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Forum Discussion

clabmusic's avatar
clabmusic
Explorer | Level 4
11 months ago

solution to make available offline for Android?

I'd like to give a solution and also ask if anyone has a better one for the problem of downloading file folders or multiple files folders to your android devices. I was wondering if anyone has a found a better solution for downloading to an android device?

My solution:

1. Select the folder or folders and create a link

2. Copy the link

3. Email yourself the link

4. Logout of dropbox app and log out of dropbox in any browser that may have it logged into

5. Go into your email and click the link

6. The dropbox with appear and probably prompt you to log in. DO NOT LOG IN

7. Instead select the folder or folders and select "save to device"

8. You are now given the option to actually select the place you'd like the folders to download to or even create a folder in a certain spot to download them to!

9. If it's multiple folders it will download as a zip file and if it's a single folder it should just download as a single folder.  Hope this helps!

Since first using dropbox 10 years ago I have watched the simple filing system grow into a very complex UI that send you searching for the simplest of things like how to download files to your device.  The whole "make available offline" is very convoluted and buggy.  It tends to either bury the folder deep into subfolders difficult to access on your device or simply not download at all.

I've listed above my solution to downloading folders to a specific place on your android device but I was wondering if anyone has found any simpler solution.  I realize that gone are the days of simply being able to upload and download files without hassle, but I'd like to think that maybe there's a solution that I haven't yet tried.

  • Hi, clabmusic ,

     

    When you copy the link, notice that the link ends with something like `dl=0`, which means not directly downloading. Once you change that to `dl=1`, you should be able to download it immediately.

     

    Merry Christmas 🙂

     

    Cheers

    Vicker

  • Hi, clabmusic ,

     

    When you copy the link, notice that the link ends with something like `dl=0`, which means not directly downloading. Once you change that to `dl=1`, you should be able to download it immediately.

     

    Merry Christmas 🙂

     

    Cheers

    Vicker

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