[Trainer-talk] dropbox share vs sync

[Blaine Clark]

When you have Dropbox installed on your computer you can synchronize 
files through the client with any other computers you share that account 
with as long as they too have the client installed and are logged onto 
the same account. You can have several accounts, but you can only 
synchronize through one account and only if you have the client installed.

I've had Dropbox as a client on my computer with a single account shared 
with other users in other areas as we shared and updated files in a 
collaborative work. At the same time I had another account which I used 
as a backup target for some program settings such as my email program's 
address books, message filters, add-ons and account settings. Also my 
account settings for Filezilla, my FTP client. Also a few important 
documents. To use a second or even third account you cannot synchronize 
them automatically with your computer because you can't change account 
settings in your downloaded client. In order to use multiple accounts 
you have to go to the Dropbox site and log in to whichever account you 
want to access. You then have to use the uploader to manually get your 
files onto Dropbox. On shared folders much the same holds true. You 
can't synchronize with shared folders except the way you have found, by 
downloading and overwriting or replacing the old files on your computer.

I've also used Dropbox at other times as a target to synchronize my 
important or favorite files, but to do this after having downloaded and 
installed and logged onto an account, you have to uninstall Dropbox and 
then reinstall it entering other account info. If you're running Windows 
and choose to do this, you run the serious risk of corrupting your 
registry with repeated installations and uninstalls. Don't do that! I 
use Linux and I can install and reinstall to my heart's content without 
messing anything up. Not to be infantile, but I believe neener-neener 
may be appropriate for me to say here to you Microsoft users!

In a nutshell, you can only automatically synchronize with one account 
through the installed program. For all other actions, you can only share 
files and manually upload or download, overwriting any target files.