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Full Local Backup to an External Drive
I would like to be able to create a full local backup of my Dropbox without needing to sync all files to my computer’s internal storage. Right now, my Dropbox is larger than the available space on my computer, so I can’t keep everything synced locally. Because of this, I don’t have a reliable way to back up all of my files to a physical drive for long-term safety or peace of mind (unless I do it in batches and that takes a long time. It would be extremely helpful to be able to connect an external hard drive and sync my entire Dropbox directly to that drive, without first downloading/syncing everything to my computer. Ideally, this would work as a one-way backup (Dropbox to external drive), clearly labeled as a backup destination, so there’s no risk of accidentally overwriting files. Having a native way to back up all Dropbox content to an external drive would significantly improve data safety and flexibility, especially for users with large accounts. This would be especially valuable for long-time Dropbox users with large libraries who want a simple, reliable backup solution without third-party tools.
Storage Usage Quota Enforced by Dropbox for Desktop
We would like a (business-focused?) option where we can set a maximum percentage of free disk storage that the Dropbox app is able to use on-disk —ideally to be set within the Dropbox Admin Console and apply to all accounts, though with exceptions available, similar to how the "Storage limit per member" & associated "Exceptions" settings work today— plus a "hard stop" limit, e.g. pause syncing if free storage is <10 percent of total disk space. The general idea here would be if a system has 1TB of storage and 200GB already used for system/apps/email/whatever, Dropbox should not be able to use more than 80 percent of the currently-remaining free space. So in this example, assuming no change to non-Dropbox storage usage, if Dropbox's locally-synced storage usage exceeds ~640GB of downloaded files an actionable alert gets presented to the end user… and if they exceed the disk usage quota syncing gets paused until they free up storage, ideally by setting Dropbox files to online-only. This usage limit would need to scale dynamically, so that when Dropbox is using 200 GB (leading to 400GB total disk usage) and other processes on the system claim another 250 GB of storage (650GB total usage), Dropbox is now only allowed to claim another 280GB of the remaining 350 GB storage from that point in time. If other processes keep claiming free disk space the Dropbox app's limit should dynamically adjust until the hard-stop limit. This would help prevent situations we see now where somebody sets an entire project folder to offline mode (accidentally or without realizing just how much storage the folder will use) the Dropbox app will happily download files until the disk is completely full …which then causes all kinds of unfortunate knock-on effects and can be tough to reverse. With the addition of the Sync & Storage dashboard to make it easier for folks to see what is using up their space and quickly free up storage via Smart Sync Online-only mode, leveraging that to get people to offload Dropbox files —especially via a progressive series of alerts when their Dropbox folder is approaching/at the disk usage quota— would help prevent these disk-full situations caused by Dropbox. Thanks!
Turn Auto Play off for audio Files
Please add a way to stop audio files from playing instantly, as soon as you open them. On the Dropbox app, using an iPhone, the minute you open the file it starts playing. If you have previously played that audio file and paused it half way through, you can't stop it from playing in time to take it back to the start. We use Dropbox for our choir and keep our backing tracks and sheet music together. During a performance we need to make sure all the files have been returned to the start and we can't have them ready to go to press play.
Viewing my files in a chronological order- especially necessary for photographs.
Viewing my files in a chronological order- especially necessary for photographs. An example of the need for the photos that I put in a folder for a client is this- I photographed a construction site to capture existing conditions along a perimeter of a project. It’s important that all the photos facing north be grouped together- one shot after another. If the client wants to follow along the walk and the conditions, it just doesn’t make sense for the shots to be out of order. Not only that, it makes me look unorganized and unprofessional. Another example is taking photos of a goalie at at soccer game. Doesn’t it seem logical that the shots would reflect the action of the ball and the player in the order that the ball is played? Having the shots in order is a necessity. Having to search and arrange myself takes extra time. I view this organizational tool as a priority. Thank you.Enable Emoji in file names.
I use emoji’s to help me find things quicker. I would like to add an emoji from the apple keyboard to the file folder name but when I click on rename and add the emoji it says “invalid folder name...the folder name contains invalid characters”. Here is an example I wish to change “Vehicles and DOT” folder to say “🚗Vehicle and DOT”