Dropbox integration
Point Mindly at a Dropbox folder and it reads the contents: PDFs, Markdown, text, code. Every file gets AI tags, summaries, and a place in your second-brain library. Dropbox stays where the files live.
Setup in minutes
What you can do with it
You have a Dropbox folder with hundreds of PDFs: papers, reports, ebooks, manuals. Finding the right one means opening each. Mindly reads inside each PDF, applies content tags, and makes them findable by topic or a phrase you remember from the body.
Your Markdown drafts are in Dropbox; your research notes are in Mindly. The integration brings both under one search so you can find a passage from a draft and the source material that backed it up without bouncing apps.
A Dropbox folder full of mixed assets (PDFs, Markdown briefs, text files, image notes) becomes searchable as a unit. The brief and the visual reference live in the same library view in Mindly, organized by project rather than by file type.
A folder of code snippets or example configs becomes findable by what they do, not by what they are named. Mindly indexes the source as text and tags by content, so the JSON config you wrote six months ago is findable by purpose.
How the integration behaves
Dropbox search matches filenames and limited content for some file types. Mindly reads the full content of supported files (PDF, Markdown, text, code) and indexes the meaning, not just the metadata.
The integration does not copy your files into Mindly. Files stay in Dropbox; Mindly stores only the indexed text, AI tags, and links. Your disk space stays free, your file-system organization stays intact.
Connect one folder, a few folders, or all of Dropbox. You decide what Mindly sees. The granularity matters when you have personal and work content in the same Dropbox account.
The integration only requests read permission for the folders you select. Mindly cannot upload, edit, or delete anything in Dropbox. Disconnect at any time from your Dropbox account settings; indexed files stay in Mindly without further sync.
Why it matters
Dropbox does file storage well. It does not do file finding well. The bigger your Dropbox gets, the more your files become a haystack: you know the document is in there, you cannot remember which subfolder, the filename does not match what you would search for, and full-text search is uneven across file types. The Mindly Dropbox integration treats the same files as a library, not a filesystem. The PDF you saved in February becomes findable by the concept it discusses, not by which subfolder you put it in. The Markdown brief you wrote in March becomes findable by what it argues, not by which client folder you filed it under. Dropbox keeps doing what it is good at (storing files, syncing them between machines). Mindly takes over what Dropbox is not good at (helping you actually find the thing later). The split is honest and the two systems complement each other.
Common questions
Reads the files in Dropbox folders you grant access to, extracts the content of supported file types, applies AI tags and summaries, and adds them to your Mindly library on your Mac. The files themselves stay in Dropbox; Mindly indexes them without copying.
PDF (full text), Markdown, plain text, code files, CSV, JSON, and other text-based formats. Image files get visual tagging. Audio and video are indexed by filename and metadata; transcription support for Dropbox-stored media is on the roadmap.
No. The integration is read-only and Mindly does not copy your files. The indexed text, AI tags, and metadata are stored locally on your Mac. Your files stay in Dropbox where you put them.
Yes. You select the folders during setup. You can add or remove folders from Mindly Settings later, and you can revoke the entire connection from your Dropbox account settings under Connected Apps.
Mindly picks it up automatically in the background within a short window, reads the content, applies tags, and adds it to your library. You do not need to manually re-import.
The indexed text and tags live in your local Mindly library on your Mac. AI tagging and summarization run on cloud APIs, so file content is sent for processing when indexed. After that, the index sits locally. Read the privacy policy for the full breakdown.
Other integrations
Download Mindly, point it at a Dropbox folder, and watch your files become a real library.
