Take your files mobile with Dropbox

Here’s the idea: you’re away from your computer—Mac or PC—and you want to use your mobile device to access folders and files that are saved on your computer. A cloud sync service like Dropbox can fill that gap and provide quick and easy access to your files. I’ve been testing this for a while and it works great.

The way it works:

• You have a Dropbox account (free 2 GB account, or pay for more space).
• The Dropbox application is installed on your computer, which creates a folder called ‘Dropbox’ and syncs this folder (and every folder inside it) to your online account.
• Any folders and files that you would like to be able to access on your mobile device, just move those into the Dropbox folder structure.
• Install the free Dropbox app on your mobile device, enter your login information, and have access to your online account and all of the folders and files you have synced up on your computer.

It’s important to point out that this is not some ‘virtual’ folder—the Dropbox folder and its subfolders actually exist on your computer, so it’s no different than your current folder hierarchy: your data is still stored on your hard drive. The only difference is that once a file is saved locally, a copy automagically gets pushed to the cloud. This serves several purposes:

1. A remote backup of your files. In case your computer were stolen or damaged such that you couldn’t get to your data, you could recover your files from Dropbox. This is reason enough to do it.
2. Remote access for viewing up-to-date copies of all your files when you’re away from your computer.
3. The ability to share a file with someone else, either by using the Public folder or by emailing a link to the file directly from the Dropbox mobile app.

As of this writing Dropbox mobile apps are available for iPhone, iPad, Android, and iPod Touch—according to the Dropbox Anywhere page, Blackberry support is coming as well.

I’ve found the Dropbox service and the mobile applications to be very stable and reliable so far as I have used them on iPhone and iPad. I experimented for a while with a free 2 GB account, but recently upgrade to the 100 GB service for $20 a month.

I’ve mentioned Dropbox in several blog posts—I’m not involved with the company in any way, just a satisfied customer. They’re doing a really good job.

Posted: July 10th, 2010
Filed under: File Sharing & Storage, Free (or low-cost), Handheld, Mobile, Software, Web-based Tags: backup, cloud, dropbox, ipad, iphone, storage, web-apps | 2 Comments »

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