Confused with Dropbox. Can you clarify some things about syncing, storage and accessing my account?

[OldTimeMusician]

I am new to Dropbox as of yesterday. Although reasonably tech savvy with various software, I am getting confused. None of the videos on YouTube explain in quite the right way.

I have a Dropbox account and a folder visible in File Explorer. I seem to be able to either open DB by googling it, or I can open the folder in FE.

I have paid for 2tb. I have managed to transfer folders of photos from my PC to the DB folder in FE by dragging and dropping but I keep getting a message that it is full but when look at my usage in the dashboard, it hardly registers. Is DB simply another folder in FE or do I have to access it by googling then opening the site. If this is all too long winded, perhaps someone could point me at a very simple and detailed guide which I can use, to save bothering you folks on here. Sorry, but the frustration is showing!

[Mark]

Hi @OldTimeMusician 

Welcome!

Is it Dropbox or your computer complaining it is full? My suspicions are that it is the computer. Dropbox is a folder on your machine like any other - and so crucially it uses up space (unless its told not to AFTER files have uploaded!). However, that means if you have data elsewhere on a machine and copy it to Dropbox it could take up 2x the volume of data on the drive. 

[OldTimeMusician]

Hi Mark
Thanks for responding so quickly.
Forgive my crass ignorance but I thought that when I put files into DB, they would be in the Cloud, not on my pc. Basically what I would like to do is have all my photos and all my music files stored, as I assumed they would be, in the cloud so I could delete them off my pc and clear some space on it. Am I starting with an incorrect understanding of what I am trying to do? Unfortunately, I have grown so used to intuitive software, when I come across something which I find less than intuitive, I struggle a bit, or a lot! Where does syncing come into the process. Is this what gets files into the cloud? You say that DB is a free on my pc like any other but how does it relate to what I see if I google DB and navigate to my account.
I'm sorry to appear so ignorant but I am really struggling with this and I wonder if I should abandon DB.
Best regards

[Mark]

So Dropbox is a cloud storage solution but works differently to say iCloud where things 'vanish' locally.

They stay on the computer/device unless you state otherwise. This means that if you have large files, or, ones you use a lot, you dont have to worry about the internet being down for example. It also helps remove corruption issues on upload. 

If you want AFTER they've uploaded you can set them to 'online only' and recover the disk space. 

[OldTimeMusician]

Hi Mark

Thanks very much for your comments.

However, I cannot get my head round Dropbox. It seems to me to be unexplained, illogical and unusable (from my point of view) so I am giving up and cancelling my subscription.

all the best

[WapitiHunter]

Yeah, using Dropbox is hyper-confusing to me, as is figuring out the costs for their other products (and why they exist - eg. Dropbox Transfer? What?).  I don't want to take the time to figure out anything other than to put data on a cloud solution and move it back and forth between devices and third parties.  Dropbox products are just weirdly confusing, and I don't want to invest the time into figuring out what they are trying to sell me.  Seems like they should make it seamless and intuitive in one product solution that makes my life easier.  If they ever make it simple and reasonable, I might subscribe.  I'm a free account and don't really use it that much.  

[WapitiHunter]

I want a simple solution to store and share data on the cloud across devices. Dropbox seems to have strayed from the concept of simplicity, so I just canceled. I have had Dropbox for years, and I've grown tired of it becoming less and less intuitive. Now, Dropbox is adding more "products" that should be part of a simple storage solution.  If anyone has advice for how to just have a solution to upload data, access it easily, and share it easily, I'm all ears.  Google hasn't seem to have figured it out either.  But, at least it's cheaper.  iCloud seems to be the easiest right now.