes the TODO-item support, but having nice navigation/subtree folding on top of a file that's still plain text is really great. I have a few three-line scripts in my ~/bin that commit my Org files to a git repo and push to my remote server, or pull changes. Lets me have copies on multiple machines and works really well. [1] http://orgmode.org/ http://orgmode.org/
chengiz 12y ago
Exactly. Evernote and its clones seem to give you the best of both worlds in one product but in practice they do a half assed job of both. It's sort of like the windows vs unix mentality of having one behemoth do everything vs chaining independent tasks together. When I hit save and dropbox just syncs in the background, that's pretty much the best use of my time and also IMO the simplest solution to the problem.
CatMtKing 12y ago
Funny story I have with Dropbox: I was setting up my new desktop to dual boot Debian and Windows. In the interest of saving space, I tried to have Dropbox in both systems target the same directory to sync. I'm not precisely sure what happened - I think the folder hadn't finished pulling in all the files before I logged out - but it somehow trashed everything in my lab's shared directory. Thank god for their API and their automatic file versioning, or I would never have gotten out of that pickle.

I agree. Nothing beats pure text files. These days though, I save them to my Dropbox folder so they're accessible anywhere. I feel like I'm getting the best of both worlds this way.

graeme 12y ago

I do this. What happens if Dropbox deletes a file though, on the server? Then it would vanish from the computer as well. If it was an important but rarely checked file, you might not notice for months or years, by which time it might be difficult to retrieve a copy. Does anyone have more info on the likelihood of this + the possible ways to solve it if it happens? It occurred to me that most of my important files are potentially deletable via Dropbox.

winter_blue 12y ago
They wouldn't delete your file randomly for no reason, unless for a bug. But user data is top priority at Dropbox (it's what their business is all about), so you're extremely unlikely to loose it. They most likely have lots of redundancy. Now if you accidentally delete something and want to recover it, you have 30 days to do so with a free account. With a paid account, your history is kept forever (basically files are never deleted).
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
CamperBob2 12y ago
It's best if you don't think of Dropbox as a backup service. People treat it that way (and I'm guilty of it too) but a file-sync provider is really a very different thing at heart.
fencepost 12y ago
Dropbox is not a backup. Dropbox is a file sync service with some limited backup features. AFAIK it also hasn't actually ever reported profits, but it's well enough backed and dominant enough that it's unlikely to disappear. What should happen in the case of missing a file deletion until beyond Dropbox's 30-day versioning windows is that you retrieve the file from your automated backups of at least one of the computers that Dropbox is syncing to.
- graeme 12y ago
  >What should happen in the case of missing a file deletion until beyond Dropbox's 30-day versioning windows is that you retrieve the file from your automated backups of at least one of the computers that Dropbox is syncing to. What would you use for these automatic backups? I use backblaze for my whole computer. However, I think they also only keep file changes for 30 days past change date.
  - zyxley 12y ago
    I use Crashplan, which is a little slower and clunkier than other services but keeps infinite versions of files, including deleted files (unlike Backblaze).
    - graeme 12y ago
      I could try Crashplan again. When I attempted it before, it never successfully synced, despite hours spent emailing system reports back and forth with their support reps. I would pay Backblaze double if they kept past versions.
      - NeutronBoy 12y ago
        Tarsnap (https://www.tarsnap.com https://www.tarsnap.com) is great and easy to configure, if you can deal with not having a GUI. Colin Percival (the guy who maintains it) is also amazing with support - he was responding to my emails on Christmas day!
  - 12y ago
richchetwynd 12y ago
You can always backup both your Dropbox and Evernote to a single place. I'm the founder of https://revert.io https://revert.io and that's exactly what we've built our service to do. Love any feedback if you want to try it out. Thanks!
- 8bitpony 12y ago
  This looks great, I've signed up.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- gcr 12y ago
  On new accounts, Dropbox only allows a paid upgrade to store one year of file history.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
hobarrera 12y ago
If you're so scared that your files are so easily deleteable, why don't you keep backups?
- graeme 12y ago
  I do, but if Dropbox deleted a file, it would be deleted off the synced backup too, unless I get something with infinite version history.
  - k-mcgrady 12y ago
    Why would you sync the backup? Just backup the contents of your Dropbox folder to a hard drive every night. Then it's on the hard drive and Dropbox can't access it.
  - walterbell 12y ago
    Incremental backups or deduplicating storage (ZFS)?
  - hobarrera 12y ago
    So you keep your files and your backups in dropbox? Rule 1 of backups is "don't keep your files and your backups in the same place". Pretty much common sense.

cfallin 12y ago

As a slight enhancement on pure text files: Org-mode [1] for Emacs! I really only use the outlining, and sometimes the TODO-item support, but having nice navigation/subtree folding on top of a file that's still plain text is really great. I have a few three-line scripts in my ~/bin that commit my Org files to a git repo and push to my remote server, or pull changes. Lets me have copies on multiple machines and works really well. [1] http://orgmode.org/ http://orgmode.org/

chengiz 12y ago

Exactly. Evernote and its clones seem to give you the best of both worlds in one product but in practice they do a half assed job of both. It's sort of like the windows vs unix mentality of having one behemoth do everything vs chaining independent tasks together. When I hit save and dropbox just syncs in the background, that's pretty much the best use of my time and also IMO the simplest solution to the problem.

CatMtKing 12y ago

Funny story I have with Dropbox: I was setting up my new desktop to dual boot Debian and Windows. In the interest of saving space, I tried to have Dropbox in both systems target the same directory to sync. I'm not precisely sure what happened - I think the folder hadn't finished pulling in all the files before I logged out - but it somehow trashed everything in my lab's shared directory. Thank god for their API and their automatic file versioning, or I would never have gotten out of that pickle.