I just downloaded Dropbox yesterday, and it seems to be a pretty handy piece of free software. The idea is that you can access any files you place in the ‘dropbox’ painlessly from any computer, laptop, smartphone, iPad, etc.
Questions:
Is there anything similar (better) out there that I may be unaware of?
Some files, when I drag them to the desktop Dropbox shortcut, are moved to Dropbox; others are copied there. I can’t seem to figure out how to make sure all are copied, not moved. It seems pretty random.
If you do multiple revisions of a document, say, over a period of several days from different computers, is it easy to keep track of the latest revision? I envision nine different versions of a document floating about with me scratching my head to determine which is the current one.
I use Dropbox. One thing I use it for is that I have a file of my passwords (Keepass), and my wife has her own. Since we keep them on Dropbox, I always have access to either file from whichever computer I’m on.
I also use it to share large files with the public sub-folder.
To answer your question #2, the Dropbox folder on your disk acts just like any other folder on your computer when copying files. If the source of the file is the same logical drive (like C:), then the file is moved. If you’re dragging from one disk letter to another, the file is copied.
For revision control, as long as you give it time to copy a changed file to the server before you access it from another computer, plus you give the second computer time to copy the changed file to its local Dropbox folder, the latest version will be the one you see. If the files are not huge, this typically happens quickly. If a file has changed on two computers at the same time (from the server’s perspective), it will create a duplicate and add to the file name some info about “conflicted copy” and the date.
I use it quite a bit, both to move files from phone/ipad/etc to computer and back, and also to share documents between people.
It works great, I really like it.
I don’t know of anything better.
Copy versus move: as far as I know it follows Windows basic rules for copy versus move (ie, if you drag from one folder to another on the same drive, it’s moved. If they are on different drives, it’s copied.) Dropbox defaults to being set up as a folder on your C: drive. So if you drag a file from your C: drive, it’ll move, if it’s from another drive, it’ll copy. I think if you hold down the ctrl key when you click a file, it’ll always copy, and shift-click will always move.
Revisions: Dropbox doesn’t do anything fancy there. If you open the file from Dropbox, make changes, and save it, it’ll just overwrite the file in Dropbox, same as if you did it from a local file.
I’ve been using it for a few months. I don’t know of anything exactly the same, though you can achieve the same goal – the ability to work on a document from multiple computers – in Google Docs. I’d say the main advantage to Dropbox over Google Docs is that you can access any file (e.g., a database), not just the formats available on Google Docs.
I have a rough idea why some files are moved and others are copied; it may have something to do with whether the particular directory considers dropbox to be on the same computer or on a network. It may be link to the location.
Once you put the file in Dropbox, it’s a good idea to just work on it in Dropbox to avoid the issue you bring up. The date will give a definitive answer, but often when I copy a file to Dropbox, I will rename the original to “filename (now in dropbox).docx” to avoid confusion.
I use it a lot, although not primarily for storage, but because I regularly use three different computers (office, home, and a travel netbook) and it works well to keep them in sync. In fact, I use a batch file to run latex and the last line is to copy the file to the Dropbox directory. Of course, having three computers is a backup system too.
Ubuntu One offers a similar service, with more space per unit cash (5 gig free, extra in blocks of 20GiB for something like $3/block/month). Dropbox integration is definitely better though, and I don’t think U1 lets you access previous revisions.
I have both services on my machine and use Dropbox for most things, but will use U1 if I ever need more bulk storage.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. The latest revision is always the one that shows up in your dropbox folder. You can access previous revisions, but you need to go the the dropbox website for that – your folder will only ever contain one revision.
Dropbox has over 50 million users, according to a recent press release. There are other file storage services, but Dropbox has dominated the marketplace because of how seamlessly their software integrates.
Basically, Dropbox creates a folder on your desktop PC. Anytime you put something into that folder, a copy is uploaded to the Dropbox server. If you have dropbox installed on another PC, the file is almost instantaneously downloaded to the dropbox folder there. The contents of the dropbox folder are kept in sync across all devices (and of course, backed up to the cloud).
It really functions as a local folder, so if you drag a file from another folder to the dropbox folder, you are moving it.
I’ve been enjoying use of Sugar Sync. It’s quite similar to Dropbox in concept and storage costs. One feature I prefer is that it can be configured to remotely backup (and share/sync) any directory on your PC. However, I have had some trouble configuring this feature correctly for a shared folder accessed by multiple user accounts on the same computer.
Either way, I think that some sort of cloud storage is terrific in terms of convenient backing up and convenient file sharing. It’s been a real quality of life improvement for me.
I was not aware of the convention where same drive = move, different drive = copy. Makes perfect sense.
To clarify the multiple copies/versions question, I pictured myself always saving a copy of the latest revision of a document to a hard drive on one of my computers. But I guess, as a practical matter, it is best to continually save the most current version to Dropbox (?). Not having a current version on a hard drive somewhere makes me a little uncomfortable. I guess that feeling will go away.
Mean Mr. Mustard the current version is on your hard drive. Drop box copies the file from your hard drive to the cloud. Drop box on other computers periodically checks to see if there have been updates to the files stored in the cloud and will download updates to the local hard drive on the other computers.
I also use drop box to keep keepass password files in sync between my computers and phone. I don’t store anything else. The android app for dropbox works pretty well.
You do understand that the dropbox folder is a folder on your hard drive, right? Dropbox just knows to mirror any changes to that folder to the dropbox service. I.e. when you move a file to the dropbox folder, it is the same as a file move between different folders on your own hard drive, because it is a file move between different folders on your own hard drive. There’s still a local copy of your file in that folder.
You just have a little process working in the background watching that folder for changes, and uploading if it sees one.
Insynch is a similar service that uses your Google Docs storage space, which can actually handle any file type, like dropbox. It’s newer than dropbox, so their integration may not be as good, but might be worth a look.
So…if a burglar burgles my desktop and a bear eats my laptop, I can go out and buy a new computer, install dropbox, and access (and save) that Word doc I revised yesterday (assuming I dropped it into the box)?
mmm
I like Dropbox a great deal. It’s free for the smallest storage space, which is more than enough for me; I’m not putting pictures and videos there. Primarily I use it for keeping tests and assignments (I’m a teacher, so I can access, edit and print them from anywhere), informational documents (owner’s manuals and such), my resume, scans of college transcripts, things like that.
Yes, because your files are also mirrored on the dropbox site. If a burglar burgles your desktop, and bear eats your laptop, and an army of penguins ravages dropbox’s servers, then you’re out of luck.
The point is, dropbox is not, “one place to put your files”. It’s “a bunch of places to put your files, and a little guy running around making sure all of those places have the same files”.
I create a Word document on my desktop, titled “SDMB folks I want to see nekkid”. I copy it to my Dropbox icon on my desktop.
Does this mean that, if I fire up my laptop, I will have that same file appear on the hard drive of my laptop? Or do I have to access the doc from my laptop’s Dropbox first for it to sync.
mmm
My favorite application for paid dropbox accounts is you can move your users folder to the dropbox folder, that way anytime you save a picture, document, something to your desktop, etc its automatically uploaded to dropbox.
