FileMaker Server Backups using Dropbox!

If you have a FileMaker Server, you know how important it is to make offsite backups. The problem is setting it up. This technique should make it easy!

  • First get a free 2gb Dropbox account. That link will give you and us an extra 250mb of storage. You can upgrade to 50gb for $100/year or 100gb for $200/year.

  • Install Dropbox and make a folder for your FileMaker Backups.

  • Configure FileMaker Server to backup to your new Dropbox folder.

For basic backups, that it! This will put your FileMaker backups on the Dropbox server. For bonus points, if you install Dropbox on more than one computer, you automatically have another copy of your FileMaker backups on multiple hard drives!

Keep in mind that if you remove a file from the Dropbox folder, it will be removed from all computers syncing with Dropbox.

That said, if you have a Mac, you can add a 'Folder Action' to your backup folder to move any files added to the backup folder to different folder. This would give you the effect of transferring the backups from the server to another computer!

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
tell application "Finder"
repeat with aFile in added_items
tell application "Finder"
try
move aFile to folder "Gumby:Users:HalLaughesktop:"
on error err
display dialog err
end try
end tell
end repeat
end tell
end adding folder items to