Member-only story
Backing Up the Cloud, Because the Cloud Isn’t Magic
How I’m using a free, open-source tool to make an encrypted, offline backup of my Dropbox files.
I have a lot of files in Dropbox. Photos, documents, research, writing, and all sorts of other things I’ve accumulated over the years. And while Dropbox keeps those files available across my devices, not everything is actually downloaded to either of my MacBooks.
That got me thinking. What happens if I lose access to my Dropbox account? What if I accidentally delete something and don’t notice until it’s too late? What if something happens to Dropbox itself?
Sure, Dropbox has file recovery features and keeps copies of its data. But I’d rather not have all my eggs in one digital basket.
So I decided to make a complete, encrypted backup of my Dropbox files on an external hard drive, which I’ll store off-site with a family member.
Enter Rclone.
What is Rclone?
Rclone is a free, open-source program that transfers files between cloud storage services and computers. It supports Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Box, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, and many others.
