drop2sync

drop2sync logo
drop2sync by WhitneyApps

Drop2sync has been discontinued

We’re sorry to tell you that drop2sync has been discontinued and is no longer available in the NOOK Shop.  Dropbox has changed their API (the interface that other applications use to get access to files on Dropbox) and the current version of drop2sync will no longer work with Dropbox on December 1, 2012.  Since there are now free apps for both Dropbox and Box on the NOOK, drop2sync sales have dropped off to 1-2 copies per day.  This says to us that drop2sync is no longer needed now that the free apps are available.  At that sales rate, we can’t afford to rewrite the app to conform to the new Dropbox interface.

UPDATE: (September 28, 2012): We just received an email today that Box.com is changing their interface in a way that’s incompatible with drop2sync on October 4!  So it looks like Box users will need to use the free Box.com NOOK app.  We are quite distressed to give users so little notice!  It’s sad that Box waited until the last minute to tell us their plans.

We recommend that you immediately download and begin using either or both of these apps on your your NOOK device:

When we released drop2sync a year ago, it enabled new functionality and convenience for an otherwise great wireless device.  But unlike Dropbox and Box, we can’t afford to develop free apps and still pay the bills.  For those of you who will miss the special features of drop2sync, we’re sorry.  We’ll miss them too. 🙁  You guys are great!  We hope you’ll enjoy our upcoming apps (or maybe our existing ones) on your NOOK device.

Sincerely Yours,

Steve & Eleanor @ WhitneyApps

33 replies on “drop2sync”

Hello,

I recently purchased drop2sync from the Nook Color Apps store and so far
love the product. I have read on your website that the only way to
delete items from the Nook is to still currently attach it to the
computer. I was not sure if there were either plans or a way to allow
drop2sync to delete items. I thought maybe that if it was syncing up to
a cloud service that if the file was no longer there that the file would
be removed from the Nook. This was just an idea and I thought I would
pass along.

Thank you,
Scott Garrett

Hi, Scott!

Thanks for writing and I’m glad you’re enjoying the app!

You’re right about deleting files. For version 1, we focused on making drop2sync really simple to set up and use. I think you’re right that we need a way to remove files when you no longer need them. Let me know what you think about this. (Also, you can always send suggestions to suggestions@WhitneyApps.com so we have a record of what you’d like to see in the future.)

What you suggest would be do able. We didn’t create a “mirror” of what’s on your cloud service (where things appear and disappear on your NOOK) account for two reasons:
1) Most people have a lot less space on their Dropbox or Box.net account than they do on their NOOK – especially if it has a memory card. If you’re using the cloud service to load books that you simply want to have with you, We considered drop2sync primarily a way to load media on the NOOK and though it could be surprising to have it disappear on the NOOK because you remove it on Dropbox (or change remote folders).
2) We copy the files to their correct location on the NOOK (i.e., Music, Pictures, Videos, Books, Documents). We thought it would be strange to have files from all over disappearing.

So, what we did was build in a database of every file drop2sync copies onto the NOOK. That’s there to enable us to present a list of files we’ve copied (maybe sorted in different ways – by name or by type or by date added) and let you delete files from there. Would that meet your needs if we implemented it?

The big trick – especially on NOOK – is to keep the app from becoming so complicated that less-technical people find it hard to use. What I’ve been hoping to do is see which possible features turn out to be commonly requested and add those first.

So… keep those cards and letters coming – either here, on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/WhitneyApps or suggestions@WhitneyApps.com

Thank you, Scott!

Steve @ WhitneyApps

I would also like to see it remove files as they are removed from the cloud. Since you so nicely allow a cloud folder to be synced, I can keep a separate “books” folder up-to-date without all the rest of my file sharing clutter in the way.

Also, I don’t know the limitations on Android, but is there a way to force the nook to re-index after a sync? Currently I have to reboot my device (or eject/insert the SD card) to get new items to show up in the official Books tab. Just a thought.

Thanks for the great work. This app hits the spot.

Hi, Matt!

