How Do I Download Dropbox On My Computer
Joie Coffield
After you install the Dropbox desktop app on your computer, you can access Dropbox from the icon in your taskbar (Windows) or menu bar (Mac) or the Dropbox folder in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac).
Dropbox Web Helper supports the Dropbox user interface on Mac computers. It only runs when the desktop app is running.
Dropbox Web Helper is an independent process, so it may start and stop at different times than the desktop app. If you adjust your firewall or antivirus software for Dropbox, we recommend similar adjustments for Dropbox Web Helper.
With the Dropbox desktop app, you can save, view, share, and access the files and folders stored in your Dropbox account from your computer. When you download and install the Dropbox desktop app, two things are added to your computer:
Like many programs and applications, Dropbox may automatically update to the latest version. These updates are rolled out gradually after a new update is available, and are necessary to keep Dropbox on your computer functioning.
When you remote wipe your files from a computer, the computer immediately logs you out and stops syncing. Dropbox then attempts to remove any Dropbox files from that computer when the computer is online and the desktop app is running. The removed files will still be available everywhere else you access your files in Dropbox.
To remote wipe Dropbox files from a computer, follow the steps to log out remotely from your computer and check the box next to Delete files from [Account name] Dropbox the next time this computer comes online before the last step of clicking Sign out.
You can automatically create a back up of key folders stored on your computer in your Dropbox account. After the initial backup, any changes you make to those folders or their contents will be automatically updated on your computer and your Dropbox folder.
In reinstalling, I thought I clicked on "no, I don't want dropbox to backup my computer" but apparently I clicked wrong because it started a backup that I couldn't stop in any way besides using the Pause Sync option.
So I let it back it up all the way and then turned off the automatic backup on the website, hoping it will delete the backup, but it didn't.
Now I have a backup of my computer on dropbox, which I don't want, and I can't just delete the folder because it deletes things in my computer too.
I tried with a couple of files, and deleting them in Dropbox deletes the original file, almost as if it's not a copy.
Hi @daphne and thanks for answering!
I did, I checked again just now and it let me sync and unsync again, but unsyncing doesn't seem to eliminate the folder in Dropbox and when I try to move it to the trash it says it's moving 15.000 files or something so it definitely isn't empty...
When I click in, it's like it's not even IN dropbox but instead it brings me to the C: folder so it doesn't look like "Computer > Desktop > Dropbox > My PC > Documents" which is where I am directly before I click on "Computer files" which brings me to "Computer > OS (C:) > Users > Caterina > Documents"
On the website there seems to be no automatic backup settings, is this normal?
I hope this additional information helps!
well in my case, "BACKUP" deleted everything in my desktop folder, documents, and downloads. on the web, i was able to restore about 18 jpegs, but nothing else.
lost all my PDFs, everything. and now i am screwed....
my options....null, as how ever dropbox did this, file recovery cant even find the files....
This would be one of the most perplexing and infuriating irritations about DropBox. Period!!! The method to do this simple task is amazing complex and most of the examples given in the help menu are not just frustrating, but do not work because the screen menu is different to what the help menu says. Never ever will I use this useless program again!! Seriously, why make it so complicated to simply undo a simple backup process and why in hell would you ever ask a computer to backup to DropBox and then once they are deleted from DropBox they are automatically deleted from your computer!!! WTF? And still after all this time I keep getting messages about upgrading my DropBox because its full and they hold you ransom because if you delete the damm application you lose all your data from your computer!! Nonsense!!
Yes, exactly -- backup made it impossible to save my documents, deleted my most important folder, renders files unfindable on the desktop where I used to just save them as well as inaccessible from my other devices... It apparently deleted my filing system and added it all to two folders, one is called 'Dropbox' and the other is called "My files on dropbox" but neither of them is complete. Fortunately there is ONE reliable version of Dropbox available from the taskbar icon on my desktop. But Dropbox, accessed from Myfiles, from the desktop icon, or from my laptop, it doesn't contain the files I need even if I did upload them from the taskbar icon.
