One of the coolest features on BlackBerry 10 is the ability for cloud storage companies to tie in directly into the operating system. Both DropBox and Box.net have offered up support at launch and I have to say the DropBox solution is awesome. I even saw in some on device documentation that SkyDrive support is coming soon. I am not sure why BlackBerry never mentions DropBox as one of their partners at launch which has led many of you to wonder if it actually exists. I am happy to confirm that not only is DropBox available on BlackBerry 10 but the integration is seemless.
You simply login to your DropBox account using the “Connect to DropBox” app. After that you have an easy option to choose if you want it to sync over cellular connections. Personally I do not see the point because the DropBox client works better on BlackBerry 10 than it does on iOS and Android. It provides seamless access to your DropBox account from the file manager. That means that ANY app can access DropBox and perform actions or save data there.
For example, I get thumbnails or the ability to select multiple pictures to email from DropBox. On top of that I can do things like edit files there or even access DropBox from Android runtime apps.
I am not sure yet if the DropBox app actually syncs your data to the device or just mounts it but it seems like it does both. I checked using Ghost Commander and it sees all of the DropBox files as if they are on my device. I am still trying to dig into how exactly that works…
Either way for now I am happy to report that DropBox support is in BlackBerry 10 even though BlackBerry seems to be downplaying it. Hopefully they will add more features soon and expand support to other solutions like SugarSync.
Huseyin ( View Profile) - Posts: 70
Posted: February 1, 2013 at 1:17 PM EST
Thanks for adding this, it was missing from all other reviews.
kingbernie06511 Not Registered
Posted: February 1, 2013 at 1:42 PM EST
sure heck looks like it. good job, I love DB
BBA Brian ( View Profile) - Posts: 1218
Posted: February 1, 2013 at 1:50 PM EST
Ronen, what are you able to send to Dropbox from your device?
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1116
Posted: February 1, 2013 at 2:38 PM EST
Good job BlackBerry! Can’t wait for the file manager to support more secure options and WebDav so that we can choose which backend to use without having the cloud service to create a connector
Christian Not Registered
Posted: February 1, 2013 at 2:44 PM EST from my BlackBerry 9930 | OS 7.1.0.580
How did you get a z10 on at&t??
Steve ( View Profile) - Posts: 685
Posted: February 1, 2013 at 8:26 PM EST
Because he’s Ronen, Master of BerryReview, that’s how!
Steve ( View Profile) - Posts: 685
Posted: February 1, 2013 at 8:28 PM EST
Oh, and I love my DropBox account. I think I use that one more than my 50GB Box account on my PB. Now, if I could just get close to that amount with DB
Greg Not Registered
Posted: February 2, 2013 at 2:03 AM EST from my BlackBerry PlayBook | OS 2.1.0
This is eureka stuff here. This alone is enough reason for me to buy. I hope SkyDrive comes soon as DropBox is just way too expensive.
remus Not Registered
Posted: March 16, 2013 at 9:49 AM EST from my BlackBerry Z10 | OS 10.0.10.672
Nobody seems to understand how does it sync and I would really like to know. My actual db account is more than 110gig. I don’t want to bust my z10 storage.
Greg Not Registered
Posted: March 16, 2013 at 6:00 PM EST
Yup. I have been trying to figure this out for quite some time and getting no answers. Posted a few different times on CrackBerry.com and BlackBerry Support Forums and nobody has any intelligent information.
The best that I can understand is that if you choose to “Pin Dropbox” (setting in the Dropbox setup app), it will then sync every file and folder in your Dropbox to your device. This is rather handy as it makes for very quick access to your files. Everytime a change is made on another device or client, it is synced to the phone. Not ‘Pinning’ Dropbox, means that it acts more as a Dropbox file viewer, downloading files on demand, in the same way that the Dropbox app worked on OS7.
There are few limitations of the ‘Pinning’ method:
1. It does not give the option of ‘Pinning’ select sub-folders. Its your entire Dropbox or nothing.
2. It only seems to use the built-in device storage on the Z10. All of the sync’d files are hidden somewhere in the OS file system. So your memory will just start filling up and you won’t be able to see what files are taking up all the space. With only 16GB of onboard storage on the Z10, it doesn’t matter if you have a 64GB sdcard, ‘Pinning’ Dropbox will fill up your device storage really quick. I started to get warning pop-ups constantly, telling me that my device storage was almost full. I don’t know what happens when the device storage hits 100%. Does it automatically start allocating files to the sdcard?? Nobody has been able to answer this question for me.
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3282
Posted: March 17, 2013 at 2:46 PM EST
That is a good point. Let me try to do some more research!
Huseyin ( View Profile) - Posts: 70
Posted: March 17, 2013 at 2:52 PM EST
I am sure there are ways to fix this, not everyoneuse just 2GB or 5GB.. Either they have to make SD available to apps, or offer selective sync and still have access to online content. If this is really not going to happen, then I would suggest creating another dropbox account, and sharing the folder of the stuff that you want synced to your BB.