How To Easily Transfer Files Between Different Cloud Storage Services

A few months back, Damien wrote an article about scheduling regular database backups to Dropbox. Then Dropbox can sync the database backup to your local computer. This is such a wonderful way of automatically backing up your database especially when the database size is quite large to fit to the email limits. The only limitation with this approach is that it works only with Dropbox. What if you want to sync the files across multiple cloud storage services?

Backup Box is a service which will let you transfer files from one cloud service to another. This process is completely web based and does not require any local computer resources or bandwidth. Backup Box supports several services including Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, SugarSync, FTP and SFTP. It also supports full MySQL database and Amazon S3 transfers. You can transfer files from any service to any other service directly.

To start using Backup Box, just head on to the Backup Box site and create a new account.



After the sign up process, you will be taken to the step one. Backup Box wizard will guide you through the whole configuration process. The first step is about choosing the source location.



When you click the “Click to Connect” button, you will see a list of all the supported services which we have discussed earlier in the article. Just click on any of the service to configure its options.



For the sake of this tutorial, let’s select Dropbox as source. Every service will have its own configuration options. One thing common in all the services is that you will need to enter a display name of the service. This is for your ease of use.



When you press the “Add this connector” button, you will be taken to the actual connection window where you can connect your Backup Box to Dropbox or any other supported service.



Once this is completed, the source files will be shown on the next browser window.



Step two will allow us to choose the destination. The process is the same as step one. For the sake of this tutorial, I will be adding an FTP account as the destination.



The next screen will give you a better idea of what we are going to do. In this tutorial, we are actually transferring selected files and folders from our Dropbox account to an FTP location. You will need to select the files and folder that need to be transferred and also a destination folder. The two connected accounts can be browsed within the same webpage.

After you have selected the files and folders to be moved, you will have two options, either you can initiate the transfer immediately or schedule the transfer for later.

The scheduling options are quite comprehensive. You can schedule this as a recurring transfer meaning that the transfer process will be initiated after a specified time and this will keep on recurring until the schedule is deactivated.



One disadvantage of Backup Box is that it will actually move the files from one service to another. It would be a good option for the developers to let the user select whether he wants to copy the files or move them.

It has been a wonderful experience using this service until now. And since Backup Box is just a startup, hopefully the developers will put in more horse power and exciting features to make the service an essential part of cloud storage. What do you think?

Which cloud service are you using as your primary one? Do you intend to move to another cloud storage service? What methods do you have in mind to transfer your files from one cloud storage service to another?

Backup Box