How to manage your Dropbox desktop app preferences
The information in this article applies to all Dropbox users.
The Dropbox desktop app is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. The preferences menu allows you to customize the Dropbox app to your liking.
Depending on your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux), you may see some or all of the options below in the preferences menu. On Linux, you can change some of these settings using commands.
Note: This article discusses how to manage device-specific preferences for the Dropbox desktop app. Learn how to manage account-wide settings on dropbox.com.
How to access your desktop app preferences
To find your preferences on a Windows computer:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your taskbar.
- Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the top-right corner.
- Click Preferences.
To find your preferences on a Mac:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar in the top-right corner of your screen.
- Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the upper-right corner.
- Click Preferences.
The location of your Dropbox preferences on Linux depends on your specific installation. In general, to find your preferences:
- Click the small Dropbox icon, which is typically at the top or bottom of your screen.
- Click your avatar (profile picture or initials) in the upper-right corner.
- Click Preferences.
The General tab
Start Dropbox on system startup
This setting opens the Dropbox desktop app automatically whenever you start your computer. Your Dropbox desktop app must be open to sync changes between the Dropbox files on your computer and everywhere else you access your files in Dropbox.
Language
To specify a different language from the default operating system settings, select it from this menu.
Dropbox badge
Choose if Dropbox badge appears each time you open a Microsoft Office file, to see it only when others are viewing a file, or to never see the badge.
Note: If you’ve enabled co-authoring, the badge will no longer appear. For more information on co-authoring, visit this article.
About Dropbox
This is the current version of your Dropbox installation. Reference this number in support cases or to see if you have the latest version of Dropbox.
The Account tab
In the account tab you can log in and out of your Dropbox accounts, view which plan you’re on, and view your storage space. If you have two linked accounts, you can log in and out of them in this tab. If you log into both your linked accounts, you can easily switch between them in the desktop app.
Note: You can manage your local storage space by making files online-only.
The Backups tab
This PC/This Mac
You can set up a backup or manage your backups.
External Drive Backups
Choose if you want to see notifications about setting up backups when you plug in new external drives.
Photos
Choose if you want to enable camera uploads to automatically upload photos and videos from your phone, camera, SD card, or other devices whenever you connect to your computer.
Devices
Devices configured for importing photos will show up here.
Screenshots
Whenever you take a screenshot, Dropbox will automatically save it to your Dropbox and copy a link to your clipboard so you can share it instantly.
The Bandwidth or Network tab
Bandwidth
This setting lets you manage how much bandwidth your internet uses to run the Dropbox desktop app.
Proxies
This setting lets you connect the Dropbox desktop app to a proxy server, if there’s one available.
Enable LAN Sync
This setting lets you enable LAN sync in your Dropbox desktop app preferences. If your computer is connected to a LAN, enabling this setting in the Dropbox desktop app will override your bandwidth settings and may speed up syncing for files stored on your LAN.
Note: This setting is currently unavailable for computers running the updated version of Dropbox for macOS 12.5 and higher.
The Notifications tab
Notify me about
You can set your notification preferences to choose what notifications to receive.
Snooze notifications
You can temporarily snooze notifications for a specific period of time.
The Sync tab
Storage of new files
Using the online-only feature on the Dropbox desktop app helps you save hard drive space on your computer. Using the available offline option takes up hard drive space but doesn’t require wifi to open files. Learn more about online-only files and folders.
Select folders to sync
Selective sync is a feature in the Dropbox desktop app that allows you remove specific Dropbox folders from your hard drive so you can save space on your computer. Learn more about the selective sync feature.
Dropbox folder location
On Windows and Linux computers, this setting lets you move the Dropbox folder to a different location on your computer.
On Mac computers with the updated Dropbox for macOS experience, you can no longer move the Dropbox folder. Learn more about the expected changes with the Dropbox for macOS update.
Note: If you’re running an earlier version of macOS than 12.5 and haven’t updated to the Dropbox for macOS 12.5 experience, you can still move the Dropbox folder to a different location on your computer.
