Using Dropbox

[ksykes]

When I started (not very long ago) in web development I was taught to always put my work in the Sites folder at the root of my computer. Is there any reason why it would be bad to put my files in Dropbox instead? I use Dropbox to keep everything else backed up and typically just work out of my Dropbox folder.

[darrylyoung]

Hi, @ksykes. While you're waiting for a reply from Wes, here's a quick thought on this.

If you're working on a JavaScript project, using npm for packages, you might find that Dropbox will eat up a lot of your CPU when syncing your node_modules folder (depending on the number of packages used, of course). During development you might delete this folder and reinstall all packages numerous times and each time it'll have to sync everything. You can, however, set Selective Sync to not sync this directory but you'll have to do it on a project-by-project basis, deselecting the syncing of node_modules.

Other than having to do that, I personally think it's fine working from Dropbox (and even better on a paid account as I believe you have version history). Depending on what you're doing, you can also work locally and push all projects to (free) private GitLab repositories and store them there.

[sapegin]

I’m doing exactly the same as @darrylyoung suggests, it’s annoying but I don’t see any reasons not to store all my projects in Dropbox and Git. Saved me many times ;-)

[shshaw]

The inability to set global ignores in Dropbox is a huge drain on resources. It's been a top request for Dropbox since 2014, with no straight answers from the Dropbox team. Very unfortunate.
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox/Ignore-folder-without-selective-sync/idi-p/5926

I've traditionally used Dropbox + git for projects, but as I migrated over to Webpack there was an issue where folders with special characters (like the parenthesis in Dropbox Work folder names) would not have file changes detected by webpack-dev-server. I haven't tested, but a patch for this was rolled out last week:
webpack/watchpack#42
webpack/watchpack#52

Something to be aware of if you're running older versions of Webpack.

Another option to consider is Google's new Backup & Sync for Google Drive. This allows you to (surprise!) backup & sync any folders on your machine, so you could keep using your Sites folder while still retaining a cloud backup.
https://www.blog.google/products/photos/introducing-backup-and-sync-google-photos-and-google-drive/