Dropbox, deepfreeze.io and limitations of the sync model.
The limitations of the sync model, and how offloading unused files from Dropbox to deepfreeze.io has helped me reduce storage costs and make my workflow more manageable.
I treat Dropbox as my primary filesystem: Every business file and every personal file that holds some value for me is there. Dropbox is really amazing, because it seamlessly syncs these files with a) their servers and b) my other computers. So when I put something in Dropbox I know I have a copy somewhere else and I also know I can sit at one of my other computers and have it available.
This workflow is very convenient, but it has two limitations.
Limitation #1: Local storage.
We usually think that local storage is abundant. But that’s not always the case. For example, my new MacBook Pro has 250GB SSD. That’s very little storage space for someone who’s 200GB Dropbox account is almost full.
By definition, syncing multiplies my storage needs by a factor of two or three to store the multiple copies of each file: one copy on my laptop, one copy on Dropbox, one copy on my desktop, and so on. I also use TimeMachine to back up each one of my computers, so this number should be multiplied two.
So every time I shoot a photo or a video on my iPhone, I also need space on my laptop (which doesn’t have enough), my desktop computer, Dropbox, and double its size on my TimeCapsule (in the laptop backup and the desktop backup). That’s 6x the size of the photo!
There are tricks you can do of course.
For example, you can use Dropbox selective sync, to sync certain Dropbox folders on certain computers. But that beats the purpose of using a sync service, doesn’t it?
Or you could have an external USB drive, and set up Dropbox to store its files there. But who wants to carry around an external drive and plug it in every time they open their laptop to get access to their files?
Limitation #2: Money.
OK, Dropbox is adding a lot of value. And that’s why they can charge a premium I’m happy to pay for.
But, if you are like me, you’ve probably stored files in there that you rarely need. I’m not talking about the files I should have deleted in the first place —that said, it’s a good idea to clean up every now and then.
I’m talking about these old project files, from 3 or 5 years ago, you don’t want to throw away, but you haven’t touched since and probably won’t touch for years. Or the folder with the photos of an event you organised months ago. A copy of your blog posts, an export of your tweets, and so on… Files you don’t need now, you won’t need in the near future and it would be nice if they were stored “elsewhere”, at a lower cost.
Is it worth paying the Dropbox premium pricing to store these files? As far as I am concerned, the answer is no. Not only it’s not worth paying to store them in Dropbox, but it’s not worth taking space on my laptop either.
That’s where deepfreeze.io comes in: I import the files from Dropbox to deepfreeze.io, and when they are securely stored, I remove them from Dropbox. When I’ll need them, I will go and restore them back to Dropbox, or I will download them as a ZIP to my computer. I know the process will take a couple hours, but that’s OK in this case -and the cost savings are considerable considering that 100GB cost $99/year in Dropbox vs. $15/year in deepfreeze.io.
Of course, having a single copy of your files is never a good idea, even if this is on Amazon S3/Glacier (what deepfreeze.io is built on) that offers 99.999999999% reliability. But even after keeping a second copy on a USB disk, I’ve replaced using scarce space on my laptop SSD and expensive space in Dropbox and a good number of copies in other places, to (relatively) abundant USB drive storage and the very cheap deepfreeze.io storage.
This post was originally published on the deepfreeze.io blog.