Dropbox used to be a very straightforward, very useful, very understandable tool. Then Microsoft bought it. The marketing folks there seem to deviously see it as a milking tool to get customers to use and upgrade to more and more features and space, but with a hook: you can't delete files in the backup without deleting them everywhere... It's designed bloat. It has taken over my computers also, loading every file of every computer onto every each one until there's no space. If you delete the backup you delete the file. Dropbox has gone from a beautiful powerful, understandable tool, to a nefarious, complicated, insidious monster. This was very short sighted of Microsoft. They couldn't keep it intuitively simple. I am copying files from Dropbox slowly and carefully, until there are no more files in Dropbox, all safely sequestered away. then purge Dropbox. If Microsoft has a more straightforward version or method, they have buried it.
I've gone through the steps of unlinking Dropbox from each computer. Checking their names in System Preferences and also in the Security tab of my Dropbox account. The computer names are correct in Dropbox but the backup feature is still creating the folders as just Mac
That is how the folders are now named. The first one will be named PC. Subsequent folders will be named PC (2), PC (3), etc. It was a change that was implemented to simplify the computer backup folders.
Under a Windows OS, 'sleep' means that the computer is off and not running programs, but memory is being held live so that it can wake up very quickly. In this state, NO, dropbox can't sync, because it's not running.
With my Dropbox on Mac, I found by looking at my Recent Event page on dropbox.com that the sync only happens while I'm at the machine, although I didn't let it sleep before I left (to sync the huge batch of files). The solution above worked for me -- now it syncs while I'm away.
I did it a little bit differently on my setup, though. I began with an existing site folder that I was already sharing between two computers on a cloud drive (iCloud for now, although see my cautions about iCloud above). I created it in the following way:
I switch between machines and OSes frequently. I found it easier to use docker to bring up sites, work on them, save them and bring them down with files saved and synced in dropbox. Its as easy as docker-compose up.
Please, can OneDrive be used for the same purpose to sync local sites between computers under local classic since it is already install on my local machine which syncs to OneDrive and as such a virtual folder would have been created so I am just wondering if my team and I can work from different computers and backup onto same folder on OneDrive?
I have used Joplin for over a year. I have it running on my desktop. I have been synchronising my desktop app notebook with my android device using dropbox successfully. I have now changed my phone and loaded the Joplin app on my new phone. I cannot work out how to set up the desktop notebook sync with my new phone. Can you help? It's frustrating because I obviously got it to work with my previous phone - but cannot seem to repeat it. Thanks.
As an aside I figure I originally got my concepts mixed up. I originally thought you had to set up the each notebook to sync, but once I'd enabled the connection between dropbox and the device it sync'd all the notebooks that were sync enabled. Lesson learnt.
Further findings; the settings accessible by right clicking the dropbox tray icon does follow gtk theme and font settings. It is the initial set up that does not, and that is crucial to the account and linking of the computer. Nothing works in Dropbox without the initial account linking from your computer in the desktop linux application. (just to be clear that the web site has nothing to do with this computer set up)
Dropbox is a storage drive for your files that lets you save documents, photos, videos and other files all in one place in the cloud. It automatically backs up your documents and syncs to your computer.
Another option is to use a different Dropbox account for each user login on your computer. While this technically means you can have several Dropbox folders on the same computer, you will have to switch between each user account to take advantage of Dropbox's syncing features. This method is best for groups or families that have individual Dropbox accounts and use unique user logins on the same computer.
Dropbox installs to your home directory. This is true across platforms - we use it on Mac, Windows, and Linux. In all cases, installing it for one user only sets it up for that specific user. If I need it in two accounts I have to install and configure it separately for both accounts. This makes sense from a security standpoint (it shares only your personal documents, not a single shared location that all users can access) and from a use-case standpoint (it's generally used for syncing data between computers, not for syncing between accounts on one system).
356178063d