Dropbox: Syncing Your Files Between Different Devices

There was a time when sharing and ensuring files stay in sync was with the use of portable storage devices (from floppy drives to USB flash disks to memory cards) and using the Briefcase feature in Windows, but those were actually the non-cloud days.

Today, like Dropbox, there are many cloud storage offerings wherein they promise a seamless syncing feature performance we have always wanted. So if you’re tired of the same old fashion of ensuring that your files are always in sync, you may really want to use Dropbox as a contender.

Syncing your files between different devices or different computers is very much easy with Dropbox.

These are some of the points you may want to take heed of:

1. You must have a Dropbox account. Luckily, as to this date, they are offering a free cloud storage of 2GB which you can upgrade to a paid service for a higher capacity. To register, you may go to dropbox.com and select sign up.
2. You must have downloaded and installed the Dropbox app on each computer, tablet or smartphone you want to sync files with, to, and from. To download, go to dropbox.com/download.
3. The same rule goes if you want to sync files between smart devices. You can visit http://goo.gl/4Z4Ox for the Android Dropbox app, http://goo.gl/r51db for iOS devices, and http://goo.gl/Rh5VR if you are using a Windows phone.
4. Simply follow the set-up wizard for each type of installation you may encounter, and all files that you throw from any of these devices will be available in all other devices linked to the same Dropbox account.

If you want only a few files or folders to be synced, you can take advantage of Dropbox’s Selective Sync feature. By default, you are asked if you want to select only a few folders to be synced during setup, but you failed to do so or if you changed your mind at a later time:

1. Click on the Dropbox icon found on the notification area of your desktop. Select the gear icon found on the bottom right of the small window then select Preferences. This should lead you to a floating window with tabs.
2. Go the Advanced tab, and under the Selective Sync category, press the Selective Sync… button. Selective Sync” />
3. A new pop up window should show up. Check or uncheck the folders you want to sync selectively. You may Switch to Advanced view if you want to select subfolders.
4. Click the Update button.

Remember that this setup only works with computers and hence you cannot setup Selective Sync using your Dropbox account online. If you have multiple computers/devices to share files across, you have to manually setup this feature on each of them.

Lastly, if two computers modify the same file at the same time, Dropbox creates a conflicted copy of the file with the author and other details on the file name. This is to avoid merging contents that are both done validly, but from different manners or perspectives.