In-depth

Top 10 tips to get the most out of Dropbox

Are you getting the most out of a Dropbox account? Simon Brew has some basic tips and advice to help you get that little bit more…

2 Mar 2012

Dropbox offers other ways to get more space, up to a maximum of 8GB extra for the free, basic account. In theory, then, your initial 2GB account can be 10GB by the time you've finished.

So how do you do it? Well, you get 500MB for every person you refer to the service, assuming you do so through this llink. Students qualify for even more space, too.

3. Know Dropbox's mobile limits

While you can install the Dropbox service on the likes of Android and iOS devices, there is an inherent limitation. Namely, the application isn't allowed to constantly run in the background, as it can on a desktop computer, and thus files do not automatically sync.

You need, therefore, to make sure you manually make sure the files you need are up to date (marking them as Favorites tells Dropbox to prioritise them automatically). Be wary, too, that you're careful as to which files you sync to a mobile device. Massive video and picture files are an easy way to send your bandwidth charges soaring. Which leads us on to

4. Manage your space

It can be tempting, given the flexibility of the Dropbox service, to use it as an extension to a Documents folder. You're perfectly free to do this, of course, but remember that whatever you're dropping into the folder is going to be synced wherever else you log in.

It makes sense, therefore, to keep on top of how you use your Dropbox space, and to make it a place to keep active files. That way, you also minimise the risk of running out of space altogether.

5. You still need to back-up

Dropbox's reliability rates are strong, but common sense still needs to prevail. At the very least, it's worth taking a weekly if not more frequent back-up of your Dropbox folder.

There's a more advanced option, though. You can get a plug-in called Pack-Rat, which saves deleted and earlier versions of files for 30 days. You need to be a Dropbox Pro at least to use the option, and it doesn't count against your storage allowance either. It's very useful for peace of mind, and works well in tandem with an offline storage solution.