Getting started with Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud service that helps you

synchronize your files between multiple
devices.

 Open a browser like Edge, Internet

Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, or Safari and type
https://www.dropbox.com/tour/1 in to the top
bar for an introduction.

Pictures from https://www.dropbox.com/tour/ and https://www.dropbox.com/register

Sign up for a
Dropbox account
 In the upper right
corner of the last page
of the tour, click the
Sign in button, and in
the menu that appears,
click Sign up for
Dropbox.

 Fill out the form that appears, which asks for your
First name, Last name, email, and for you to create a
new password that you will use just for Dropbox. You
may have to type in the text of an image for security. You will also have to check that [you]
agree to Dropbox terms. Before clicking Create an account.
Dropbox
 We strongly recommend that you write down the email address & password you just created:

Username: ___________________________ Password: ___________________________

We just signed up for Dropbox on their website, but the whole point of Dropbox is to have its
application on multiple devices you use so that the files automatically show up everywhere.
Installing programs can be a little difficult. We’ll take our time and help everyone get going.

Install Dropbox on a device

Mac
 On your Apple Mac computer, open up a web browser such as Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.
 In the top address bar, type in http://www.dropbox.com/
 Toward the upper right, click the link to Download the app.
 It will download a file. This is the installer file. It may take a few minutes to download.
 Use Finder to go to the location where the file downloaded.
 Double click the file. It will create a new file called Dropbox Installer in the same place you
found the first file. Double click the Dropbox Installer
 If any error messages appear, click Open.

PC
 On your PC, open up a web browser such as Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox.
 In the top address bar, type in http://www.dropbox.com/
 Toward the upper right, click the link to Download the app.
 It will download a file. This is the installer file. It may take a few minutes to download.
 Use File Explorer to go to the location where the file downloaded.
 Double click the file. It will immediately start installing the file for you hopefully.

iOS
 From your home screen, find and tap on the blue and white App Store icon.
 Find the search box in the upper right on an iPad or the bottom bar on an iPhone. Type in
Dropbox and then tap the Search button.
 By Dropbox, tap the Get button, and then tap Install.
 From your home screen, find the new Dropbox icon and tap on it to open it.

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Dropbox
 It will open up. Type in the email address and password we entered earlier.

Android
 From your home screen, find and tap on the right pointing arrow Play Store icon.
 Find the search box and type in Dropbox and tap the Search button.
 By Dropbox, tap the Install button, and it will start installing automatically.
 From your home screen, find the new Dropbox icon and tap on it to open it.
 It will open up. Type in the email address and password we entered earlier.

One-time initial set up options

 After you’ve signed in on any device, you’ll probably be bombarded with questions such as:

Back up everything? Buy more storage?

Upload Photos? Allow notifications?
Location? Install Dropbox on another device?
Invite anyone else? Access your file system?

 Read any screens carefully before tapping any buttons. The screens that appear should give
you enough information to understand what they’re talking about.
 Ask us if you have any questions though.

Upload a file into Dropbox

 On the library computer, open a browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome and
type http://www.dropbox.com/ in the top address bar.
 If it doesn’t take you directly to your account page, log in with your email and password.
 Toward the upper right corner of the screen is a group of four buttons.
 Hover over the first one, a page with a plus sign, and click to Upload a file.
 Click Choose files. In the Documents folder on the library computer, we’ve put a folder of
Example Files. Click on one of the files from that folder, and then click Open.

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Dropbox
View that file on a different device
 Let’s go back to the device we helped you install Dropbox on earlier.

 On a Mac or a PC, find the Dropbox icon.

o On a Mac, it will be in the top Menu Bar toward the right corner.
o On a PC, it will be in the bottom left corner System Tray.
 Once you’ve found that icon, single click it.
 This shows recently updated Dropbox files. The file we uploaded before should be there!
 You can click the folder icon to view your entire Dropbox folder.

 On an iOS or Android device, find the Dropbox icon on one of your home screens and tap it.
 Since we logged in earlier, it will take you directly into your account.
 The file we uploaded before should be there!

Share a file
 Let’s go back to Dropbox on the library computer.
 Single left click on the file. Then single right click on the file.
 Click Share. It will then ask you for the email address of the person you want to send it to.

 (It may ask you to verify your email address. If you click the Send email button, you can click
or tap on the link they will send to your email account to verify your email address. Then
you can repeat the above steps to share a file. [Verifying your email is for security
purposes.])

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Dropbox
Frequently asked questions
 Q: Is Dropbox really free?
o A: If you use Dropbox for less than 2 gigabytes of files, it is 100% free. $8.25/month for
1024 GB (Roughly equivalent to 1,024,000 photos) is the cheapest personal plan.

 Q: How much is two gigabytes?

o A: Two gigabytes is roughly 2,000 pictures, or about two hours of high quality video.

 Q: What can I do to clear out space so I don’t go over two gigabytes?

o A: Delete or remove files. If there are bad or old pictures you no longer need, old
documents, etc. deleting files is the main way to free up space in Dropbox. All files you
delete are synchronized, meaning if you delete them on one device, they will be deleted
on all of your other devices. On a desktop computer (Mac/PC) you can move the files
out of the Dropbox folder via cutting and pasting them to a different location (like an
external hard drive) to free up space in your Dropbox account.

 Q: What if I lose a device I installed Dropbox on, or what if I break a device?

o A: This is one of the beauties of Dropbox! You can download your files from
https://www.dropbox.com/ or reinstall Dropbox on a new device. During the
reinstallation process, it may ask you if you want to re-download all your old files.

Practice / Open Q & A

If you had any trouble during our class today, don’t feel bad! Transferring and storing files is still
difficult. Here’s a joke to make you feel better. https://xkcd.com/949/