
I now have my Bento database on Dropbox and can use my information on any of my computers. This is identical to the way in which you relocate, for instance, your iTunes database to Dropbox and it works. This feature was not removed when it was time for the general release, so I can't promise this is going to remain in future versions." Therefore, launch Bento holding down the option-key, and then select the bento.bentodb file in the Dropbox folder. This hidden feature was implemented to help our Testing team switch between bento.bentodb files while testing Bento. "Bento 3 has a hidden feature that when you hold down the option-key during launch, you can specify where the bento.bentodb file is located. So I posted the problem on the Bento forum and got a quick reply from the support team.

Having started, I thought I'd better finish. As far as I could see, the symbolic link was correct but Bento just wouldn't load the data. Then I created a symbolic link (as per John's instructions) to trick Bento into looking in Dropbox. First I moved the Bento folder from Library/Application Support to my Dropbox folder. John Chandler's step-by-step guide encouraged me to try the symbolic link with the Bento database. As a result, I moved all my data out of Bento – mainly to Numbers. I was a great advocate of Bento when it first came out, but was disappointed to find that I couldn't sync the database via Dropbox. This got me thinking about Bento, Filemaker's excellent mini database that cuts down the lengthy learning curve of Filemaker Pro.
#Dropboz symbolic linker how to#
Read his post for full background, but John tells you how to create a symbolic link to fool the application (in this case Billings) to look in Dropbox rather than Library/Applicaton Support. He goes on to describe the problems he had with his Billings database which didn't take kindly to being moved to Dropbox.
#Dropboz symbolic linker mac#
Like me, David has used Dropbox to replace his standard Mac Documents folder. I was redirected to a thoughtful piece by John Chandler on his blog. So my interest was sparked this morning when I read one of David Sparks' pithy blog posts about just this subject.

They expect to find their databases in the default location. Occasionally, though, some applications don't like this. Most times it's simply a matter of moving the database from the default location (usually in Documents but sometimes in Library/Application Support) to the Dropbox folder. These days you can locate most databases in your Dropbox folder so you access your stuff on any of your computers.
