Cheat Sheet: 10 Tips and Tricks for Dropbox
Cheat Sheet: 10 Tips and Tricks for Dropbox
Posted 02/25/2011 at 4:10pm
| by Seamus Bellamy, Paul Lily, and David Murphy
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Gain Free Storage Space, Perform Off-Site Back-Ups, Share Your Account Safely, and More!
Dropbox is, in a word, awesome. From its humble beginnings back in 2007, the robust cloud-storage service has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years. Now, in addition to its browser-based interface, the service boasts clients for Windows, OS X, Fedora, Ubuntu, as well as smartphone support provided you’re rocking either an Android or iOS-based handset. With the low, low starting price of absolutely free, and an interface with one of the lowest learning curves in the business, its hard find an argument for why anyone wouldn’t want to give Dropbox a spin. To help get you started, we’ve put together ten tips on how to make one of our favorite cloud-storage solutions even more functional than it already is.
Refer Friends/Associates to Gain More Dropbox Space
If you want more than the default 2GB of storage without having to pay for it, log into Dropbox’s website and click Get Started > Invite Friends. Every person you refer that opens an account will snag you an additional 250 megabytes of space, up to a maximum of 8GB.
Use Dropbox and Gspace to Build a Free Personal Online Storage Empire
No friends to refer? No problem! Just set up a few Gmail accounts and open a new Dropbox account for each. Then, silo off what each new account is used for: documents, photos, PDFs and well, you get the idea. For an even bigger piece of the cloud, consider turning seven gigabytes of each of those Gmail accounts into useable chunks of cloud storage with Gspace.
Off-Site File Backups on the Cheap
For those of us with Spartan data back-up requirements, there’s no need to invest in expensive hardware-based back up solutions. Just dump your files into your Dropbox folder on a regular basis. When your computer connects to the Internet, Dropbox will save an off-site backup of the files. You can set a routine calendar alert to remind you to update your backups on a regular basis.
Host Files for a Blog
If you have a blog, you can use Dropbox to host its photos. Just drop your content into Dropbox’s Public folder. Once the image you want to work with has synchronized to the cloud, right click on it and select “Copy Public Link”. Paste the link into your blog’s back end interface. Boom: the photo will appear on your blog.
Share Your Account Safely
Create a folder in your Dropbox account and share it with anyone you please. Log into your Dropbox account and click Share a Folder. Choose whether to share an existing folder or to create a new one. Next, invite the friends or colleagues that you want to have access to the folder. Dropbox will email out your invitations.
Keep Your iTunes in Sync Across Multiple Computers
Move your iTunes library and associated library .xml file into your computer’s Dropbox folder and tell iTunes where the new library is located. Set your iTunes preferences on another computer to find the library inside of your Dropbox folder. Let the files sync to the second computer from the cloud and you’re ready to rock and roll.
Stay On Top of Tasks On The Go
If you’ve installed Dropbox’s app to your Android or iOS smartphone, it’s easy to stay on task when you’re mobile. Create a to-do list on your PC and save it to your Dropbox folder. Then, access it on your smart phone while you’re out and about to ensure that you never forget the milk—or anything—else again.
Stash Your Passwords in the Clouds
When used in conjunction with programs like KeePass Password Safe or 1Password, Dropbox will not only help you to back up all of your computer’s security passcode information, it will let you sync that info it to any other machine with Keepass or 1Password installed. Its multi-box security made easy.
Use Dropbox to Install Software Across Multiple Machines
You can use Dropbox to install software to any number of computers without the need for a network connection. First, upload the program’s installation files to your Dropbox account. Next, log on to the computer that needs you freshly uploaded software and log into Dropbox’s website. Now, download those installation files and put them to work.
Recover Deleted Files
If you delete a file from your Dropbox folder and live to regret it, in most cases, you can recover it with ease. Navigate to Dropbox’s website and log in. Click the Show Deleted Files button. Now click on the file you want to restore and click—you guessed it—restore. The file will be returned to your computer’s Dropbox folder almost instantly.
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sgaggerj
March 26, 2011 at 1:01pm
I've noticed that the dropbox cache folder keeps filling up and on a 160gb SSD that sucks up space quick.
I used the following to fix it
1) Exit dropbox
2) Go to the following folder
C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\
and delete the folder 'cache'
3) Create a folder on a larger drive with plenty of free space.
I did F:\DropboxCache
4) Open a dos prompt (not sure if you need admin rights or not)
5) At the prompt run
mklink /j C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\cache <Full path from step 3>
6) Start DropBox!
mclovin
March 04, 2011 at 3:21pm
The To Do list sounded exciting, until I realized the Dropbox app for iPhone will not let you EDIT the to do.txt, it only lets you view it. Unless I'm missing something...
Phrish
February 28, 2011 at 2:13pm
I've tried to do the todo lists in Dropbox, using nothing more than a simple text document. However, I am seeing a parculiar problem from time to time...
When I create a text file on the PC, such as a todo list, I'll have a list of items with CRs (carriage returns):
- item 1
- item 2
- item 3However, when I look at the same text file on my Android phone, the CRs will sometimes disappear, and I'll see:
- item1-item 2-item 3
I can correct by re-adding the CRs, but editing/saving back and forth seems to often remove the CRs again. Sometimes they remain, but just as often they'll get stripped, turning my list into a very long... sentence...
I mean, it's a GREAT idea, but this "glitch" really makes it unusable for me in this fashion.
Anyone else experiencing this at all?
docloft
February 28, 2011 at 7:47am
See the following for a video guide of how to syncronize my documents accross muptiple PCs. This is useful if you have pdf, Microsoft Office, or other documents on a work/personal PC and need to easily access those from both locations.
www.docloft.com/howtosyncmydocumentscloud
ty2047
February 27, 2011 at 3:48pm
Dropbox is the greatest. I have used it to post an online picture galery for others to access pictures from an event and it was awesome.
madprofessor
February 26, 2011 at 10:13am
There's also a way in Windows, Mac and Linux to make a folder called PrintQueue and have a script scan it every minute. Whatever it finds in the folder it sends to your printer and deletes the file out of the folder.
dentaku
February 26, 2011 at 6:28am
Another nice online storage site is http://www.box.net
If SkyDrive wasn't so confusing I would us it more because it allows larger files than box.net.
SuperiorBeing
February 26, 2011 at 1:19am
You forgot using it to store CD keys for games and software. Whenever I get a new PC or piece of software I put the key in a text file for when I invariably lose the manual.
aviaggio
February 26, 2011 at 12:48am
It's also a very easy way to copy files to/from your smartphone. No more having to futz with bluetooth, USB cables & drivers, or memory cards.
DogPatch1149
February 25, 2011 at 6:09pm
I use Dropbox to allow two computers to update my financial file in MS Money. The problem I ran into was sharing between computers using different versions of Windows, as they use different default locations for documents, and Money expects the file to be in the same location. One of the machines runs Windows 7 Ultimate, and the other runs XP Pro SP3.
To get around the problem, I had to create a new folder on the XP machine for Dropbox at C:\Users\(username)\Documents\Dropbox to allow Money to update and be shared properly. I don't know if other programs have the same issue, but that's what I had to do to fix my problem.
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