Thanks for the comments! I’ve been using the Library/My Files/Books method to get to my books so I hadn’t noticed the re-indexing problem. Having books appear on the offical tab would be better.

What I currently do is use the Android (underlying operating system on the NOOK Color) method for notifying the system that you’ve added media. The NOOK respects this for music and pictures, but it looks like it doesn’t respect it for Books. I’ll ask in the developer forum and see if there’s a way to do it.

Also, I have recorded your desire to be able to delete files on the NOOK when they’re deleted from the cloud. Seems like a popular feature request.

If you’re willing, I’d sure appreciate it if you could do a short review in the NOOK Shop (). The last rating was from someone having trouble who never contacted me and it’s really hurt sales.

Thanks,

Steve @ WhitneyApps

Love love love it! So easy to use. I would like to add my request for the delete feature as well. Gave it 5 stars on B&N site. So much easier than manually trying to get files from my computer to where I want them on my Nook.

Thanks so much, Carolyn! I’m very pleased to hear that you’re enjoying drop2sync. The delete feature will be coming the only question will be how it works. Ant preferences on that? Would you prefer something manual (allows things to be removed from the cloud account without necessarily having them go away on the NOOK) or something automatic (remote deletion makes them go away on the NOOK too)?

Take care,

Steve @ WhitneyApps

Steve, I use Drop2Sync to keep several worksheets and PDFs available for reference on my NC. I would prefer the removal be manual.

Thanks, Jack! I’m pretty sure it will be manual – especial know that the dropbox app has been released. There’s a way for people who simply want to mirror a dropbox account to do that. I’m going to offer a little extra intelligence in drop2sync!

I appreciate your feedback. I hope to have news on that for you shortly.

Take care,

Steve @ WhitneyApps

Steve, do you think Drop2Sync will function on the Nook Tablet that I expect to take delivery of next week?

Hi, Jack!

Yes, drop2sync should work find on the NOOK Tablet. B&N tested it and it passed. Let me know if you have any problems and I’ll go after ’em.

Take care,

Steve

So what’s the difference between drop2sync and dropbox? I downloaded dropbox app because it’s free, but it doesn’t appear to add images I sync to the gallery… nor does there appear to be a way to tell it to use the SD card instead of internal storage. Does drop2sync support all of this? Deletion would be nice, but not auto-deletion, because I have much more space on my NC than I do in the cloud… what I’d really want is a file manager app that I can use to delete files. That would be awesome…

Charles.

Hi Charles,

Good question! When I wrote drop2sync, the Dropbox app wasn’t yet available. But they’re designed with different purposes in mind. Drop2sync was designed specifically as a way to get files onto a NOOK Color/Tablet. It identifies files by type and places them in the appropriate folders on the NOOK – for example, pictures go in the Pictures folder. Drop2sync send a message to the mediaplayer to let it know that new pictures, music, and videos are available.

Drop2sync is also designed with power management and offline access in mind. You decide how often (if at all), you’d like drop2sync to wake up the NOOK to look for new files. For example, if you know that you’ll want new files for your morning commute, tell drop2sync to sync up at 3 a.m., and when you leave WiFi range in the morning, your latest files will all be there. If you don’t copy files often, you can tell it only to sync manually.

Drop2sync supports the SD card. You tell it through the “Advanced Settings” box that you’d like it to copy all files to the “removable memory card,” and from then on, it will copy all files in the file folder you specify to the memory card. This is going to get more important on the NOOK Tablet since I understand that it only has 1 gigabyte available for user files on its internal memory.

Drop2sync doesn’t delete your files when you delete them from your Dropbox account. I have a 16GB memory card on my NOOK and only 2GB in my Dorpbox account, which I use for a number of things. I wnat to be able to copy books/pix/movies/music/docs over to my NOOK and have them stay there when I remove them from Dropbox.

A planned update to drop2sync will support manual file deletion when you want to remove the files. (That’s not in there yet, but it’s bee requested often enough that we have committed to providing it.)

