Dropbox 2.8.0 offers better large Dropbox handling on client systems
The cloud backup provider Dropbox is about to release a new version of its desktop client software for all supported operating systems.
Dropbox 2.8.0 is currently available as a release candidate build which means that it is in its last stage of development before current Dropbox stable clients, on version 2.6.33 currently, are updated to the new version.
The new version of Dropbox's desktop client ships with several interesting new features. Probably one of the most interesting features of the new version is that the software's selective sync option is now displayed during setup if files stored on Dropbox exceed 10 Gigabytes.
The very same option is also displayed if the initial synchronization process would fill up most of the remaining free space on the hard drive.
The main idea behind the new feature is to provide users with options to select only necessary files for synchronization if they want to, either to speed up the synchronization process, save bandwidth, or avoid that one of the partitions on their computer system runs out of free disk space because of the syncing.
The prompt during setup won't be displayed if the account on the system was previously linked to Dropbox. The reasoning behind the decision is that the team assumes that you would have set up selective sync in the client in this case already.
Selective Sync allows you to select the files and folders that you want synced to the computer system. All files not selected won't be synchronized. You find the option under Dropbox Preferences > Account > Selective Sync in the client interface on the computer you want to configure the feature on.
Dropbox is releasing so-called auto sign-in installers for Windows and OS X. The core difference to regular installers is that if you are already signed in to Dropbox on the website, you won't be prompted again to sign in using the client.
Dropbox makes available both installer versions for the two operating systems so that you can decide which one to use.
The feature is not enabled for users who have configured two-factor authentication, and business account users.
Last but not least, Dropbox 2.8.0 features two bug fixes. The first fixes a long paths issue, the second a rare infinite connection error.
There is no official confirmation yet when Dropbox 2.8.0 will be released as the stable new version of the client. Considering that it is a release candidate, it is very likely that this is going to happen very soon.
You can download the release candidate builds by visiting this thread on the official Dropbox forum.
