Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

Any other tech-related topics
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6706
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#1 Post by Midas »

I have been using Dropbox forever, it seems -- e.g., check some contributions I made wayback in a related topic: viewtopic.php?t=8352.

It has been one of the few programs I consistently install on my various systems (including Android) because it allows for easy and seamless transfers of files between them, as well as creation of links to send to third parties whenever needed.

But Dropbox has also consistently been narrowing its utility for the free user, namely with the deprecation of public links (with a massive impact, cf. viewtopic.php?t=23239) or the recent restriction to a maximum of 3 connected devices (I have never used more than five or six, including a couple of dormant or obsolete ones).

The straw that's breaking the camel's back, so to speak, is how it has grown in terms of memory footprint (a whopping 376MB working set, including not one but two 'QtWebEngines', for something that I use only occasionally) and sheer number of processes it loads into memory -- currently no less than 120, according to my boot-up memory virus scan (full list posted to https://hastebin.com/raw/teyavizifu).

Lately, I have been using Telegram's "Saved Messages" feature for the kind of file transfers that I would do through Dropbox, but that it's not as good in terms of hands-off backup and restore functionality, nor does it auto-upload phone pictures.

Thus, I would very much like to hear what our TPFC community favors in this regard. Post away and thanks in advance.

PFLurker3
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2020 8:59 am

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#2 Post by PFLurker3 »

If full and complete portability is a requirement I don't think I can help, but if it isn't then my suggestion would be Resilio Sync. It runs on everything and meets all the requirements you have. The Free version will work but since it runs so well I opted to pay for it. I can keep all of my computer in sync and at the same time manage backups of my accounts on an extra computer I have living in a closet with simple backup software. I don't think the free or home version will allow versioning but the higher levels of Resilio Sync might. Best of Luck

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#3 Post by webfork »

I think Dropbox gave away quite a bit with their freemium offering, thinking that it would pull in a lot of users. Gradually they've started seeing it as an expense rather than a hook and scaled back. I am very interested what you hear about in terms of alternatives, as I'm also not a big fan of the program.

The only alternative I can suggest is with a big caveat: the Zoho sync program. It has a lot of the same problems in terms of resource usage (in some ways worse), but I think their public links policy is a bit better. Their overall service offering seems to be go for loads of features and tools, but it's not as well put together or well tested as other tools like Dropbox.
PFLurker3 wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:03 amResilio Sync
Here's the Resilio Sync thread

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#4 Post by webfork »

webfork wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:17 am The only alternative I can suggest...
Oh and I should add that I've used both OneDrive and Box in a business setting, which may not be good examples, as the business versions likely have some differences.

Box.com

I much preferred Box's sync program to other tools I've tried. The free service sounds fine for most uses: https://www.box.com/pricing/individual and their web interface works fine. The file viewer is very good. We had to modify automatic file expiration for file links, which may not be an option in the free version, I don't know.

Also, Box's answer to Dropbox Paper is a mixed bag. It works great, is very useful for collaboration but it doesn't talk to any other programs or tools, e.g. building some loose notes and ideas and then moving them into a project plan or presentation. I was able to use SeaMonkey's included page editor to pull it into another format, but that of course wasn't 100%. We never use it.

OneDrive

OneDrive is fine and you can get a ton of space for cheap, but I would be surprised if they paid any attention to privacy unless you signed up for a business account. We ran into trouble on OneDrive running local copies of Word alongside cloud-based versions of Word, so I'm wary of their web-based editors. This may have been resolved since we tested it a few years ago, but you only need a one or two corrupted documents to make people abandon ship.

One of my friends reported having problems with OneDrive automatically adding files to it's service (and then she couldn't find them on her machine) but I haven't seen that myself. The sync program uses reasonable system resources.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6706
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#5 Post by Midas »

A previously unmentioned alternative I have come across just now: Koofr.eu.

Koofr main highlight is the promise not to track you -- being Europe based means the company is subject to the GPDR.

And, apart from the main OSes, including Windows and Android, it purports to work with both WebDAV and Rclone. Better yet, the initial memory footprint for Koofr desktop app is a mere 40MB for just two processes.

Koofr offers up to 10GB* [2GB] of free safe storage for your files with affordable upgrades and options to connect multiple cloud accounts.

*) Referrals earn you and your invitee 0.5GB each up to 10GB.
. (shameless plug: my referral link is https://k00.fr/3e5r4q20)

hamasaki
Posts: 197
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:16 pm

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#6 Post by hamasaki »

Koofr has been around awhile. Lifetime licences do float around the tech sites from time to time which is good:
https://stacksocial.com/sales/koofr-clo ... tion-100gb

Reviews are generally good. I have the 1TB licence, which has been fine. I also like pCloud, which I find to be reliable and fast.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6706
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#7 Post by Midas »

Are you a representative? (In which case, that was a killer way to smooth in a product plug... :))

Thanks for the tip, edfinley.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#8 Post by webfork »

Midas wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2020 5:10 am Thus, I would very much like to hear what our TPFC community favors in this regard. Post away and thanks in advance.
What did you end up doing with this? Did you find a workable alternative or did you get stuck with Dropbox?

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6706
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#9 Post by Midas »

I went with Koofr for a little while, but it was too quirky to be practical, IMHO. And its development was just non-existent.

In the end, I dropped both and stuck to Telegram's "Saved messages" (which has a 2GB file limit, apparently) meanwhile. It's far from perfect as a replacement, but it works... :|

User avatar
lintalist
Posts: 434
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:52 am
Contact:

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#10 Post by lintalist »

You can roll your own using https://nextcloud.com/ - there are companies that can host and manage it for you. Nextcloud can run on a raspberry pi if you have one laying around. I have no experience with nextcloud, just saw some videos about it (looks nice).

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6706
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#11 Post by Midas »

Thanks for the suggestion, lintalist, self-hosting has a big draw on me and I have tried different things (DNS-323 anyone?) over the years -- somehow, though, I can never get to "set it and forget it"...

stevenmonrad
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2016 12:54 pm

Re: Ready to drop Dropbox. Post alternatives, please

#12 Post by stevenmonrad »

Zotero. Highly recommended. Academic university based software very well supported. Automatic local and online server storage including Snapshots, Notes, file copies, auto-citation and bibliography generation. Free and non-monetized unless you need more online storage, then unlimited storage is $10/mo. Make your own data folder structure in your private Library, Collections, Subcollections much like Windows. Add online Group Libraries for sharing (or not) with sophisticated access settings.

Post Reply