Dropbox debuts Smart Sync for all Business users, adds functionality for Team Selective Sync

Managing hard drive space is difficult enough when it’s just your own files. When you start sharing data team-wide, though, that problem only gets worse. How can your laptop’s hard drive keep up with the terabytes and terabytes of data your team’s storing? So today, we’re bringing Dropbox Business users and admins two features to help escape hard drive constraints: Smart Sync and team selective sync.

Dropbox Smart Sync: Break free from your hard drive

While your team’s Dropbox account can store everyone’s files, your computer’s hard drive probably isn’t up to the task. That’s where Dropbox Smart Sync comes in. With Smart Sync, you can see every file and folder stored in your Dropbox—whether it lives on your hard drive or in the cloud—right from your desktop. Previously available to Dropbox Professional users and Business teams through our early access program, we’re now bringing Smart Sync to all Business users. Smart Sync lets team members keep all their work at their fingertips. When you need to access a file stored in the cloud, a quick double click will download it to your computer and open it up. Got a giant file or folder eating up gigabytes on your hard drive? Just right-click it, and select “Online Only”—you’ll easily get back loads of precious hard drive space. Plus, admins can choose whether or not new content will be stored on team members’ hard drives by default.

Dropbox Business customers with early access consistently praised Smart Sync, including supply chain consulting firm Maine Pointe. Bryan Hallas, their senior director of IT, had this to say: “Now, our executives can have all our company’s work at their fingertips at any time without support from IT, and the pace of on-site work has accelerated without having to think about bandwidth.”

To adjust your team’s Smart Sync settings, visit the admin console.

Team selective sync: Get up and running quickly

For admins, getting new users access to the content they need is a top priority. But that can be a challenge when you’re storing data for an entire team. To help admins better manage this data, we’re extending the power of selective sync with admin controls for team folders.

With our new team selective sync feature, available through our early access program, admins can specify which team folders will be synced by default, providing:

Faster deployment. By limiting the amount of data the Dropbox desktop app needs to sync after installation, users get to work much faster.
Centralized control. Instead of managing each user’s selective sync settings one at a time, admins can save time by establishing team-wide settings.
Easy archival. Once a project’s finished, admins can easily mark it so new users won’t have the folder taking up space on their computers.

These new features help remove the limitations caused by hard drive constraints and allow Dropbox Business teams to work more efficiently. Both are available today. Visit the admin console to adjust Smart Sync settings for your team and activate early access for team selective sync.