Dropbox is a cloud-based storage and file sharing service. You can sync files to your Dropbox account from your computer (Mac, PC or Chromebook) or your smart device (iOS and Android).

Once uploaded, you can edit certain documents and view almost all documents directly through the website or application. You can also share any document directly with collaborators.

Complexity: simple

Platform: web-based; desktop software for Mac and PC; mobile app for smart devices (iOS and Android)

Hot to get it: http://www.dropbox.com

Help documentation: https://www.dropbox.com/help

What kinds of files can I store?

Almost any kind of files.

Documents, spreadsheets, pdf’s.
Photos, videos.
Datasets.

Dropbox will “preview” some natively: meaning that when you are using the browser or the Dropbox app, it will show you what the file looks like–the words or image–rather than just the file name and date.

This means: you can browse for the photo you need, play a video, even listen to music right in the browser. So if you gave your files obscure names, you can still find them easily.

Who uses it?

Several businesses and organizations of all sizes use dropbox. For more information, see https://www.dropbox.com/business/customers

How many files can I store? How big can they be? How much will it cost?

How many files you can store depends on how much you pay and the files’ sizes.

2GB of storage is free.
100 GB is $9.99/month.
Groups of users can pay $15 per month per user and get more space.

https://www.dropbox.com/pricing

If you refer a friend, and she signs up, you get another 500MB (almost half a GB) of space.

So if you refer, say, colleagues and students, you can get quite a good amount of space pretty quickly.

https://www.dropbox.com/help/54/en

How can I keep my files organized? Do the files have names–like on my computer? Is organizing the files easy?

Dropbox uses folders.

So you organize things the same way you do on a computer: files inside folders inside folders.

This means that if you have a problem keeping many files organized, Dropbox may not help–except the way that moving to a new apartment helps: you have to move things one batch at a time, and you may get them more organized in your new home–or you may not. (Consider that basement you have filled with stuff you’ll organize “later.”)

For photos, users see an item called “Photos.” This is not a folder: it just tracks all the photos, images and videos you’ve uploaded, regardless of whether they’re public or private.

https://www.dropbox.com/help/492/en

You can also create “albums” of photos. This is not an extra copy and takes no extra space. It’s just another place to see the photos, a way of collecting & curing them, and also a way of sharing them, if you so choose.

Who can see the files? Can I keep them private? Can I share them?

As with many such services, there are three-to-four levels of access.

Private. Only you can see or download it.
Shared by permission. Users must be signed in and can then access a file or folder you’ve chosen.
Shared by link. You create a link, and anyone who has the link can access the file or folder.
Public. This has been eliminated. Now Dropbox considers ‘sharing by link’ to be effectively “public.” (They have a point.)

What is the legal status of public or shared images–their licensing? Can people ‘steal’ my images?

Dropbox does not concern itself with licensing. If you share a file and someone does something you don’t like with it, it’s on you for sharing that file.

Can I leave the file here and publish it directly to a web site?

Yes. Dropbox offers a direct link to the file, which can then be used to render images or videos.

Further, there is a folder labeled “Public,” and anything in there can be published to the web.

Can I ever get them all back?

The default is that Dropbox is simply making a backup copy of each file you put in your local machine’s Dropbox folder–or any folder you tell the local app to sync to the cloud.

Dropbox then pushes those files to the other machines where you’ve signed in to the same account.

So the great thing about Dropbox is: you keep all your files at all times. There’s nothing to “get back.”

If, however, you’ve elected to have a folder or file not sync, it’s trivial to download it.

What if I accidentally delete a file? Can I get it back?

Dropbox keeps a certain number of older copies of updated files for a certain period of time: 30 days, in fact.
https://www.dropbox.com/help/11/en

If you pay extra, they claim they will keep all the old files.
https://www.dropbox.com/help/113/en