Syncing aliases via Dropbox and having them work on both Macs

Question

I'm currently syncing my Desktop folder between two Macs using Dropbox. The Desktop folder in my Mac's user folder is an alias to the folder in my Dropbox. This works fine.

On one Mac, I created an alias to another folder on that computer (actually, it's an alias to the Dropbox folder itself, sitting on the desktop). When this alias syncs over to the other Mac, though, the alias doesn't come through correctly. It shows up as a 0 byte text file.

Is there a way that I can make this alias come through correctly to the other Mac and work as expected?

Thanks!

Answer 1

In your specific situation, I would suggest creating something called a symbolic link. You will have to do the following from the Terminal:

1. Open Terminal
2. Type: cd ~/Desktop
3. Type: ln -s /path/to/folder/ NAME

It will show up on your desktop and look like a regular alias, but it is not.

Adding an example: ln -s ~/Dropbox ~/Desktop/Dropbox

This will create a symbolic link on your desktop called "Dropbox" pointing to the /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Dropbox folder.

Answer 2

You may not be able to sync aliases, but you could replace the one on your desktop with an AppleScript that just opens the ~/Dropbox folder—that would have a similar effect, and to my knowledge would sync properly.

Such an AppleScript would look like

tell application "Finder"
    activate
    open folder "Macintosh HD:Users:yourHomeDirHere:Dropbox"
end tell

Or you could just put the ~/Dropbox folder in your Dock.