Sync Your Stuff with Dropbox Updated for 2013

On April 13th last year, I shared with you how you can use a free online storage service (cloud computing) to sync your stuff between various devices.

Dropbox is the program/service and you can sign up for it here.

As I said last year,

Do you have more than one computer? By installing Dropbox on each of your computers you can:

• Save a file to all your computers at once.
• Start working on one computer, and continue working on another.
• Get to your photos, docs, and videos from anywhere.

You’ll get 2 GB of space free, and if you really need more you can buy more space.

Dropbox actually has many ways to earn more free space.  My primary account has 6.75 GB of Dropbox storage.

Now here’s my updated recommendation for you for the new year which I just did recently…

I have my personal laptop which is a Toshiba Ultrabook with Windows 7 and my work computer which is an old beat up laptop with Windows XP.  When I am at the office I need to use my work computer as it has some special programs that I cannot install on my personal laptop.

However when I’m outside the office, I use my personal laptop for work too with the exception of those few special programs.  Dropbox has been a time and lifesaver in keeping everything organized.

But, I was using my primary Dropbox account on both computers, and due to the way Dropbox syncs your stuff, my work computer was filling up with non-work stuff from my primary Dropbox account.

Here’s the answer and what I did this week:

I set up another Dropbox account using my work email as the primary owner.

1st step on my work computer was to uninstall the Dropbox program.  This did not delete the flies.

2nd step was to sign up for another Dropbox account from my work computer and install the Dropbox program again.

3rd step was to delete all the leftover old Dropbox folders and documents from my work computer to free up 4GB of space on that old machine.

Step 4 was to sign into my primary Dropbox account online from my personal laptop.  Here I was able to share access to my work folder with another account or email address.  I shared my work folder with my work email account.

5th step was to check my work email for the invite I sent myself and accept.

NOTE: Be sure you follow these steps in the above order or you may accidentally delete your stuff you have saved in your primary Dropbox account, since it will sync automatically across all your computers and in the cloud.

Now I have a second Dropbox account that is strictly work related and I can still share my work between my computers.

Other benefits include:

• Keep my personal stuff personal, since it’s no longer on my work computer.
• Extra cloud storage and backup in case a computer crashes.
• More free space on my work computer.