Dropbox is an application for Windows, Mac & Linux that allows you to seamlessly & securely backup, store or share files between multiple locations.
Typical uses include sharing important files between home PC’s & laptops or having a secure online backup of all your important stuff.
Dropbox is free to use for up to 2GB of storage, the premium version ($199.99 per year) upgrades your storage to 100GB.
In this post we’ll look past the basic features of Dropbox & delve into some of the more advanced ninja type things it can be used for.
Start Bittorrent Downloads from Work
Some Bittorrent clients (uTorrent on PC & Transmission on Mac) allow automatic starting of .torrent files that have been added to a specific folder. Essentially this means you can make that folder a folder on your Dropbox (see below), in my case it’s D:\My Dropbox\Torrents
Provided that you leave your home computer on with your Torrent client running you can save torrent files to that folder (My Dropbox/Torrents) from any location (i.e. work) & the download will be waiting for you when you get home.
Use Dropbox as your Documents Folder
Most people use their Documents folder to store important information, yet many fail to make regular backups. Dropbox makes that very simple for you if you decide to use your Dropbox as your Documents folder.
In Windows Vista or 7 this is extremely easy to setup. Right click on your My Documents folder then select the Location tab, click on move & select your Dropbox folder. When you hit ok it’ll ask if you want to move all your files & folders to the new location also, click yes & you’re done.
Dropbox will now keep your My Documents folder in sync when you add & remove files. The beauty of this is that if you also have other PC’s or a laptop in the house you can use the same Dropbox configuration & share the My Documents folder across all of them.
Sync passwords with KeePass
If you’re an avid KeePass user you might find it frustrating to keep your Database on a USB key. KeePass is an extremely secure password safe with AES 256 bit encryption, that means that even if someone did get a hold of your database file the changes of them getting access is extremely slim.
You can use Dropbox to store your password safe and the key file (this file provides extra security). This means that you’ll have the same passwords on all the computers you have your Dropbox on.
Keep Firefox Profiles in sync across PC, Mac & Linux
Whilst something line Xmarks (formerly foxmarks) can keep your passwords & bookmarks in sync there’s a few things it doesn’t – Extensions.
You can sync your entire Firefox profile across multiple machines & keep everything entirely in sync no matter where you are.
Keep Thunderbird email in sync
Unless you’re using IMAP using POP email across multiple computers can be frustrating, especially since you have to redownload all your emails twice.
You can follow these instructions to move the existing location of your Thunderbird profile to a shiny new location on your Dropbox.
Save Instant Messaging Logs
If you use Digsby, Pidgin or Adium you can centralise your Instant Messaging logs in one place using your Dropbox.
- Create an IM Logs folder on the dropbox
- Close your IM client down
- Copy all the logs into that folder
- Restart up your IM Client then change the log folder to the folder on your Dropbox
Sync windows save games across computers
This only works for games that create a save file in the My Games folder on XP, Vista or Windows7. Essentially you need to create a symbolic link from the My Games folder to the folder on your Dropbox.
The following commands are examples, please replace with the paths to your “My Games” locally & on your Dropbox.
Windows XP
junction "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\My Dropbox\My Games" "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\My Games"
mklink /D "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\My Dropbox\My Games" "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\My Games"
Windows Vista
junction "C:\Users\UserName\Documents\My Dropbox\My Games" "C:\Users\UserName\Documents\My Games"
mklink /D "C:\Users\UserName\Documents\My Dropbox\My Games" "C:\Users\UserName\Documents\My Games"
Host a Shared Collaboration Drive for Remote Employees
One of the major benefits of Dropbox is that it acts like a local drive (but sync when something changes). This makes it perfect for companies that utilise a lot of remote employees, essentially you can create a shared drive that could contain:
- Process Documents
- Product Development
- Client Folders
- Drafts / Ideas
The advantage that Dropbox provides here is that you have complete change / undo history (for 30 days on free accounts). This means it’s impossible also for someone to accidentally delete a file or screw things up.
Save to PDF on OSX
You can use Dropbox to save articles to PDF for later reading, anywhere.
- Navigate to your /Library folder
- If it doesn’t already exist, create a new folder in “/Library” called “PDF Services”
- Create an alias for your “Dropbox” folder and drag it into the “/Library/PDF Services” folder
- Open a URL in your web browser and select Print
- Click the PDF dropdown option
- A “Dropdown alias” should appear. Click it to save the website as a PDF file on your Dropbox
Use Dropbox as your personal SVN
If you’re a developer who likes to write applications locally & also on your laptop you can use Dropbox to sync your svn repository. Simply create the svn repository on the dropbox & use the local url i.e: file:///C:/path/to/dropbox/folder/myrepo
I wouldn’t use this setup to collaborate with another user as the repository could get corrupted if you make commits on two computers & one syncs before the other.
If you need help on setting up a local repository you can check out this awesome Lifehacker tutorial.
Use Dropbox to show off Design Mockups
If you’re building a website design in flat html & want to show off your mockups to a client without upload to a server you can simply create a folder in your DropBox then get the public URL for your site (i.e. for index.html).
Share this URL with your friends or clients & start getting feedback right away. The good thing is that this updates every time you make a change & save so no more worrying you uploading the latest changes via FTP.
Read books on your iPhone
Dropbox recently created a nice iPhone interface for the web application, allowing you to easily log in & view the files in your Dropbox.
The beauty of this is that you can open PDF’s & other text files on your iPhone then leave them live in a Safari tab to read whenever you like.
You can also browse other documents that you might need on the go, for example Airline or travel itineraries.
Sync your iTunes folder across multiple computers
One thing that always annoyed me was having different music on my PC vs my Macbook. Fortunately you can use Dropbox to sync your iTunes library across both computers to enjoy the same songs wherever you are.
If you planning to do this you’ll more than likely need to upgrade to 50GB of space or more ($9.99/month).
All you need to do is:
- Move your iTunes library folder to a Folder on your Dropbox (i.e. music/itunes)
- Start iTunes with shift pressed (option on OSX)
- It’ll pop up with a box asking for you to choose the library, simply choose the location on the Dropbox
Source: How to Sync you iTunes folder in 3 easy steps
Keep Desktop Wallpapers in one place
Ever reformatted your PC & realised that you’ve deleted all your snazzy desktop wallpapers? Simply store them all on your dropbox.
Track Thieves that might steal your equipment
This is probably one of the sneakiest DropBox tricks that we came across during our research. You can use your DropBox to catch potential laptop thieves or security breaches.
You can set up a Keylogger on your system to run in the background & save all the logs to your DropBox. If anyone ever steals your laptop or uses it without you knowing & connects to the internet then you’ll have a complete breakdown of everything they’ve been doing (including all the services they may have logged into).
Source: 5 Great DropBox Mashups