Dropbox Review

Dropbox at a Glance

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3.5 / 5 stars
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Price:

  • Basic ‚Äì 2gb: Free
  • Pro 1TB: $9.99/month or $99.00/year
  • Business: $15.00/user/month

Supports

  • Windows
  • Mac
  • Linux

Pros:

  • Free 2GB.
  • Web interface to upload and access files.
  • Multi Platform Support – Mac, Windows, Linux Compatible
  • Allows sharing of files.
  • Easy to use
  • Offers a mobile application for iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

Cons:

  • Mobile applications limited in functionality.
  • In April 2011, Dropbox modified its privacy policy. “We may disclose to parties outside Dropbox files stored in your Dropbox and information about you that we collect when we have a good faith believe that disclose is reasonably necessary.” For a zero knowledge service try SpiderOak.

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I have been using Dropbox for over two years now to sync files between my laptop and my main desktop and I have to say that the beauty of Dropbox is how simple it is. Install it on the computers you want to sync files with and simply drag and drop the files and folders you want to sync between computers. Simplicity is a good thing, why make something complicated if it does not have to be.

After you download and install Dropbox on your computer you can create an account. To sync files between another computer simply download and install the appropriate version of Dropbox for that computer. For example I sync files between my Ubuntu Linux laptop and my Windows desktop. Once you have created your account with Dropbox, simply login to the same account on all the computers you want to sync. After the software is installed you will have a new folder on your computer called Dropbox. All the folders and files that are copied to that folder are synced to all the other computers. Those files are also available over the Internet using the Dropbox web interface.

 


 

Dropbox also makes it easy to allow public access to some of your files. Inside of your Dropbox folder there is a subfolder called Public. Any folder or file inside of the Public folder is exactly that, public and accessible to the world. Have a large document you need to send to a client or coworker. You can add it to the Public folder, copy the publicly accessible link and have them download the document. You could even host a simple website hosted entirely in your Drobox Public folder. For example I created a simple HTML file to show this review.

You can also share folders and files with people that are not inside of the public folder. You can create a shared folder and invite others users to collaborate with you on its contents. This makes Dropbox perfect for businesses allowing employees to work on the same documents from where ever they are.

Dropbox does have an iPhone and Android application available that you can use to access your files from your smartphone. Sync and upload functionality varies depending on the platform. The mobile web interface is accessible from many mobile devices. Mobile access makes it very easy to upload via the web the latest photo you have taken on your phone that you want to keep safe or any other document that you want to make sure you do not lose.

If you find you email files to yourself on a regular basis, carry a USB drive around, like to share photos with your friends and family and want to have access to your most important files from anywhere then Dropbox is a fantastic service and one you should check out. It will make the syncing of files between your computers so easy you will not know how you lived without Dropbox.

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Comments

23 responses to “Dropbox Review”

  1. Fred Avatar
    Fred

    Drop box is good at storing/uploading documents! However, I had contacted them to let them know I didn’t want to renew my pro subscription… They charged an old credit card of mine and the charge went through for the pro account. They don’t have any “live” customer service agents, everything is email based. It took them two weeks to find my transaction. I sent the credit card information that they requested and they still didn’t find it. I finally sent screen shots and a receipt ID. That’s when they found the transaction. I downgraded my account for them to tell me my account had already been downgraded, and per their policy I couldn’t get my money back. I’m paying for a year of service that I didn’t want.

  2. steve Avatar
    steve

    Hey thumbs up to the dropbox people! nothing hidden or obnoxious in their user agreement – simple, straightforward, FINALLY! these people should set the standard for others. two thumbs up, guys!

  3. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    I find that Dropbox to be VERY slow and Very long to upload a file. It took me several days of upload one file of video.

  4. DJ Avatar
    DJ

    Be sure to back up your files !!
    Especially if you are using DROPBOX.
    Dropbox deleted over 60 GB of my files.
    #dropbox

    I typically don’t write comments like this because, like most entrepreneurs, I work 7 days a week.

    Imagine going to your online files and finding that 90% of your files are gone.
    I took a few minutes to try to see what happened but could not pin point what was going on.
    A week later I went onto dropbox.com and discovered many of files were in the trash can.
    So I spend several hours restoring my files, many of them I had to restore one at a time.
    A week later I discovered that tens of thousands of the files I just restored were deleted again.

    It was time to contact Dropbox to see what was going on. There was no phone number with a live person. I tried email but got an automated response. Customer support was not very helpful for my situation. They have articles for their support, but had nothing that went over my issue. I called their sales to try to talk to a real person, they said they could not help me. But what sales did tell me is that 30 days after a file has been deleted then Dropbox permanently deletes the files.

    I was furious. My files had been deleted 45 days earlier which means Dropbox had permanently deleted them.

    I still use Dropbox but only to communicate with my clients. BUT I have a full backup with another service where I keep all of my production and client files. We also do a manual backup of our files on a local hard drive.

    Today I was unable to find a folder in Dropbox that I had paid for content of almost $1000 of files and images. Of course it was not there. This is why I’m sharing my frustration.

    Here is what I learned:

    1. Always have another back up of your files on Dropbox – you could lose them
    2. Remember that if you don’t restore your files on Dropbox within 30 days they get permanently deleted.
    3. Dropbox does not have a live person for you to talk to if you have an issue like this.
    4. I guess the old adage “you get what you pay for” still applies to this company.

  5. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Beware of Dropbox. It will suck up every last bit of RAM and bring your Mac to a crawl if not a complete stop.

    1. Cloud Storage Buzz Team Avatar

      That is a new complaint about them. Any response from their support?

  6. Elias Clark Avatar
    Elias Clark

    I used Dropbox for a while. I am pretty much satisfied with it but sometimes sync does not happen or since it only sync a specified folder, I sometimes forget to move the file into the sync folder and unable to access the file. That is the only drawback for Dropbox. So I used several software from Cnet(some are good and some are not reliable.)

    Now I use LetMeSync with my clouds. It is new software but since everything is automated it is very easy to use.

    Only thing I do is assign file format for specific cloud and then it will automatically back up and sync. Also it is free so it is good.

    I downloaded the program from Cnet, here is a link: http://download.cnet.com/LetmeSync/3000-18500_4-75906998.html?tag=mncol;1

  7. David Avatar

    I ‘inherited’ a dropbox solution used by an organisation and it has turned into a nightmare. I wonder if you or any of your reviewers have had any of the following problems and if so, have found solutions.
    It seems all invited subscribers to a Dropbox can upload files to it which cannot be deleted by the owner of the Dropbox. Is that correct?
    Furthermore, anyone who has subscribed and adds files has their file sizes counted to the ‘limit’ of all those who are subscribed.
    Call me cynical, but that looks like a viral recipe for an exponential amassing of $s by the Dropbox org – on the basis of files held on people’s machines.

    Oh, and while the documentation has improved, it it still dismal, IMO, if you’re trying got work out how the thing actually works.

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