Dropbox limits free accounts to 3 devices

[Vroni]

Originally Posted by haertig

he was a highly respected and acknowledged engineer.

Is that a certificat to get back Data fro free by miracles without having a backup?

If the data is important, make a reliable backup. If you dont have a relieable backup, the data isnt important.

And as an engineer he should have known that.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Vroni

And as an engineer he should have known that.

Which was my whole point. If someone who should have known made the mistake anyway, then those who wouldn't necessarily know might benefit from hearing a warning about it.

[johnnyb]

Just moved to Onedrive. Had to rename about 35 files, otherwise it was smooth sailing.

[Josieb1]

We have a paid Dropbox account, have done for years. I also keep a complete copy on two Pc’s plus two external hard drives (the external hard drives are a snapshot back up for when they we’re taken, but it’s better, in a disaster, than nothing).

[Phoenix84]

So, I had a paid Dropbox Plus account until last month (after 3 years of paid subscription), when I cancelled my subscription due to them removing non-Ext4 file support in linux (which broke my linux machines).
Within days of expiration, I got an email about the device limit.
At that point I decided I was done with it for good.

Now I still haven't gotten everything off of it, but I did move my Calibre library to pCloud.
Sad part though, is that Moon+ doesn't support anything but Dropbox/GDrive (latter is unusable for Calibre).

Do you think we'll get a pCloud or, even better, WebDAV support in Moon+ as a book source?
I used dropbox to store my library, then simply accessed my calibre directory structure directly via Dropbox in Moon+. I know it's not recommended, but in this case it was read only, so I was ok with it.
I'd like to continue accessing my library that way, without needing to use Calibre's OPDS content server.

I don't mind keeping the position syncing on Dropbox or Google, but the book source is the problem.

Or does someone have a better suggestion?

[stumped]

Originally Posted by Phoenix84

So, I had a paid Dropbox Plus account until last month (after 3 years of paid subscription), when I cancelled my subscription due to them removing non-Ext4 file support in linux (which broke my linux machines).
Within days of expiration, I got an email about the device limit.
At that point I decided I was done with it for good.

Now I still haven't gotten everything off of it, but I did move my Calibre library to pCloud.
Sad part though, is that Moon+ doesn't support anything but Dropbox/GDrive (latter is unusable for Calibre).

Do you think we'll get a pCloud or, even better, WebDAV support in Moon+ as a book source?
I used dropbox to store my library, then simply accessed my calibre directory structure directly via Dropbox in Moon+. I know it's not recommended, but in this case it was read only, so I was ok with it.
I'd like to continue accessing my library that way, without needing to use Calibre's OPDS content server.

I don't mind keeping the position syncing on Dropbox or Google, but the book source is the problem.

Or does someone have a better suggestion?

gdrive as a backup for moon+ to place its backups and sync files such as last page read etc should be fine. Gdrive is only bad if you rely on it as the main library location, or allow it to sync while calibre is running

you can mirror your local calibre library into gdrive and use it with calibre companion to fetch books. ( I think CC supports Gdrive access). just update the sync whenever you change library contents. I use free File Sync one way mirror

[barryem]

I tried switching to Gdrive in Moon+ and it was terribly slow and I quickly gave that up. I've always kept a few hundred books on Dropbox and also on Gdrive so switching was fairly easy for me. Getting books from Gdrive was fine as long as I imported them with something besides Moon+ and then when they were on my phone pull them into Moon+. But syncing was so slow it wasn't usable. It sometimes took a full minute to sync on Gdrive and often timed out.

I do wish Moon+ offered more choices.

Barry

[stumped]

do you not use calibre companion ?
let it manage getting books on demand from your cloud copies onto your devices, and organising them on those devices , then it just hands over to moon for reading.
that's what i do.
all that moon sends back to cloud after each reading session is the 2 tiny files per book with bookmarks/annotations and last page read. Moon does not directly link to my calibre library copy in the cloud.

I dunno if pcloud have a user forum, or any way for you to ask them if support fro moon reader is possible. You can email the Moon+ developer to ask if such support is anywhere on his to-do list . he may not yet be aware of the dropbox 3 device limit and thus of the need to support other cloud solutions

[Phoenix84]

Originally Posted by stumped

do you not use calibre companion ?
let it manage getting books on demand from your cloud copies onto your devices, and organising them on those devices , then it just hands over to moon for reading.
that's what i do.
all that moon sends back to cloud after each reading session is the 2 tiny files per book with bookmarks/annotations and last page read. Moon does not directly link to my calibre library copy in the cloud.