Drop2sync supports Box.net (now just called Box). If you get one of those deals from Box where you get 50GB free for life, you can use it on drop2sync. Only one sync account at a time, though.

Finally, drop2sync provides detailed help for setup and troubleshooting. It’s one of our strongest features.

One feature that the Dropbox has that drop2sync doesn’t is two-way file synchronization. Again, drop2sync specializes in making it easy to get your stuff onto the NOOK.

So, that was a long answer to a short question. Some people will find that the free Dropbox app meets their needs. Others will find drop2sync to be a better fit. Some may find it useful to have both.

If you like drop2sync, please write a review. There are currently a number of “You should just get the free Dropbox app” reviews from people who didn’t bother to try the app or ask the quesiton you just asked. So thanks for asking it here where I can answer you, Charles!

Take care,

Steve @ WhitneyApps
http://www.WhitneyApps.com

http://www.facebook.com/WhitneyApps

I use both Drop2Sync and Dropbox. However, only Drop2Sync is compatible with my Nook Tablet. Because I use Quickoffice and it’s built in file management I like two way sync but at least I can move files from my desktop to the Tablet. Two way would be a great additional feature to Drop2Sync.

I just submitted version 1.1 of drop2sync to the app shop. (It takes up to a week for approval.) This version will allow drop2sync to update files that you update on the cloud service. So if you want to have the latest version of a document, it’ll pick it up for you. It will only do the copy if drop2sync originally put the file on your NOOK so we can be sure it’s not overwriting your changes. For that same reason, it won’t copy a newer version from Dropbox/Box if you’ve changed it on the NOOK since the last copy. It should be very safe and also convenient.

Have fun!
Steve @ WhitneyApps

Steve

Drop2Sync on the NT

I am experiencing the “can not access the base folder on dropbox” error as reported on the B&N forums. My last successful sync was on 3 December. I am guessing that this is a Dropbox issue.

Jack

Hi, Jack. Yes, Dropbox changed the way they handle some requests form the server and it caused drop2sync’s requests to be denied. I have confirmed the problem with Dropbox support. They’re not sure yet whether they will change the behavior back or not. Regardless, I have prepared a new version of drop2sync that fixes the problem and will submit it as soon as possible. The timing is unfortunate since I had just submitted version 1.1 with new features and better NOOK Tablet support. I can’t submit this new version until that one is out of their process.

I have sent out a customer message through drop2sync that you should see within 48 hours. (It only checks for messages periodically.) I am posting the latest status on http://www.whitneyapps.com/drop2sync/faq

I’ll have to check the forums so I can respond “officially.”

I’m very sorry that this has happened, and I plan to begin updating drop2sync to the latest version of Dropbox’s interfaces soon. Apparently, their original version – while still supported – is too risky now.

Sorry for the trouble, and thanks for posting, Jack!

Steve @ WhitneyApps

Hi, Jack!

Dropbox has changed their interface back so all versions of drop2sync now work as designed. Sorry for the inconvenience. Watch for news about our small thank you gift when I’m able to set it up.

Thanks for your confidence in us! I sure appreciate your help in getting out correct information.

Take care,

Steve @ WhitneyApps

Steve

Drop2Sync has an “update” banner on my Nook Tablet. However the about page still indicates version 1.0. Is this an update that simply fixed the Dropbox issue?

Hi, Jack!

I think there’s something you have to do to get the NOOK to download the update. I believe the banner is just telling you that it’s available. It might be a long-press option. I don’t have an app to test right now and I couldn’t find the procedure on B&N’s website.

The update that was released this week is version 1.1 with some new features and better NOOK Tablet support.

