Truly Sync Your Android Device With Dropbox Via Dropsync [Android 2.0+]

Truly Sync Your Android Device With Dropbox Via Dropsync [Android 2.0+]:

Android provides contact, calendar and bookmark sync with Google servers, but alas, no support for native sync with other important information that as a student, I desperately need, such as tasks, documents and notes. There are many other great services you can rely on, such as Evernote, DoIt.im and others.

I, for one, needed my PDF slides to review for class so I definitely needed to find a way to sync it to my Acer tablet. Dropbox is my preferred syncing service, which works wonders on computers. However on mobile devices, especially Android devices, it leaves a lot to be desired, mainly because of the lack of support for two-way syncing goodness.

Dropbox may or may not implement this feature soon, but in the meantime, Dropsync does a superb job of uploading and downloading files in real-time (Pro version), or other intervals if you so prefer. If you use Dropbox, this app might just make your mobile life easier.

Dropbox doesn’t just shine for syncing files so you’ll have the same set on different devices that you own, but it’s also great for backing up those same files in case of any emergency. It’s not the only one that does that either. SpiderOak and SugarSync are also excellent syncing services with mobile apps, and while I tried all three services, I stuck with Dropbox because it had virtually no learning curve, it had clients for all three OSes that I’m familiar with, and it synced things without noticeable delay.

There are two versions of Dropsync, free and pro. The version I’m testing here is the pro version that’s available for $5.99 on the Android Market.

Syncing SD Card Folders With Dropbox Folders

When you download and launch Dropsync, there’s not much to see beyond the status and preferences screens. The first screen shows the status of your syncs, how much has been transferred to your device or to Dropbox’s servers, as you can see in the next cropped screenshot.



If you tap on Settings, that’s where it gets a bit more interesting.



You can choose which SD card folder to sync with which Dropbox folder in the Settings.

If you’re using this on a mobile phone and need to set limits on how much data you’re consuming with this app, you can set file size limits for all the files you’re transferring whether they going from or to your Android device.

If you’re watching your limits, it’s probably good to uncheck the Instant Upload option, which uploads and downloads changes in any modified files in real-time (pro version only). You can also set Dropsync to sync every 15 minutes, 1 hour to once a day.



This app is not optimized for tablets. In fact, you’ll notice it allows you to set whether transfers occur via Wi-Fi or your mobile data connection.



Other options include whether to offer notifications on each sync. I’ve used this app for a semester and would recommend to uncheck that option as it gets tiring to have to clear that message on a tablet, where there’s no “Clear All” button, at least not on my tablet as far as I know.

Differences Between Free And Pro Versions

There are several differences between the free and the pro version. First, as I’ve mentioned, real-time syncing is only available for users with the pro key.



There are also more size limits you can pick from so only files up to a certain file size are allowed to be transferred, which is handy especially if you’re on a data plan with caps.



Apart from having no ads, the last benefit of the pro version is that you can sync more than one pair of folders, which for me was the main reason I needed to purchase this version. Having relied on this pro version for over a semester, I think it just allowed for fewer headaches and more efficiency.

There are a number of similar apps that can sync your Android device with your computer. Which are the applications you prefer? Let us know in the comments section below.