[OS X TeX] Disaster

[Sangwine, Stephen J]

Me too. I have edited and authored three books over the last 3 years
all using LaTeX and all using Dropbox as the master directory,
with collaborators sharing access to the same directory on Dropbox.
We never had any problems with files getting corrupted. Rarely, we
had to access the file history on the Dropbox website to resolve a
clash where two of us had edited the same file.

The only difference I can see with the original poster’s situation
is that we were not all using the same operating system. Mine is
Mac OS X, one used Linux and the other I am not sure.

It is perhaps worth disabling synchronisation while you are processing
LaTeX - to prevent Dropbox from updating its records with every minor
change to the auxiliary files, as at least one other poster has mentioned.

Steve Sangwine
University of Essex, UK

> Le 23 août 2015 à 21:17, David Goldenberg <goldenberg at biology.utah.edu> a écrit :
> 
> I have used Dropbox extensively for the past three years, for LaTeX and other things, and have never had any trouble with it.  Maybe I have just been lucky?
> 
> David
> 
>> 
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2015 11:21:13 -0400
>> From: George Gratzer <gratzer at me.com>
>> To: TeX on Mac OS X Mailing List <macosx-tex at email.esm.psu.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [OS X TeX] Disaster
>> Message-ID: <1DBCFE57-74D8-41C4-9494-B187A6CE3EA2 at me.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>> 
>> Interesting.
>> 
>> GG
>> 
>> 
>>> On Aug 22, 2015, at 1:45 PM, Markus Klyver <markusklyver at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I would personally highly recommend Overleaf for (La)TeX thesis/essays. Dropbox is known to not work very well for that purpose.
>>> 
>>> Best Regards,
>>> Markus
>>> 
>>>> From: gratzer at me.com
>>>> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:23:02 -0400
>>>> To: macosx-tex at email.esm.psu.edu
>>>> Subject: Re: [OS X TeX] Disaster
>>>> 
>>>> Dick,
>>>> 
>>>> This was traumatic, but problems solved.
>>>> 
>>>> On the MacBook Air, somehow it did not read in the definition of \MathOrText,
>>>> causing hundreds of mistakes. I eliminated all, this problem is fixed.
>>>> 
>>>> Independently, the source file was corrupted, a big chunk replicated itself.
>>>> I have never seen anything like this before.
>>>> 
>>>> Coincidence, but who believes in coincidences? Two computers, same time.
>>>> 
>>>>> Do you use automatic saving?
>>>> 
>>>> I do not know. Is this something I set?
>>>> 
>>>> I have used Dropbox for many years, have never had problems before. 
>>>> It?s great for safety and for synchronizing work on more than one computer.
>>>> 
>>>> Dropbox also takes care of my photos, 237 GB-s!
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks for all the help offered.
>>>> 
>>>> George
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On Aug 22, 2015, at 11:33 AM, Richard Koch <koch at uoregon.edu> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> George,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Do you use automatic saving?
>>>>> Try retreating to a previous version of your source. I?d be tempted to
>>>>> put that previous version in a blank folder, so aux and other temporary files have
>>>>> to be recreated.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I don?t have direct knowledge of Dropbox-TeX interaction, but using two pieces
>>>>> of third party software, each of which can save at any moment behind your back,
>>>>> feels sort of scary.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Dick Koch
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
> 
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