New Dropbox Feature Puts All Your Files on Your Desktop

These days, most of us have more files than we have hard drive space. To manage our many documents, we tend to disperse our files across external hard drives and cloud storage services like Dropbox, keeping only a fraction on our internal hard drive. It can be frustrating to toggle back and forth between all of these systems looking for specific files. But now, Dropbox has announced plans for a new feature, called Project Infinite, which will help users consolidate their files, putting cloud-stored and locally-stored files right on the desktop.

Engadget reports that Project Infinite will allow Dropbox users to access cloud-saved files on their computer’s native interface (Mac Finder or Windows Explorer) for the first time, without taking up any space on their hard drive. While users have always been able to store Dropbox files locally, the number of files was limited by their internal storage space. Now, users will essentially be able to keep as many Dropbox files as they want on their computer’s desktop, where they'll be able to download, open, edit, and sync the files, as long as they’re connected to WiFi.

As The Verge notes, the main benefit of Project Infinite is the ability to see all of your files in one place. The interface will be simple and easy to use: Cloud-stored files will be denoted with a cloud icon, while locally-stored files will have the same green checkmark Dropbox has always used. At the moment, it’s unclear when Project Infinite will officially launch (it’s currently being tested by “a select number of sponsor customers,” according to Engadget) and whether it will be available to both Dropbox business users and Dropbox Pro accounts.

“With Project Infinite, we’re addressing a major issue our users have asked us to solve. The amount of information being created and shared has exploded, but most people still work on devices with limited storage capacity,” Dropbox explains. “Project Infinite will enable users to seamlessly and securely access all their Dropbox files from the desktop, regardless of how much space they have available on their hard drives.”

[h/t Engadget]

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