Hey I’m back. This is another thing that I wasn't able to understand until I learned the hard way. The desktop application has the purpose of synchronizing (syncing) your dropbox account with your computer. This means that you will have all your website files also on your computer and that makes it easier to work with your files. All the same files in both places.
The IMPORTANT thing to understand here is that syncing means that ANY changes you make on your dropbox files in either place will also happen at the other place. So if I delete a file in my computer in the dropbox folder through windows file explorer, the desktop application will SYNC that to my account on the website and delete the file from there too. If I do something on the website, the desktop application will SYNC that to my computer’s dropbox folder. This goes for all actions like moving, editing, adding etc.
Also very important is to make sure that the dropbox desktop application is always on running, otherwise your files won’t sync. If I make changes to a file on my computer, the desktop app will sync that change to my file on the website first, and then to any other computers or phones or tablets that I use the dropbox app on. Any change I make to a file must first sync with my website account, and then it will sync with my other devices.
There are a couple of ways to free up space on my computer if I need to. So far I don’t have a problem because I don’t use Mac computers (usually very small hard drives from what I understand). One way is Selective Sync, and it is available to free and paying people. You can pick the folders that you want to have syncing to your computer, and leave the other ones just online. You can still get to them through the internet browser. This is the link to explain more https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/selective-sync-overview.
The second way is Smart Sync, but this is only for paying people’s accounts. This can leave a place holder in your windows file explorer so you can see the file name, but it won’t be taking up space on your computer. This link tells more about it https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/smart-sync.
Download and install the dropbox desktop application from this link https://www.dropbox.com/downloading but be careful.
Pro tips:
- During installation procedure, take your time and READ everything that it shows you. Do not just click Next and OK. READ!
- Be careful with the computer backup part. This will move your desktop and downloads and documents folders in to the dropbox folder, and will start syncing them to your website account. This link has more details https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/how-to-use-dropbox-backup and also tells you how to turn this off if you accidentally turn it on. Whatever you do, DO NOT uninstall the dropbox desktop application, and DO NOT delete anything. Do not panic. Try the disable steps first, and if you need help just stop and contact the dropbox people on the forum or facebook or twitter. If you are a paid account person, you can contact their support from this link https://www.dropbox.com/support too.
That’s it for now. I might post something else later tonight. It’s so hot here and I don’t have air conditioning and I can’t sleep 🙂
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