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General Usage
- What are the system requirements to run Dropbox?
Dropbox is supported on 32/64-bit Windows XP and Vista, Mac OSX Tiger and Leopard, as well as Ubuntu 7.10+ and Fedora Core 9+. We've also had users report success running on OpenSUSE 11, Arch Linux, Gentoo as well as several other distributions of Linux. Dropbox also supports Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. While Dropbox may work just fine on other platforms, we don't "officially" support these yet.
- Can I share all of my files between multiple computers on one account?
Of course - we even let Macs, PCs and Linux machines play together. Simply log into your account from www.getdropbox.com and click "Install" on your other computer and link to your existing account. Everything will continuously stay in sync.
- Is there a limit to how big my files can be?
Files transferred to Dropbox via the client application have no limit to filesize. There is, however, a 350MB cap on files transferred through our web interface. We may be raising this limit in the near future, though.
- Where are my files stored?
All files on Dropbox are encrypted then stored on Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) in a data center located on the east coast of the United States. We don't currently have any plans to host any data overseas, but it's certainly something we'll think about in the future.
- What kind of data can I store on Dropbox?
Anything you could possibly want! We've had users upload anything from music and pictures, to browser settings, contacts and calendars.
- Does Dropbox always upload/download the entire file any time a change is made?
Nope, Dropbox tries its best to be smart about how much gets uploaded to our servers for the best possible performance. Before transfer, we compare the new file to the previous version and only send the (binary) diff.
- Will the files I transfer across Dropbox necessarily occur in order?
Dropbox actually sorts files by size, so you don't have to worry about your smaller files getting stuck behind larger ones in transfers. We'll eventually try to make priorities more customizable in the future.
- Will files I put in Dropbox be sync'd across other machines of an account/folder even if they're off?
Additions and changes to your files will be sync'd to our servers. Computers that were off during the initial sync will then start transferring these files and their changes as soon as Dropbox is active on the system.
- How does Dropbox handle editing conflicts?
If two users share access to a file (either through sharing the same account or within a shared folder) and a conflict between their two versions appears, the Dropbox server retains only the first version to fully make it to the server.
The other machines will get copies of the conflicted file with a suffix like "(Drew's conflicted copy 1-25-2008)." Users can then manually fix the conflict and remove the extra copies of the conflicted file. - Can I undelete files and recover old versions?
Yup. All your files are not only backed up but all prior versions are preserved. So if you delete something or even just save a bad change you can restore a file in a few clicks via the web interface.
- Why did my file lose old revisions after I renamed it?
Right now, Dropbox mostly treats file renames as two separate events: the old file is deleted, and a new file is added. So your old file revisions will still be available if you Show Deleted Files on the web interface and click on the old name.
We will be adding the ability to see revisions with renames in the near future. - Can I have Dropbox back up files that aren't inside of the My Dropbox folder?
In the future, we plan to allow users to choose which folders are watched as part of the installation process. As it currently stands, though, the answer is sort of no. OS X users are (with some command line work) able to pull it off: underneath your Dropbox, create a symlink using:
ln -s
and things should run smooth as butter. No such luck with Windows. - How do I update to the latest version of Dropbox?
You don't have to! Dropbox silently updates itself as soon as an update is available. You can find out which version you're on by hovering over the Dropbox tray icon.
- How much space does my Dropbox have?
Most user accounts come with 2GB. You can always check your quota via your account page.
- Is there any way to get more space?
Indeed there is. We currently offer one upgrade plan of 50GB for $99 a year or $9.99 a month, payable by credit card. We'll be coming out with other plans in the future, too. For more detailed information about our pricing, please visit our pricing page.
Sharing
- How do I get a Public link for a file?
Files in your Public folder have URLs associated with them that you can use instead of an email attachment. Right click (Ctrl-click on OS X) a file in Public (or its subfolders) and click Dropbox -> Copy public URL. No size limits right now.
- How public are Public links? How Private are my other files?
- Any file in your Public folder is accessible to anyone who can guess your public file link and the path to the file. No one can browse the directory, though.
- Any file in your Dropbox outside of the Public folder is by default only accessible via computers linked to your account or to you via the web interface.
- If you give out a shareable link to a portion of your Photo Gallery (from here), people who know the link will be able to browse any photos in the album you linked from and any sub-album.
- What is the Photos folder for?
Subfolders in your Photos folder become albums that you can share (click your album via the web interface to get a publicly shareable link.) Just drag and drop photos directly off your digital camera into an album and they're online. If you're lazy like us, it's way easier than uploaders or email.