I dunno if pcloud have a user forum, or any way for you to ask them if support fro moon reader is possible. You can email the Moon+ developer to ask if such support is anywhere on his to-do list . he may not yet be aware of the dropbox 3 device limit and thus of the need to support other cloud solutions

No. I tried calibre companion, but it didn't work for my needs. It's so much extra work, and feels unnecessary. I already have my books on the cloud, the reader supports cloud files, simple.

I looked into setting up a standalone calibre content server, but then I can't use calibre itself, which is pointless. If the content server supported read-only mode, it would work for me.

pCloud supports file access via WebDAV, which is why I asked about it. That would work for me I believe.

I do have unlimited Google Drive through my school, so I could looking into simple rsync to clone the library, and access it over Google.

Basically, I want something automated that doesn't require extra tools on the front-end. For example, I add books in Calibre, and I download them in Moon+ Reader any time, from anywhere in the world. I tried device syncing in Calibre, but it doesn't work well for non-ebook dedicated devices.

[kyteflyer]

The 3 device limit is only for Dropbox apps on devices. I don’t much care about that. I use the web interface as easily as an app, and the apps I use which store their databases on Dropbox arent counted against the 3 device limit. Honestly do not see the problem, anymore.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

The 3 device limit is only for Dropbox apps on devices. I don’t much care about that. I use the web interface as easily as an app, and the apps I use which store their databases on Dropbox arent counted against the 3 device limit. Honestly do not see the problem, anymore.

I think you could have trouble linking moon reader for example from a newly bought tablet if you already have three. Because you are doing that from a device , the API managing the activation will check if you are below limit. Go all the way back to when chaley flagged it as an issue for calibre companion....

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by stumped

I think you could have trouble linking moon reader for example from a newly bought tablet if you already have three. Because you are doing that from a device , the API managing the activation will check if you are below limit. Go all the way back to when chaley flagged it as an issue for calibre companion....

OK. I have the Dropbox app on two computers, and my phone. It wouldnt let me install it to my ipad unless I dropped one of the other devices. However, I have also got Hyphen reader on three devices, all of which can access Dropbox (maybe that only counts as one app or something). Nonetheless, it brings the total to four.

So I thought maybe its because my Hyphen installs arent new. So I installed Pocketbook reader. It was able to connect to Dropbox for Sync, although it cannot download from there within the app. Nor can Hyphen.

I’m thinking its actually about how you want to use Dropbox, because I now have 3 iOS reader apps which sync with Dropbox. If I am out and about and want to access my Calibre library, I just do so via the web interface. It can’t read epub files so it asks if I want to open with (whatever)...

I guess apps which emulate some of the Dropbox functionality when in use, would be those which are restricted.

I’m rambling. Sorry

[barryem]

I had always thought that the Dropbox had to be installed on any device with apps that link to Dropbox but it seems that isn't the case. I currently have Moon+ reader and either ES File Explorer or Solid Explorer on about 8 devices, all of which are linked to Dropbox. Each of them has Moon+ linked to dropbox and each also has one or the other File Explorers linked to it. One phone also has it's native File app linked to Dropbox, making 3 links on that device alone.

So I'm not able to install the Dropbox app on more than 3 devices but I haven't seen any limit to the number of other apps on these devices I can link to Dropbox. If you read they're explanation of this new policy on their website it sort of explains that although it wasn't obvious what it meant on first reading.

Barry

[stumped]

All good info,. But Dropbox can change the rules to close up ,loopholes, or not, depending if the new policy is helping or hurting their bottom line.
In their favour. It seems that no one here has found a better cloud service. The other contenders all seem to have some shortcomings.
I have been using free Dropbox for years on all sorts of devices. It has never messed up, and has wiped me out of blunders by letting me retrieve recently elected files

Before this latest change came around I had decided I trusted it enouth to keep all of the actual documents in my documents in local. Synced, Dropbox folders., Rather than faff around with windows backup and restore.

Technically, with moon reader, it is downloading something from Dropbox to each device, even if that something is just the number of the last read page in your current book, so I am a tad surprised. But pleased. If it gets away with it.on new devices

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by stumped

...I had decided I trusted it enouth to keep all of the actual documents in my documents in local. Synced, Dropbox folders., Rather than faff around with windows backup and restore.

Yes, same here. Ditto for photos. Still, I do keep backup copies on external drives, just in case.