Dropover for Mac App 2022 REVIEW

Dropover evolves your relationship with drag-and-drop file management to the next level.

I’ve been working very hard on cleaning up files on my system. I find myself dragging files to and from folders frequently and as functional as that is, the process does become inefficient simply because you are going back and forth so many times. Wouldn’t it be great if you could stack those files and then move them all at the same time? That’s what Dropover is for — and so much more.

About Dropover

Dropover is a utility that provides an advanced drag-and-drop function to macOS users. It can be used to stash, gather, or move any draggable content without needing to open side-by-side windows. Dropover is designed for the modern user who works on multiple screens and is a great tool for both content creators and developers.

Developer Damir Tursunovic stated that Dropover started as an experiment as he was learning Swift. Around March 2008, the first Dropover was released after Tursunovic was able to add value for other users. When we asked the developer about the tech stack that was used to build Dropover, this is what he had to say.

“Dropover is a native application written in Swift using AppKit. The backend, which mainly accommodates Dropover Cloud, is written in Ruby (Sinatra) and stores the uploaded content to AWS S3. The frontend of Dropover Cloud, which shows the uploaded content like here, is written in Vue JS.”

Dropover has been available for more than four years (initial release in March 2018). It was a very simple tool at the beginning but has evolved to include many other features such as support for multiple shelves, individual file listings, a share extension, Dropover Cloud, and file operations (e.g. resizing images from the shelves, etc.).

Main Features

• Works with any content
• Create a public link for anything
• Multiple shelves
• Quick actions
• Only there when you need it
• Automate your workflow in Shortcuts with Dropover actions such as adding content to a shelf or uploading to Dropover Cloud
• Observe any folder for changes and automatically show a shelf when a new file is added
• Directly add items to Dropover from other applications with the Share Extension
• Restore up to 10 previously closed shelves
• Dock shelves by dragging it to the edge of the screen
• List, drag, share or delete individual drags
• Drag your content to the menu bar to create a new shelf with dragged content
• Invoke a new shelf using a global keyboard shortcut (customizable in the app’s preferences)
• See your recent uploads from Dropover Cloud, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or Imgur in the menu bar
• Add content from clipboard to shelf or copy dragged content to clipboard
• Adjust the sensitivity of the shake gesture
• Manage applications that should ignore the shake gesture

Pricing and Availability

Dropover is only available for systems running macOS 10.15 or later. The app is free to download and unrestricted for 14 days. After the initial trial period, Dropover becomes ‘limited use’ and a forced waiting time of 3 seconds before interacting with a shelf is imposed unless the user upgrades to Dropover Pro (a one-time fee of $3.99). Dropover for Mac is currently on version 4.6.0 and was last updated in Mid-June. It is compatible with the M1 chipset. Dropover for Mac can only be downloaded via the Mac App Store.

Privacy Policy

According to the developer, Dropover does not ask for any user information and does not require any form of registration for usage (also applies to Dropover Cloud). According to the App Store, the app may collect Usage Data but it is not linked directly to user identities. The full developer’s privacy policy can be found here. Some additional privacy information from the developer is included below.

“The public page (where the uploaded files are displayed) also does not contain any form tracking. Dropover (the app) does not contain any third-party tracking frameworks for analytics. It does send some (anonymous) analytics events directly to its own backend, with no third party involved. The only exception is when you link your Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive account. In those cases, Dropover will save the retrieved token (which is required to communicate with the service) locally in the macOS Keychain.”

User Experience

Because Dropover is available through the Mac App Store, there is no complicated installation process or setup. You simply click the “Get” button in the App Store and the app downloads to your system. Dropover is a pretty easy app to get acclimated to. When you start up the app, there will be some basic onboarding screens to walk through and then you can start using the app.

Dropover lives in your menu bar so it’s out of the way when you don’t need it. One of my favorite things about this app is the fact that you don’t have to type a shortcut key in order to activate it. You simply grab a file and shake it. This action opens up the Dropover shelf that you can continue to add to until you are ready to complete your shelf actions. Let’s say there is a group of files you want to rename. You can stack them all on a Dropover shelf and then select ‘Batch Rename’ from the shelf menu and walk through the steps in the Renaming process.

There is a lot of fine-tuning you can do with Dropover’s preferences to get the utility to behave just as you want it to. You can have the app show in the dock if you want and you can manage your favorite file actions. You can even design custom actions by using Automator scripts if you like.

One of the more useful functions of Dropover is the ability to share items publicly through a cloud storage option. Dropover can create a public link using a cloud service such as iCloud or Dropbox in order for others to be able to access the files you want to share. This is a great feature because it saves you several steps when it comes to uploading files to a third-party service.

Conclusion

Dropover is an invaluable utility to me. I use it daily and think it is a great option for file sharing. The app is lightweight and very affordable. It is definitely one of my must-have apps at this point in time.

For more information, visit dropoverapp.com and Twitter.