IT Services

• ITS home
• Help
• Services
• My IT account
• About

Questions and answers

2468

Can I use Dropbox on my staff computer?

A number of staff have found Dropbox useful and use it from their office PCs. The service generally works well and can be a very helpful as a way of transferring files if you are working at different locations.

There are some issues to be aware of however:

• IT Services do not support Dropbox (although are able to help you install it if you do not have administration rights on your computer).
• The University does not have access to individual Dropbox accounts and can’t gain access to any of its data which is held in these accounts.  Staff must always ensure that University data is stored on the University’s file servers (either home directories, group drives or  research file space).  Dropbox can be used to provide convenient working copies of such data but must not be used as its primary or only source.  University data includes teaching materials, research data, administrative data and so on; this is not limited to completed material and includes work in progress.
• Dropbox data is held on servers outside the United Kingdom and beyond the control of the University. You must be satisfied that the service is appropriate for the data and files you are storing there.

Using the Dropbox web interface
Rather than installing Dropbox on your staff computer, you can simply use the web site version of Dropbox. If you just open a browser and login to dropbox.com with your email and password, you can download or upload files without having to install any software. This means you can get access to your files from any PC or Mac, such as the computers in teaching rooms or computer clusters on the campus.

If you do choose to install Dropbox on your staff computer, then please be aware that:

• Dropbox is not optimised for a corporate environment and will not work successfully if you choose to place your Dropbox folder in your normal Documents folder. Instead, you should choose to place the Dropbox folder on your computer's C: drive.
• similarly, if when you install the program, your Dropbox folder is installed in your roaming profile, this can lead to very long delays when you log in to other computers away from your office. For more details see our FAQ: where is the best place to save files on my staff PC?

Alternatives to Dropbox
You might also be interested to know about alternative means of working at different locations:

• files saved in your N: drive or group G: drive are accessible from almost anywhere using a Secure File Transfer (SFTP) program
   
• Windows Remote enables staff at Sussex to easily use their Sussex files and programs such as Microsoft Office as if they were sitting at a PC on the campus. The service is accessible from any Windows PC as well as Macs and iPads
   
• Huddle is a specialised service for collaborative working, enabling users to work on shared documents with complete audit trail and history as well as providing infrastructure for conference calls and project management