Many of you are probably aware of this, but I was able to save myself two hours worth of work by using a feature of Dropbox this morning.
The situation: I was about to create the gradebook for a course (Math 239) this morning, and I figure that I would just copy the folder (“Grades”) containing my spreadsheet and python program for automatically emailing grades to students from a different course (Math 343) rather then starting from scratch.
I worked for a couple of hours, modified the copied documents, and then was done. Then I wanted to look at a class roster for Math 343, so I went to open my grade spreadsheet for Math 343. The problem was that the “Grades” folder was not there for 343: I had accidentally moved the folder rather than copied it. Basically, I overwrote about two hours worth of work that I would rather not re-do.
I slightly panicked, emailed my IT guy, and waited. But then I realized that I had stored all of this in Dropbox, and Dropbox stores all of your files for 30 days.
So I went to the Dropbox website, clicked on the 343 folder, clicked on “Show Deleted Files” on the right-hand menu, clicked on “Grades” (my deleted folder), and clicked “Restore Folder” in the right-hand menu. Those four clicks saved me two hours worth of work.
Thank you, Dropbox.
August 22, 2017 at 4:22 pm |
Dropbox has saved me a LOT of time over the years. I do something stupid (even more stupid than this) about once a month.
August 22, 2017 at 5:15 pm |
I am sorry to say that this is the first time that I have used the Dropbox recovery feature. I also do stupid stuff like this, but I have often just spent the two hours re-doing it!
I am very, very gradually getting smarter as I get older.
August 23, 2017 at 2:29 am |
Lovely! We used it at a radio station I worked at. Having the ability to change files on-the-go and in real time was a huge lifesaver for us!
August 23, 2017 at 1:43 pm |
Yeah—I have co-authors in different time zones, and I have no idea how we would do it without Dropbox. I love it.