Dropbox has clarified that existing accounts are not affected by the change, which means that if you already have public folders, it will work just like before and you can continue sharing files. If, however, you are one of those people who signed up for Dropbox after October 4th, 2012, and you want a Public folder, here are a few ways of getting one:
- The quickest and easiest way to get the Public folder is to simply create a folder called “Public” in your root Dropbox folder (Dropbox\Public).
- If you don’t mind clicking on a couple of links then Dropbox can do this for you automatically. Simply click on this URL: https://www.dropbox.com/enable_public_folder and follow the steps. You’ll see a “your public folder is now enabled” message on successful completion.
- Another way to get the Public folder is through the Dropbox Help Center about Public folders. On the page, scroll down and find the link for the process and click on it to enable the folder.
That’s it! You have successfully enabled the Public folder in your Dropbox account.
The new right-click-get-link sharing option is a convenient feature with better security to your files, however, there are certain benefits of having a Public folder. For instance, you can directly copy files to this folder and immediately share it with your friends or post direct links to images in forums, email, etc. It’s also handy while testing, and saves you from lengthy sharing configuration process.
Now that you have both the new and old sharing options, you can use your favourite cloud storage service as it always was.