Granted, a photo collage that chronicles a cousin's nine-year-old daughter's adventures may be nicer to get than a needless report without formatting, out- and bottom line three months past its due; both, though, are a burden lingering in an archiving folder occupying space and still hard to find despite countless search tools?
How would you like incoming attachments (at least the big ones) saved to your Dropbox account? How would you like them removed from the emails, too, and replaced with a link if you wish?
SaneBox can do that for you without your lifting any finger much after you've set up its attachment handling. All you need is a Dropbox account, and SaneBox will copy or detach and move files included with emails automatically.
Have SaneBox Save Attachments to Dropbox Automatically (and Delete Them from the Emails)
To make SaneBox strip incoming emails off attachments automatically and move the files to your Dropbox:
- Open your SaneBox settings on the web.
- Make sure your Dropbox account is connected to SaneBox. (See below.)
- Now make sure Save to Dropbox is checked under Sane Attachments.
- To have SaneBox delete the attachments it saves from the emails you receive:
- Make sure Remove attachments is checked.
- SaneBox will not delete (but still save to Dropbox) certain attachments, such as files sent using Mac OS X Mail and iCloud Mail on the web.
- Make sure Remove attachments is checked.
- To have SaneBox add a link to the email's text pointing to the saved files in your Dropbox:
- Make sure Add link to Dropbox is checked.
- You can always find and open the files directly in Dropbox, of course, even without a link.
- Optionally, change the lower attachment size limit for SaneBox to save the file to Dropbox under Only attachments >.
- To have SaneBox keep a copy of the original, unedited message (including all attachments and without any added links to Dropbox):
- Make sure After 30 days, After 15 days or Never is selected under Trash original.
- SaneBox will move the original, unedited email to the @SaneOldAttachment folder in your email account; you can recover it from there to any other folder within 30 or 15 days respectively (after which SaneBox will move it to your account's deleted items folder automatically), or forever (with Never selected for Trash original).
- Make sure After 30 days, After 15 days or Never is selected under Trash original.
- To make SaneBox delete the original message at once:
- Make sure Immediately is selected under Trash original.
To open an attachment saved by SaneBox to Dropbox:
- Open the message.
- If you have Add link to Dropbox enabled in SaneBox:
- Follow the link for the saved attached file under Sane Attachments to open the Dropbox download page in your browser.
- To find the file in your Dropbox folder (on the web or on your computer or device):
- Open your Dropbox folder.
- Now open the SaneBox sub-folder.
- You will find the email's saved attachments in a folder named "
, ". - You can find the folder's name at the bottom of the message text.
Note that the link included in the message allows anybody to access a file saved to Dropbox. If you forward the message including the link, for example, the recipient will be able to download the detached document.
Link SaneBox to Your Dropbox Account
To connect SaneBox to your Dropbox:
- Click Dropbox under Sane Attachments.
- Log in to your Dropbox account under Sign in if you are prompted.
- Do look for and verify the site is https://www.dropbox.com and that the security certificate is valid.
- Click Allow under The app Sanebox would like to connect with your Dropbox..
(Updated August 2012)
