I thought it was a way of sending photos and I used it to do this after a holiday. I had to send the co ordinator of the holiday photos a number. Apart from that I haven't knowingly used it.

Now I am getting messages via email that it is running out of space. Does this mean dropbox is automatically the storage facility of my computer?

hesian - 2021-04-19 12:47:00

It's a cloud. You've probably set it up to automatically sync with your phone. You can turn auto-sync off. Clouds are awesome. Anyone who wants to protect schoolwork, important docs or photos should use a cloud like Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, etc. If you ever have a device error or your device gets stolen, your important files will be safe.

Just go into your Dropbox settings and turn off your auto sync so that you don't fill it up too fast though.

digga7 - 2021-04-19 13:01:00

It is file storage in on some facility in some other country. The files, (photos, whatever), are transferred through the internet to it from your computer. This CAN be set up to happen automatically. That amount of FREE storage you get is limited.

Edited by nice_lady at 1:36 pm, Mon 19 Apr

nice_lady - 2021-04-19 13:35:00

it's a hard drive in another country that stores your data that you send to it and is terribly insecure Why would you want to do this when you can add a backup drive to your own computer? Cloud storage is readily accessed by spy programs of the Government of the country you store in.

hulloitsme - 2021-04-20 11:50:00

So if I ignore it will it just stop removing things from my computer and dump anything I have accidentally allowed on it? There didnt seem to be any way of finding that out. I don't care about much but have been writing a personal history at the request of my kids and I wouldnt want that to disappear.

hesian - 2021-04-20 15:29:00

Nothing is being REMOVED from your computer. Stuff is being COPIED to dropbox because you have set it up to do tha until or unless you stop that process it'll keep trying to upload copies of whatever. That should not affect the originals on your computer. Take a look at the settings in the dropbox app. It will be quite possible to modify them.

Edited by nice_lady at 3:40 pm, Tue 20 Apr

nice_lady - 2021-04-20 15:38:00

hesian wrote:

So if I ignore it will it just stop removing things from my computer and dump anything I have accidentally allowed on it? There didnt seem to be any way of finding that out. I don't care about much but have been writing a personal history at the request of my kids and I wouldnt want that to disappear.

If you don't want it there I would suggest you take a copy of everything in the dropbox folder first and stick it somewhere safe, even a folder on the desktop, just to be safe...
Not sure if dropbox works the same way now but some cloud storage services (onedrive) can be configured to store your data *only* in the cloud, so if you remove cloud service from your device, you could potentially lose access to the data.

Edited by king1 at 3:45 pm, Tue 20 Apr

king1 - 2021-04-20 15:44:00

Jeez. Ouch. Dumb idea. Cloud supposed to be a backup.

nice_lady - 2021-04-20 15:50:00

hesian wrote:

So if I ignore it will it just stop removing things from my computer and dump anything I have accidentally allowed on it? There didnt seem to be any way of finding that out. I don't care about much but have been writing a personal history at the request of my kids and I wouldnt want that to disappear.

Strangely the app doesn't think for itself.

spyware - 2021-04-20 15:58:00

nice_lady wrote:

Jeez. Ouch. Dumb idea. Cloud supposed to be a backup.

cloud is not necessarily a backup just because its in the cloud... The service has to specifically be geared towards a backup eg backblaze.

Even though they have some redundancy features Dropbox/onedrive etc are more geared toward data synchronisation across devices and platforms

king1 - 2021-04-20 16:15:00

hulloitsme wrote:

it's a hard drive in another country that stores your data that you send to it and is terribly insecure .....

Spot on. Likely a loose usb stick hanging off the end of a cable under the bed of a 16yr old schoolboy in India who is selling the space for 1c/week. No way of knowing and no contract so no remedy when he unplugs it.

tegretol - 2021-04-24 18:05:00

More absolute crap.

spyware - 2021-04-24 19:08:00

I don't use Dropbox for photos, but I do use it for data, and it is particularly useful when sharing files and we can both update the data - or I can solve the hiccups with a fairly complex Excel system, if someone mucks things up. Dropbox also stores the previous versions.

I also use it between my laptops and PC so that the files are all up to date, which is particularly useful when writing an article or course notes, family history etc.

I tend to think of the potential loss if the house burns down, so unless you are going to store files on a back up drive in a different location, backed up daily, just storing on a back up drive at home, is no guarantee they are 100% safe anyway.

Nothing is 100% secure, or so it seems, but if anyone hacks into my scribblings, good luck to them.

Edited by socram at 7:39 pm, Sat 24 Apr

socram - 2021-04-24 19:27:00