Nowadays more and more users are using various cloud storage services to keep their files, photos, and videos.
Dropbox is one of the popular cloud storage services with a large user base. Generally, users access these storage services either through an external client or they prefer the integration of such services with other daily usage applications. The latter approach is more preferred by a large number of users as it gives them the flexibility of doing two tasks at the same time. One such combination is the integration of regular email service with your cloud storage service. Today, we are going to see the possible integration of Dropbox with popular email services like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail. You can do it in several ways through various scripts and hacks. I mostly use Gmail and found the Dropbox integration fairly good for daily usage.
Using Dropbox with Gmail
Since I myself use Gmail, I've explored several possible ways to use Dropbox from within Gmail's web interface. Fortunately, there are several good solutions available for integrating Dropbox with Gmail. I've selected the two best possible integration methods that work seamlessly and let you easily upload files directly from your Email dashboard.
- Attachments.me - This handy service lets you send all or selective attachments to your Dropbox account. Simply install the browser extension and register your account through Gmail. Continue the process by authenticating and attaching your Dropbox account through this extension. Now you can easily create a custom rule for automatically sending your email attachments to your Dropbox storage.
- Zapier - This is yet another powerful service that uses API for syncing your Gmail account. In fact, you can create a better and more customized solution through this service. For example, you can create a custom trigger such that whenever a new email will be created in your Gmail account, Zapier will create a new file in a specific directory in your Dropbox account. This was just an example. You can create more useful triggers to sync your Gmail account with your Dropbox account.
Using Dropbox with Hotmail
Hotmail is another popular email service used by large number of people across the globe. Currently, there are no Hotmail specific browser extensions to facilitate direct uploading of emails and attachments to your Dropbox account. But that doesn't mean that you can't use Hotmail for sending files to your favorite cloud storage service. Here are two of the best solutions available for Hotmail users.
- Send To Dropbox - This intuitive and easy-to-use service lets you email your files and attachments directly to Dropbox from your Hotmail account. Simply authenticate and connect your account with this service and you'll get a unique email address. Now you can use this email address for sending attachments to your Dropbox account where it will be automatically saved in the 'Attachments' folder.
- MailDrop - This service offers more flexibility in uploading files through its ability to direct files to multiple folders or multiple labels. You can configure various settings to divert all these downloads coming to different folders with specific labels in your Hotmail account. This is best suited for professional users who want to upload different business documents in different Dropbox folders automatically.
Using Dropbox with Yahoo! Mail
My first email program I used on web was none other than Yahoo! Mail. I still use it sometimes for keeping in touch with my old pals. If you're using this popular email service, you can integrate Dropbox very easily directly within its dashboard. Make sure you're either using Google Chrome or Firefox to take advantage of these solutions. These extensions and scripts won't work with Internet Explorer.
Before you start using these solutions, you must ensure that you're downloading these extensions and scripts from trusted sources. Keep all these extensions and scripts updated to the latest version to avoid any conflict with the existing API library. Do not install or activate these methods on a shared computer as it may allow other users to access your email accounts.
