Dropbox - New and Improved

I've mentioned a program called Dropbox in several posts and a recent software update has prompted me to shed a little light on this gem of an app.  Dropbox is software available for smartphones, laptops, and computers that allows you to easily move files between multiple devices, back up files, or share files with another person.

Dropbox gives you 2 GB of storage upon signing up for your account and increase your account size up to 18GB through referrals at a rate of 500MB per referral.  Heavier users can purchase larger amounts of storage with monthly rates starting at $9.99.

Here are the thing you'll want to do.  For those that need more assistance, please watch this video.


1) Sign up for the account
2) Download the program to your phone and/or computer
3) Move files into your Dropbox.

Once you've downloaded Dropbox to your computer you will see it on your desktop.  All you have to do is double click the program to open it and you will see a folder open up.  Anything you put in this folder will be backed up to Dropbox and accessible on other devices.  If you're on someone else's computer, you DO NOT need to download Dropbox.  If you go to Dropbox.com, you will see an option to log in to your account in the upper right hand corner. You can transfer files when accessing your account this way.  This is a great way to access your stuff from a work or school computer if you can't install new software on it.

Watch the following video and fast forward to the 6:20 mark if you want to move files from you phone to your computer.

Now that I've completely buried the lead, it's time to talk about what got me motivated to finally talk about Dropbox.  A recent software update allows Android phones to automatically upload all photos and videos to Dropbox.  Upon installing the app on my Droid 4, Dropbox asked me if I wanted to upload my pictures and videos.  In less than 5 minutes, I had about 40 photos uploaded.  Videos will only upload over Wi-Fi however and the app will not upload anything if your battery level is too low (it immediately resumed uploading upon placing the phone on a charger for me).  In the settings menu you can toggle the camera upload, whether uploads take place over Wi-Fi or cellular connection, or turn off the 25MB file limit (this allows videos to automatically upload, but remember this counts against your data plan).

That previous paragraph is worth the price of admission for this blog and the app.  Wait a minute... I'll see you next time. :)