Dropbox questions

[FlavioSousa]

I have an iPad3 and dropbox is one of my favorite apps.

Dropbox seems to be extremely useful, convenient and easy to use but I'm not sure if I'm using it properly.

A few questions:

1.It seems that dropbox and iCloud are very similar (i.e. they are both used to share files). Is this correct and which one do you recommend?

2.Can I upload any files and apps from my iPad to Dropbox or just photos and videos? I have copied pdf and Excel files from my PC to dropbox, can I do the same with my iPad?

3.How can I transfer a book from iBooks, Stanza or Kindle to my PC? Can I use dropbox to do it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Little One]

iCloud is used for backups and sharing files between your devices, you won't be able to share your files with others, as far as I am concerned.

You won't be able to upload apps to Dropbox, ever. And for myself, I have managed to upload only photos and videos from iPad to my Dropbox. But it's awesome and my favourite service how to keep smaller files like text documents and presentations synchronized between my PC and my iPad.

There is an option in iTunes to share your iBooks with your PC. The access to the specific applications is also via iTunes.

 

[FlavioSousa]

[...]You won't be able to upload apps to Dropbox, ever. And for myself, I have managed to upload only photos and videos from iPad to my Dropbox. [...]

That's a terrible shame. I have spent a small fortune on iBooks, music and apps, I'd love to find a way to copy and secure those contents.

Thanks for your reply, Little One! How do I use the iTunes option you mentioned? I can't seem to find it...

 

[f4780y]

Dropbox is extremely useful. Whilst it is true that the native app is restricted to uploading photos and video, it is well integrated with the rest of the OS (or at least as well integrated as Apple allows it to be).

When you download any file type from dropbox, e.g. a PDF, you have the option to "Open In" which will allow you to select any app on your device which has registered the file type. So, when I pull down a PDF, not only does Dropbox display that natively, but I also have option to open that file in iBooks, Kindle, iFile, Notability, PDF Expert, and GoodReader, the all the other apps on my iPad which support PDFs!

Furthermore, just because you don't have access to the file system to upload any file you like, a large number of apps now ship with in-built DropBox support, allowing you to interact with whatever file you have in your Dropbox, and save content created in the app to your Dropbox.

Attached is a screenie to illustrate!

Best of all it is a VERY efficient way to easily get documents from your PC onto your iPad. Just install the app on your PC, drag, drop, and you are done!

 

[FlavioSousa]

Thanks for your reply, f4780y!

Downloading files and reading them on the iPad was never a problem to me. The problem is uploading / copying all types of files from the iPad.

I was going through some old discussions and DropDAV seems to be a good way to do just that, I'll check it out as soon as possible.

Thanks again!

 

[f4780y]

Well, you don't have access to all types of file on the iPad unless you are jailbroken. DropDAV is not a solution for the iPad, I'm afraid. Support needs to be baked into the App on IOS since Apple don't give any app the ability to access the file system directly, other than their own sandboxed documents.

 

[Little One]

That's a terrible shame. I have spent a small fortune on iBooks, music and apps, I'd love to find a way to copy and secure those contents.

Thanks for your reply, Little One! How do I use the iTunes option you mentioned? I can't seem to find it...

You can copy all your purchases into your iTunes. In fact, it should be downloaded automatically everytime you open your iTunes.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[FlavioSousa]

Thanks again, you guys are awesome.