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How to back up your Dropbox account

Storing files in the cloud is convenient, but like any storage solution, backing them up is critical -- especially if you want to move your files to a different service. Here's how to do it.

Ed Rhee
Ed Rhee, a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an IT veteran turned stay-at-home-dad of two girls. He focuses on Android devices and applications while maintaining a review blog at techdadreview.com.
Ed Rhee
Dropbox

A critical part of any storage solution is having reliable backups. Dropbox keeps backups of all the files you store on your Dropbox account, but having a local backup can often make it easier to recover your files. You'll also want to back up your files if you're considering switching to another provider, like Google Drive or one of the many other cloud-storage services.

To back up everything from your Dropbox account, log in to your account via the Dropbox Web site, then hit Ctrl+A to highlight all your files and folders. Click the Download button that appears at the top, then select the location you want to download the Dropbox.zip file to.

Back up Dropbox account
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

That's it. Now you've got all your Dropbox files in a single zipped file for easy recovery or migration to another cloud storage solution.