Dropbox?

Hey fellow designers. Anyone here use Dropbox to manage and/or receive files from clients? If so, what are your experiences with it? Any problems? Pros, cons?


This would be for a Mac. Thanks in advance for any info.

I do this often. It's important to note that this is not a data backup service. If client or you remove files, the files are removed from Dropbox. Also, if it's work that requires updating from either party (example, a spreadsheet), Dropbox merely acts as a "server-type" computer (like it's on a shared network). So when both you and client have the file open, you get conflicts. If you need to share data that you can each write to, I'd suggest Google Docs (now Drive).

But to share images, pdf proofs, etc., yes, it's totally awesome.

I use dropbox for multiple clients to pass large files back and forth for proofing.

Thanks ladies ... appreciate your feedback, that I didn't know I got because I haven't gotten notifications from this site in over a year.


Dawn, the backup thing is what I like about using Basecamp (which the client and I decided to do). I got worried after researching and noting that Dropbox has had security breaches in the past. But maybe they are in the past.


Well, I just hit "unsubscribe" and then subscribe again ... we'll see.

I wouldn't call it a security breach, but more a shared computer issue that may or may not be a problem for you & client. To clarify what I said earlier: My husband and I share my hard drive for files. If he opens, makes changes and saves a file, and I have the same file open and I'm making changes at the same time, the computer will save it as two separate files - one with his changes and one with mine.

In Dropbox, files are labeled "conflicted copy" with our username. It's nothing bad, just something to be aware of. In fact, for a spreadsheet our client put together and sharing with team (not just us), this issue caused us to move to Google Docs (Drive) and a Google website. This is all internal and settings can be made to keep everything private. Once you have one site setup, you can duplicate it too. Like most of Google's services, it's free! You might check that out, you can upload files, communicate, etc. I never found Basecamp to work well enough, maybe because our business is so specialized with one niche.

As far as not receiving updates from your thread when you "unsubscribe" (in the past that has been the right button), a good place to look quickly to see if any responses have been posted: when you're signed in, at the bottom of the main forum list is a list of your most recent threads you've started. I know it's a hassle

I have two vendors that use Basecamp with my and my company and it works well. Personally, I started using Adobe Sendnow to share files with clients. Only drawback is they can't send to me, but for what I do, there's no need to go that direction.