Work with Apps

Using the official Dropbox app on your computers and mobile devices has many advantages, but it only scratches the surface of what Dropbox can do for you. Where Dropbox starts to get much more interesting is when third-party apps tie into it.

For example, many mobile apps connect directly to Dropbox, letting you open and/or save files (for document-based apps) or using Dropbox storage to store app data that then syncs to your other devices.

But I’m not talking about only mobile apps. Besides iOS and Android apps that support Dropbox, there are a number of Web apps (which can monitor and act on changes to your Dropbox at any time), plus Mac and PC apps (which can, in some cases, sync data with Dropbox even if you don’t have the Dropbox app itself installed). Any executable code, on any platform, that implements Dropbox support can be considered an “app” for the purposes of this chapter.

The number of such apps is vast—and growing quickly. The Dropbox Web site used to include a list, but keeping track of apps that support Dropbox has become almost as futile an undertaking as keeping track of apps that support typing. So, instead of attempting to be exhaustive, I want to acquaint you with the general kinds of things apps can do, offer hints and background information, and tell you how to authorize and deauthorize Dropbox-capable apps.

Learn about Third-party Apps

To illustrate the variety of uses to which apps have put Dropbox, let me call out a few prominent examples. (I’ll return to some of these apps later, in Do Cool Things with Dropbox.) Here are some of my favorite Dropbox-connected apps:

• 1Password: My favorite tool for managing passwords and other confidential data, 1Password has versions for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android platforms. It stores your data in an encrypted format in your Dropbox so that it remains securely in sync across all your devices.
• DEVONthink: DEVONthink is a powerful, Mac-only document management system. Although it supports directly syncing its data with copies running on other Macs (over a local network) or iOS devices (via Wi-Fi), opting for Dropbox as a synchronization hub lets multiple copies of the app stay in sync even when they’re on different networks.
• DropDAV: DropDAV is a clever service that, for $5 per month, lets you access anything in your Dropbox using the WebDAV protocol. In other words, this service extends Dropbox support to lots of apps that don’t already have it, but do support WebDAV. Once you sign up, there’s no software to download or Web page to visit; all you do is enter your DropDAV credentials in any WebDAV client.
• Documents: iOS users who need to move files onto and off of their devices from many different services and work with them in ways iOS doesn’t natively permit should take a serious look at Readdle’s Documents for iOS, which connects to Dropbox and a variety of other cloud services, and includes a competent PDF viewer. It makes a good hub for transferring files among services and devices.
• GoodReader: In much the same vein as Documents, but with a more complicated user interface, is the old standby GoodReader. GoodReader lets you read and write files in your Dropbox, and supports other cloud services such as Box, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive.
• IFTTT: The Web-based service IFTTT (for “If This Then That”) lets you connect many different kinds of Internet services according to “recipes” you specify. They’re all of the form, “If this happens, then do that.” For example, you could have a recipe that sends you email or posts on Facebook every time a new file appears in a certain shared Dropbox folder, or a recipe that automatically saves all your Instagram photos to your Dropbox.
• Microsoft Office: Microsoft’s Office apps for iOS (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) directly connect to Dropbox as well as to Microsoft’s OneDrive, making it possible to open, edit, and save documents from your Dropbox as easily as if they were stored on the device itself.

In these and countless other apps, developers have shown tremendous creativity in putting Dropbox to work for tasks that go far beyond syncing and sharing PDFs and text files.

Authorize an App

Although any app on your Mac or PC can read and write to your Dropbox just like any other folder, apps (on any platform) that communicate directly with the Dropbox servers for syncing data need your username and password to do so. But, it would be inconvenient to enter your credentials every time you use an app, so the first time you use an app’s Dropbox feature, you’ll be asked to authorize it—that is, grant it permission to access all or part of your Dropbox without further intervention. Authorization isn’t carte blanche; it only tells Dropbox that this particular app, running on this particular platform, has your permission to access your Dropbox data until you say otherwise (to revoke access, see Manage App Authorizations).

The process for authorization varies by app and by platform. In general, you’re asked to supply your Dropbox username and password (along with a security code, if you Use Two-step Verification). On some occasions this may happen within the app, while at other times an app may send you to a Web page to complete the authorization. If you’re already logged in to your Dropbox account on a Mac or PC, you may merely have to click a button to authorize the app. In any case, you should normally have to do this only once, per app, per platform—unless you revoke authorization (or, in some cases, uninstall and reinstall an app).

Manage App Authorizations

Once you’ve authorized one or more apps, you can manage your authorizations by logging in to the Dropbox Web site, clicking Your Name > Settings, and then clicking the Security tab and scrolling down to the Apps Linked section (Figure 79).

When I say “manage” here, I mean “observe or delete”—that’s the extent of what you can do:

• For each authorized app, you can see the app name, the publisher (with a link to the publisher’s Web site), and the access type (Full Dropbox or App Folder, as discussed previously).
• If you decide you want to revoke authorization for an app, click the X icon to its right, and then click Uninstall to confirm. From that moment on, Dropbox no longer allows that app (on any device) to access your Dropbox data; if you change your mind, you must re-authorize the app.