Dropbox has become an essential application on my organisation ever since I first tried it more than two years ago. If you lot're unfamiliar with it, it's a cantankerous-platform tool that acts similar a regular folder on your machine and runs quietly in the background. You tin can manage files within this binder merely like elsewhere on your auto (add, edit, copy, and delete) and changes will exist synced in existent time between all other computers on which you are running the Dropbox software.

That alone makes it invaluable for my daily computing needs, but with a footling ingenuity, you can employ Dropbox to exercise much more. Beneath I've compiled some useful tips and tricks to make the most of this amazing gratis app.

Autostart torrent downloads

Many BitTorrent clients accept an pick to monitor a specific folder on your figurer and automatically start downloading any torrents copied to it. In uTorrent for Windows, for instance, you can notice information technology in the Directories section on the left-paw pane of the preferences window. Simply check the box for "Automatically load .torrents from:" and choose the directory where you'll exist saving .torrent files inside your Dropbox folder.

At that place are just a couple of extra steps you demand to take care of to keep things running smoothly: showtime, ready your client to salve new downloads and completed downloads on a folder outside of Dropbox so you don't use upwardly your quota. And 2d, caput into the UI Settings section of the preferences and uncheck the option for "Show a window that displays the files inside the torrent" so downloads start automatically. Now, as long as you keep your BitTorrent client running you can start downloads from another computer by adding Torrents to the monitored folder inside Dropbox.

You tin also upload torrent files from the Dropbox spider web interface, so you could fifty-fifty do this from a figurer where you can't install Dropbox, or upload them from your iOS, Android or BlackBerry smartphone.

Send and receive files

If you transfer files ofttimes with clients or any non-Dropbox user, but electronic mail and FTP just wont cut it due to file size or complexity, there are a number of services designed specifically for the purpose of sending files directly to your Dropbox. With DropItToMe, for example, you tin setup a custom upload URL (similar 'https://www.dropittome.com/somethinghere') with optional password protection that y'all can give out to people.

FileStork works much in the same way but allows you to setup 1-time or permanent upload addresses -- though they are non customizable. Both services let other people to upload files into your Dropbox without the hassle and take a chance of really sharing a folder, and a medium to bridge the gap between users and non-users of Dropbox.

Alternatively, AirDropper offers a more polished interface and lets you lot create your own airdropper.com/yourname page with your own branding for sending and receiving files. It'southward the most feature-packed of all iii and allows files up to 2GB each, whereas the others are capped at 75MB. Unfortunately, it costs $9 per month, which seems a little steep honestly. (Hint: you can still admission the beta for gratuitous at 'https://beta.airdropper.com')

Make it your default Documents binder

Many people use their operating system'southward documents folder to store and access their most oftentimes used or most of import files. To make certain they are e'er backed up and synchronized on all your computers you can actually modify your My Documents folder to be the aforementioned as your Dropbox folder, or be in a binder inside your Dropbox.

To practise this in Windows seven or Vista, just right-click on your "My Documents" binder and select Properties, and so on the Location tab you lot tin can specify the new file path. In Windows XP information technology'due south pretty much the aforementioned process only you lot'll need to change the Target value instead. It's a simple "fox" but tin come in handy if yous want your whole documents folder synchronized instead of just the files that yous specifically move to the Dropbox directory.

Synchronize your KeePass passwords

Users who rely on KeePass to maintain a password archive of sites or services they use can combine it with Dropbox to accept it accessible from multiple computers at all times. But save your database to Dropbox, and on any other estimator that you programme to utilize KeePass on open the app and select File -> Open up Database, and so bespeak information technology to the synced KeePass database file that yous added to Dropbox.

KeePass doesn't automatically update your passwords when it'due south open up, then if you make a change on i computer and then brand a change on the other without re-opening the new database, you lot'll end up with a conflict. To become around this you'll have to gear up a reasonable timeout so the database is locked later a menses of inactivity. Then head to Options and on the Advanced tab cheque the box that says "Automatically save when endmost/locking the database".

KeePass saves your countersign in an archive with AES 256-hit encryption. Fifty-fifty if Dropbox servers were to exist hacked, as long as yous pick a long, strong password you lot should exist safe for a few thousand or million years.

Give syncing powers to apps that don't have any

KeePass is simply ane example of how Dropbox can provide syncing powers to programs that don't take any such functionality. I did this for a relative who wanted to access his business contacts database from Sage's Act! on two unlike notebooks -- and I'm talking about a really erstwhile version that came on floppy disks since he didn't see a reason for upgrading. Equally long as you can movement the location of a program'due south data file you'll probably be able to sync using Dropbox.

Alternatively, a program called Dropboxifier can streamline that process by moving a data directory or file into the Dropbox directory, and creating a symbolic link after that points from the source folder to the new Dropbox folder location. The result is that you'll be able to synchronize stuff like saved games, browser profiles, IM chat logs, and more. Dropboxifier works on Windows Vista and Windows 7, provided you accept the complimentary .Net Framework four.0 installed.

These are only a few examples of the clever means you can use Dropbox to sync application data or share files, but they really just scratch the surface. If you have some other killer Dropbox trick feel complimentary to share in the comments.