I have some questions about having two accounts, and using them with the desktop app.

[seskally]

I'll try to keep this as concise as possible, please bear with me here... I'm a Mac user FWIW.

I do contract design work. One company I work with is the owner of a Dropbox business account. I'm setup as a user on that account allowing me access to their files. When logged into the DB app it shows I can link a personal account also. I know you can have 1 business account and 1 personal account on 1 computer. So does this mean that even though I'm not the owner of the business account, as a user of that account does it count as me using my 1 business account allocation? The reason I ask is because...

I'd like to migrate my work files to the DB cloud for 2 reasons. First, I'd like to be able to access and work on my files from anywhere. Secondly, I want a remote subcontracted designer to have access to work files so she can work on stuff. Essentially using DB as a file server if that makes sense. These files are big and it will likely require a business level account of my own. However I'm not sure if my client's account counts against me or not. Is it possible to use the app to login to my own business account and use the web interface to login to the client's business account? I'd like to avoid setting up a separate user account on my computer. I need to switch between jobs and clients quickly and swapping between users all the time sounds tedious. 

ALSO...yes there's more. I'd like to still have a local backup of said files on DB. Many of the design files represent hours of work and deadlines are always looming. If DB failed somehow and I lost those files it would be a disaster.

So in summary...

1. Did I burn my business account allocation by being a user of a business account I don't own?

2. If so can I use the web interface for them and the desktop app for my DB business account?

3. Can I have my files locally and mirrored/synced on DB for access by myself and another user?

4. Can I backup said local files via Time Machine to a hard drive.

5. As files get updated, changed, saved, etc will it all sync up and backup properly?

I know that's a lot. You see why my head is spinning. Any suggestions are appreciated, I'll do my best to clear up any confusion.

[Daphne]

Hey there @seskally, I'd be happy to help out here!

Being part of a Business team, whether you're a member or an admin, counts as being on a Business subscription.

Just to clarify, since you'd like to setup another account, would any of the personal paid plans work for you in terms of space? Either Plus or Professional.

This will allow you to have both your business account with your client, and your own account syncing locally to your computer too.

Otherwise, if both accounts will be under a Business subscription, the best option would be to sync one locally, and access the other via the website.

Now, about question 3, the desktop app will sync your files to a local Dropbox folder.Any time there is a change to the files in either place (locally or online), the changes will be synced by the app.

Usually, when running the desktop app, we don't advise automatically backing up the files with Time Machine, so I'd suggest checking this thread for some more info on this.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!

[seskally]

Is it necessary to backup the Dropbox data? Essentially I'd only have one copy of my files in my Finder Dropbox folder and syncing to the cloud. Do I REALLY need a backup of that data? My gut says yes, but maybe that's archaic thinking?

[Daphne]

Thanks for getting back to me here @seskally.

It really depends on your preference for this. Personally, I do a manual backup of all my computer data about once a month.

Dropbox does keep a version history of your files though, and you can restore files that were deleted within this version history window too.

The length of that window depends on your current plan, which you can check out more info on here.