I'm looking for a method to retrieve all my files from my Dropbox account and download them to my SD card.
This should download everything with no user intervention. There are a couple of Dropbox applications around but none of them have the ability to download everything and even worse most seem to work incorrectly on huge files skipping the last part or simply not working.
Another app is now available to be a more complete solution: Titanium Media Sync
The reliable and battery-friendly way of syncing your files to/from the cloud !
This unique app allows you to sync a set of folders from your Android device to the cloud and back. It currently supports the free Dropbox storage service. The official Dropbox app is not needed.
Innovative "setup & forget" sync engine with these features:
- Battery friendly.
- Works on ALL Android devices.
- Will NOT slow down your device when no data changes.
- Will backup your new/modified files (eg: photos, videos) in the background, as soon as possible.
- Adapts to ever-changing connectivity and power conditions.
Supports 2 different sync modes (both are one-way):
- Continuous sync from Local to Remote.
- One-shot sync from Remote to Local.
And from Lifehacker's review:
If you've been unhappy with the way Dropbox's mobile app only uploads files manually, you'll want to check out Titanium Media Sync, which will constantly sync folders from your phone to Dropbox, just like Dropbox does on the desktop.
From the makers of the amazing Titanium Backup, Titanium Media Sync is what Dropbox's mobile app should have been. You pick folders from your SD card to sync back to your Dropbox. Any time you add something to those folders—say, if you take a picture on your phone, or download an app you want to try out on your computer later on—it will automatically sync those changes back, so your files will be waiting for you when you get back to your computer. You can also sync folders from your Dropbox to your SD card, but it's only a one-time sync—Titanium won't monitor your remote folders, only the ones on your SD card.
The interface is pretty easy to use, too. The left column shows all the folders on your SD card, while the column on the right shows your Dropbox, and you can just drag and drop folders from one to the other to sync them. Dragging from the the right column will download that folder to your SD card, while dragging from left to right will give you the option of setting up that folder for automatic sync. Because it only syncs one way, it won't constantly call the internet slow down your phone when it's waiting for changes. You can even set whether you want it to sync over Wi-Fi only, or over 3G and 4G in the preferences. By default, it will also sync only when your phone's plugged in to save battery (but you can change this in the preferences too). Seriously, if you're a Dropbox user, this app is absolutely worth having—even moreso than the official Dropbox app itself.
Titanium Media Sync is a $2.99 download for Android devices.
Titanium Media Sync offers continuous sync from SD Card to DropBox, but not the other way... the way I do it is setup rsync jobs with tasker and rsyncbackup... (requires your DropBox to be automatically kept in sync on a desktop pc somewhere, running an ssh server). The following should get you up and running:
First, setup DropBox on a computer somewhere running an ssh server, so you can copy files from it over ssh (with rsync), and make sure it’s setup with private key encryption with an agent so you don’t need to enter passphrases/passwords every time
Then, get rsync4android (market link) That lets you setup rsync jobs from a remote server to your phone (and vice versa… I use it for this, but also for backing up my photos to my PC automatically every night) Then create an rsync job to download a particular folder from your remote DropBox on your PC into the DropBox folder on your sd card.
Get tasker (which lets you schedule jobs to happen on a large number of triggers, including time) (market link) Create a tasker job to fire off your new rsync job to keep your dropbox folder up to date.
Like I say, it’s a bit around the houses, but seems to do the job
I've also posted a copy of these instructions on my blog.
If you are not totally tied to Dropbox, I think SugarSync and their Android app might do what you are looking for.
If it has to be Dropbox, I would say that you should post the feature request to them.
Or, if you are really desperate, fund a developer willing to write an app to do it using the Dropbox API. It would actually be fairly straight forward.
Good luck.
Dropsync also works, it syncs any folder on your sd card (including /sdcard/ ) with any dropbox folder (including the main dropbox folder), so it's possible use it like the desktop client, i.e. to have a directory called /sdcard/dropbox/ which contains your entire dropbox, but it's really much more flexible than that :)
Use FolderSync (Free lite version is also available with some limitations). It has many sync options: Two-way sync, One-way sync (up or down).
This very informative & comprehensive article written for Freeware Genius on September 4th 2012 entitled "How to automatically sync your PC folders with your Android" by Samer Kurdi
http://www.freewaregenius.com/how-to-automatically-sync-your-pc-folders-with-your-android/
This post will describe how you can set this up so it happens automatically without your intervention based on certain rules (for example sync every night, only when connected to WIFI). If you’re thinking ‘Dropbox’ then you’re partially correct: you will use Dropbox for this, in conjunction with 2 other free programs that make it possible to (a) sync a PC folder without moving it into the Dropbox folder, and (b) to schedule folder syncs on your Android so they take place automatically.
The official Android Dropbox app is your best bet. If they don't offer support for what you want, you should request that they add a feature.
