15 Dropbox Tips and Tricks

15-dropbox-tips-tricks

Dropbox is a file sharing, cloud storage, and data backup where you can access both online and offline. You can instantly access your files on any platform like pc and mobile phones. It is widely used personally, and even on the business side of things.

The challenge with sharing files across multiple devices is managing the versions. Dropbox takes care of when you put a file in your folder on your local hard drive, it syncs that version of the file with the cloud services and it syncs with any other instances of Dropbox that you have installed on you other computers or devices.

1. Maximizing Free Space from Dropbox

Upon signup, Dropbox gives you 2GB of free space if you’re only using a free account, but there are ways on how to earn more free storage without applying for a monthly subscription.

Sending email invites to a friend is one of them. Referrals are a widely known trick to get benefits in some online services. Dropbox gives you 500MB of each successful referral and you can get up to 16GB of free space.

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2. Protect your Dropbox Account

Protecting your account is a basic but the most important thing if we are talking about cloud storage. To protect it make sure to change your password atleast once a month, and enable two-step verification using your phone number. It will send a two-factor code that you need to enter along with your main password.

3. Dropbox Selective Sync

Dropbox gives you full control of which folder you want to sync. This is a great help if you have a secret folder that you don’t want to show up on your other device or vice versa.

This setting can be found in Dropbox Preferences then select Sync and tap Selective Sync. You just have to select the folders you want to sync then click update.

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4. Check Activity History

If you recently added, modified, and updated a file in your Dropbox, you can easily find it in the list of all recent files from Recent in the sidebar. In the latest update, you can see all the recent files on the Dropbox homepage.

Dropbox allows you also to share, open, download, comment, delete, or even view previous versions of your files directly in the right-side options of the list.

5. Teamwork

If your work includes collaboration and team-up then Dropbox Team is a great tool for you. It allows you to work simultaneously with a team where we can share files with the whole team and we can even set different privileges for it.

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6. Boost Synchronization Speed

Dropbox automatically set internet speed itself to 75% of your internet maximum upload to prevent choking your bandwidth traffic.

If you want to disable it, just left-click Dropbox Icon in the system tray, click your “Profile Icon” and select “Preferences”. Click the “Bandwidth” tab then select “Don’t limit” both in upload and download rate. You can also set the desired limit to it. Just put a preferred internet speed in “Limit to”.

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7. Share Screenshots Automatically

Dropbox can allow you to save screenshots automatically. By default, it is activated. If you have Dropbox installed, and you press Print Screen, a pop-up will display if you want to enable saving screenshot to Dropbox automatically.

If it is disabled, all you need to do is enable Dropbox’s screenshot sharing feature. Just click Dropbox system tray, click profile, then “Preferences”. Go to “Import”, then tick “Share screenshots using Dropbox” then click OK.

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8. Request Files from Anyone

People who don’t have a Dropbox account can send you files. File Request feature allows you to collect and receive files. In your Dropbox Home, select “File Requests”, then click “New Request”. Provide “Title”, “Description” (optional), and the Folder where you want to save it. Lastly, click “Create”. Copy the requesting link and send it to the person or just put the email of the person.

dropbox-create-file-request

9. Direct Download Links

Dropbox is really secured that we can’t directly share a download link without our permission. So, we need to generate a direct download link to share with anyone or on a specific person.

To create it, just click “Share” that is found on the right side of the file name or folder. Just click the create a link and you’re good to go.

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You can customize link permissions just by clicking “Link settings”. You can delete the shareable link, specify the email who can access it, and can even set expiration for it.

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10. Preview and Edit Files

Some file formats are hard to read because there’s no installed software for that certain file format. We can read those just by uploading it in Dropbox and let it read the file for us. File types are Microsoft Office Files, CSV, PDF, PSD, AI, PNG, JPG, SVG, BMP, and many more.

You can also edit files like word, sheets, and PowerPoints on the fly.

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11. Recover Old or Deleted Files

Dropbox keeps a 30-day history for all the changes you made. You can recover it if you mistakenly deleted it or edited it. It can be found in the “Deleted files” tab.

12.  Dropbox Paper

A collaborative workspace for creation and coordination. With real-time editing, your team can make it easier to run brainstorms, review work and even do meetings. Easy to use, you can focus more on ideas than formatting.

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13. HelloSign by Dropbox

Like the Dropbox Paper, this is good for a workspace since HelloSign is a solution that enables us to get business-critical documents securely sent, signed, and saved from anywhere they work.

helloSign-by-Dropbox

14. Dropbox App Center

Dropbox allows us to connect to other known apps like Google Gsute, Acrobat DC, Zoom, Microsoft Office, and many more. You can automatically access those apps just by using Dropbox itself. For example in Zoom, we instantly start a Zoom meeting from Dropbox content with the team members you’re collaborating with.

Dropbox-App-Center

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15. Access Files Without Internet in Mobile Devices

Dropbox in mobile doesn’t automatically save your files from Dropbox locally. So in the mobile app, find the files you need to view offline. Just tap the more vert icon that can be seen beside the file name or folder then select make available offline.

Access-Files-Without-Internet-in-Mobile-Devices-Dropbox-mobile

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