A long time ago I downloaded an app for my iPod touch (my phone was an LG Voyager at the time) to help me take attendance for the class I was long term subbing for. The app was cool at the time and is out of development now, but there was an option in the settings for that app to sync data via Dropbox. I had never heard of Dropbox before so I signed up for an account and that was that. Dropbox is now the very first app I install on a new device, I rely on Dropbox to save all of the photos and videos that my family creates, and most of the apps I rely on every day use Dropbox to function.   

There are other cloud storage solutions out there. Some are good, a few are great, but only one is Dropbox. You need a Dropbox account. It’s as simple as that. Dropbox isn’t the cheapest solution, but the free plan gets you started. Then you can jump through some hoops to earn more free permanent storage. What Dropbox does better than anyone is reliably sync your data. Over the years, I have moved terabytes of data through Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. Dropbox has never failed or had an error, Google Drive has been almost as good, but OneDrive has a sync error once a month that requires me to re-sync my entire folder. The only reason I deal with OneDrive is because my school system uses it, a.k.a. I am forced to.   

APIs

The other thing that sets Dropbox apart is the same thing that pulled me in – the APIs that Dropbox has. These APIs allow for apps to connect to Dropbox without having to open the Dropbox app. My 1Password vault, my 2Do data, and pretty much everything else, can read and write data to my Dropbox account once I give it permission. By leveraging the flawless performance of Dropbox, the apps I rely on are that much more capable.

Competition 

Dropbox’s strongest competitor is Google Drive and I love it too. As a matter of fact, my multimedia business and my (rebellious) teaching life are completely managed in Google Drive. The Google Apps suite is just too awesome to not use as a total productivity solution. Even with those two parts of my life being connected to Google Drive I still install Dropbox first and rely solely on Dropbox to move the things that matter most in my life.

Sign Up

Sign up for Dropbox here to get an extra 500MB of storage from the start then check out https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/15 to learn about how else you can extend your free storage space. You should install the Dropbox app on every device you own and use the camera uploads function I wrote about here: https://www.themikeburke.com/dropboxphotos/. Once you have it installed everywhere, you need to start by uploading a copy the most important files in your life here (i.e., scans of birth certificate and other important paperwork). After that, you can start connecting important apps like 1Password and 2Do.

In the end, you will know Dropbox is working because you will never have to think about it. It will just work.