If you're really clever, you can combine this with shared folders and have group photo albums for your Vegas trips, weddings, etc. -- and you'll be sharing the original jpegs, not lower-quality web versions. - How do I share folders with other people?
Simply create a folder in your Dropbox then right-click -> Dropbox -> Share. You can invite people simply by entering their email addresses. You can also create shared folders on the web interface.
- What if they don't have Dropbox?
Your friend will be able to sign up for Dropbox after they get their shared folder invite. Even if they choose not to download Dropbox, they'll still be able to see the shared folder via the web interface.
Connectivity
- Does Dropbox support proxies?
Dropbox works just fine through HTTP(S) proxies. It currently pulls proxy information from your Internet Configuration settings on OS X, and Internet Explorer on Windows, and the http_proxy environment variable on Linux. If Dropbox has trouble connecting, you can manually enter any proxy settings you would like it to use in the preferences panel. Select "Preferences" from the Dropbox menu, and locate the box labelled "Proxy settings" in the "Network" section. If Dropbox is having trouble connecting, but you don't use any proxies, you may need to select "No proxy server." If Dropbox is having trouble connecting, but you do use proxies, you should select "Manually enter proxy settings" and enter your information. If you use a server with authentication, don't worry about saving your password - it is only saved locally on your computer, and it's not saved in plain text.
- But it isn't working on my corporate network!
Some corporate networks are behind HTTP proxy servers that use NTLM authentication. Dropbox currently doesn't support this kind of proxy authentication, but there is still a way to get Dropbox running on your network. You can use a wonderful third-party program called ntlmaps. It is available freely under the GNU GPL, and can be found at http://ntlmaps.sourceforge.net/. For more information on what ntlmaps is and how to use it, read the readme. Essentially, it will create an extra intermediate HTTP proxy on your local machine that Dropbox can connect to, and it will connect to your NTLM proxy server. Note that Dropbox has in no way created this program, nor can we support it - but we do know that many users have been able to use it with Dropbox effectively.
- I'm sitting behind a firewall. Which ports does Dropbox use?
Dropbox shouldn't have any problems as long as traffic is allowed over ports 80/443 (http/https).
- I'm still having trouble connecting.
In the case that you're still having trouble connecting with Dropbox, a user compiled a list of frequent problems and how to diagnose them. You can view this list here.
- Is it possible to change the Dropbox account a computer is linked to?
Right now, there's no user friendly way to start Dropbox over and force it to re-link your host to a given account. At the moment the only option is to:
- Quit Dropbox
- Delete your Dropbox folder
- Restart Dropbox
Dropbox should ask you to link your computer to an account, and you can choose another. We'll make it easier in a future release. - How much bandwidth do Dropbox transfers take?
Dropbox handles transfers at 70% of your max speed (to prevent noticeable slowdown in browsing). If you'd like to change this, open up your Dropbox preferences by clicking the tray icon, then Preferences, then Network. Here, you can specify the max rates that Dropbox transfers at.
Security and Privacy
- How secure is Dropbox?
We take utmost care to ensure Dropbox is secure. All transport of file data and file metadata occurs over SSL. Files are encrypted with AES-256 before being stored on our backend.
- Can I specify my own private key?
We plan to eventually allow users to provide their own privates key but for usability reasons (e.g. being able to view files from the web) we haven't done this yet. Some users have mounted truecrypt volumes in their dropboxes to handle this concern.
Miscellaneous
- Who are you guys?
Check out the about page.
- Is Dropbox down? How will I know when you guys go down for maintenance?
We'll always keep users updated about possible bouts of downtime through both our forums as well as on Twitter.
- Do you guys have Dropbox in my language?
At the moment, Dropbox is only officially supported in English (though many of our members provide international support in our forums). We may look into offering support for other languages in the future.
- Am I able to use Dropbox on my mobile device or iPhone?
As of right now, you aren't able to run the Dropbox app on cell phones or PDAs. However, an iPhone optimized version is available, and we're thinking of the possibility of additional support in the future.
- I'm an S3 user already, is there any way to link Dropbox with my existing S3 account? (Can we run Dropbox on our own servers?)
As of now, we currently have no plans to allow swapping out of our backend. We've given some thought about offering a self-hosted version, but it'll be a while :).
- I need more storage! How can I get more?
Dropbox will always be a free service, but more storage will be available to those willing to spend a bit of money. We'll have these plans out and available within a few weeks.
- Those are some really snazzy icons you've got there! Where are they from?
The icons on Dropbox's web interface come from the Silk set made by famfamfam, which is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
- What features are you guys working on?
A bunch. You can find out more in the forums.
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