Jack, when you get the NOOK to load the update, would you let us know the procedure? I’ll post it when I find out if I get there first 🙂

Thanks,

Steve

Nook Update: This is disappointing. The update feature does not work as B&N planned. Currently when an App is updated by the developer and the customer “updates Apps” via the update button an “Update” banner is placed on the Apps’ icon. The customer must archive then unarchive the App to get the update installed. To archive an App go to the Apps screen (can not be done from the Home Page) and long press the App to be archived, select Archive. Then tap the “My Stuff” button at the top of the Apps page, then select “Archived” from the drop down menu. The archived items will be shown there. Long press the App icon you want and select Unarchive. Quite a process for an update process that was to have been automatic… Jack

Oh, that’s really ugly. It also may mean that the NOOK deletes the drop2sync database (which is how it decides whether to copy a file over a previous version…. Hello customer support emails!)

I hope it doesn’t mean customer information is lost.

Thanks for letting me know,

Steve

BTW I just updated Charlene’s Nook Color and the entire update process worked as I think B&N intended it to. So, my comments earlier only apply to the Nook Tablet.

To thank our wonderful customers for your patience during the recent Dropbox connection outage, we are temporarily making our moving wallpaper apps available to you for free.

Space Journey Moving Wallpaper and Santa Cruz Flowers Moving Wallpaper by WhitneyApps are free of charge in the NOOK shop at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/whitneyapps through at least Sunday, December 18. Grab them and enjoy them. We appreciate you!

– Steve @ WhitneyApps

Looking into this app – as it has auto sync which is what I’d really like. I’ve got a pretty extensive dropbox account already with lots of folders. I’d like to create a few new ones like “To Read” and “Reviews” and put PDF’s in there (they are papers). When drop2sync copies them down, will all the PDF’s be piled into one of the two folders I select? Can I limit which drop box folders it syncs from (i.e. do I need a new account?)? Is the structure of those two folders lost? DropBox allows me to create sub-foldres – is that structure kept when they are copied down? Thanks for all the details! 🙂

Hi, Gordon!

Thanks for writing. I’ll answer those questions of you. Please let me know if you have others.

1) When drop2sync copies files from Dropbox, it copies all files of a given type to the same top-level folder. All audio files of to “Music” all EPUB files go to “Books,” etc. PDFs go to either “Docs” or “Books” depending on how you configure it. So it would be difficult to separate “To Read” and “Reviews” unless you put something in the file name (e.g., “read-a-file-i-downloaded.pdf” or “review-January-8.pdf”)

2) Drop2sync will copy from one folder in your Dropbox account. By default, it copies from a folder called “drop2sync,” but you can choose any folder in the top level of your Dropbox account (or the whole thing if that’s what you want). You could put “To Read” and “Reviews” into the same parent folder and it would happily copy those and ignore the rest of your account, which can be really helpful if you have a lot of stuff – as I do!

3) Currently drop2sync does not retain the folder structure. Our original design was intended to be as simple as possible, and keeping the structure while separating files by type could create some weirdness like multiple folders named “Project1” that live under Docs, Music, and Pictures and each have part of the contents of the original “Project1” folder. I can see why this wouldn’t be ideal for you.

We do keep a list of suggestions for future versions, and we would be happy to consider any suggestions you might have that would help us meet your needs better.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Take care,

Steve @ WhitneyApps

I use theNook color and have followed the instructions for syncing with my cloud folder on my computer but cannot find thee folder on my nook.

Hi, Beryl!

I can help you with this. Drop2sync doesn’t create a separate folder for your files. It sorts them into the NOOK’s built-in folder structure so documents go into one folder, eBooks into another, etc. To find your files, press the ‘n’ button just below the screen. When the “quicknav” bar (row of icons at the bottom of the screen) comes up, tap “library.” Next tap “my stuff” toward the top right of the screen and choose “My Files.” From there, tap the “My Files” icon. Next tap the folder for the kind of file you’re looking for. You should find your eBooks, documents, pictures, videos, and music in the appropriate folders.

Let us know if you need more assistance.

Take care,

Steve @ WhitneyApps

Hi David,

Drop2sync currently just supports Dropbox and Box. It’s written to be extendable, but each cloud service has its own (usually very different) user interface. 🙁 Is there one you’re particularly interested in?

Take care,

Steve @ WhitneyApps

Leave a Reply to David

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.