Dropping Boxes
In the January 2020 issue, there is a short article on setting up Dropbox. It notes the 2GB limit for the free account, but it misses a much more significant limitation: The free account can only have three devices (PCs or phones) running Dropbox. Dropbox rolled out this policy change in March 2019. Existing free users were grandfathered in, but if an existing user tries to set up Dropbox on a new device, they have to reduce their installations to just three devices at that time.
I had Dropbox on five devices, and a new laptop for Christmas ultimately forced me to move to OneDrive, since I couldn’t set it up with Dropbox, and I didn’t want yet another monthly subscription to something that I’d have to keep, essentially, for life. I don’t like OneDrive as much, but we own a small business that has the full version as part of Office 365. It works fine.
BTW, I’ve been a subscriber since CD-ROM
Today folded into boot, which became Maximum
PC. Probably been a subscriber since before many readers were born!
– Mark Gottschalk
EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN
DEXTER, RESPONDS: While this won’t affect everyone, it’s still a good point that’s worth highlighting, because depending on your setup, you can smash through the three- device limit quite easily (although with five devices, keeping under the 2GB can be a stretch as well). Ultimately, this may push you away from the free version of Dropbox— either calling on you to subscribe (and we absolutely understand your reluctance here), use an alternative, or configure some kind of workaround. One option is to use a different email address for your mobile devices; although this does mean that not everything is the same place, this may be preferable, depending on how you use your various devices. Here in the office, we find ourselves relying on Google Drive more and more, because it has a 15GB limit and supports unlimited devices.