Dropbox vs iCloud When Running Out of Space on Mac Hard Drive

Putting yourself out there on the internet by talking about Dropbox vs iCloud Storage is a good way to get emails from all sorts of kooks who have their own ideas about computers. Some of those people, I don’t know if they are 10-year-old kids or just particularly nasty people all by themselves, well, they’re a bit out there. However, this blog is not for the crazies. This is for a top producer Sacramento Realtor like me who use a Mac and wonder if they should use Dropbox vs iCloud Storage.

I’ve been a Mac fanatic since 1991. Before that I used DOS, but I really prefer Mac. For my purposes, it’s just more user friendly. However, I have not really kept up-to-date on every new Apple product. Instead I focus on just what I need to run my business. Further, I gave up graphic design a long time ago. I hire those guys now and do not do that work myself.

Since I’m not doing any high-end design, not working in Illustrator or any graphic programs except for Photoshop, I don’t need a high powered machine. A Mac mini is just fine, until I try storing 15 years of real estate sales in Sacramento on it. I’ve used back-up devices, and they only last so long before they stop working and you have to buy something else. I’m old-school and want my documents readily accessible.

So iCloud seemed like the solution. Apple markets the product as Storage. However, when it comes to Dropbox vs ICloud, I can tell you neither of those are really storage. Dropbox comes closer to storage than iCloud. When I talked to Apple, they tell me iCloud mirrors your computer, and in a way it does. When you put a file into iCloud, you are not removing the file from your computer. It stays on your hard drive. What you are doing is making the file accessible across all of your devices. You are synching. You are not storing.

I discovered this the hard way. Because some files are in Dropbox and some are in iCloud. I divvy them up just in case one blows up I don’t lose everything. Although I do backup offsite. I personally have found Dropbox easier to use. It’s more instant. It doesn’t take forever like iCloud. And as I found out over the weekend, my laptop could no longer sync to Dropbox and all of my iCloud folders ate up all the hard drive space.

Fortunately, Dropbox has this nifty feature. For example, my closed sales since 2003 are about 150 GB. That’s insane. That’s how much I sell. But Dropbox gives you selective sync. First, I downloaded all of my sales from 2003 to 2017 onto a backup drive. Then I changed viewing 15,132 files by going to Dropbox. You can, too, by selecting the gear icon, choosing preferences, and then “selective sync.” Next, just navigate to the folder and uncheck the boxes for folders you do not want to sync. They will not appear on your laptop anymore. Voila, hard drive space restored.

You can still go to Dropbox online and view your folders or plug in the backup drive. Can’t do this with iCloud. Which means I believe Dropbox definitely has the edge over iCloud.