Dropbox provides an official desktop client app to make it easy for users to access their files. This app is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Having the Dropbox client installed on your desktop, you don’t need to open the web browser to search and use your Dropbox files. It allows you to access your files effortlessly from the file manager of your operating system.

One thing you need to know before installing Dropbox client app on your desktop. This app works by syncing your Dropbox files with your desktop. This means that your Dropbox files will be downloaded first to make them available on your desktop. This concept is not really good if you have a laptop or PC with a very limited storage space.

If you want to access your Dropbox files without downloading the actual files, there are some tools you can make use of. RaiDrive is one of which. Unfortunately (at the time of writing), this app is only available for Windows. If you use Linux or Mac and don’t mind to spend some dollars, you can use CloudMounter to do the same thing.

RaiDrive is a free app. You can download the binary file of this app on its official site or via Softpedia. Simply double-click the binary file of RaiDrive (the EXE file to) to install it on your computer.

How to use RaiDrive to access Dropbox files from File Explorer

Assuming you have installed the app, open it and click the Add button on the window bar of the app.

Click the Cloud tab on the Storage section and select Dropbox and click the OK button.

You will be directed to the Dropbox page to make the authorization to give RaiDrive permission to access your Dropbox files and folders. Login with your Dropbox account and click the Allow button to continue.

Now please open File Explorer and you should see a new drive called “Dropbox”.

You can add multiple Dropbox accounts in case you have more than one Dropbox accounts. In addition to Dropbox, RaiDrive also supports other popular cloud storage services including Google Drive, OneDrive and box.

You can repeat the steps above to add a new cloud storage account. To disconnect a mounted cloud drive account, you can simply click the Disconnect button on the Raidrive app window. Or, you can right-click the Raidrive icon on the system tray and hover your mouse over the drive you want to disconnect and click Disconnect.

Since RaiDrive doesn’t download the actual Dropbox files to your desktop, you won’t be able to access your files once you disconnect the mounted Dropbox account.