Sync Dropbox
Sync folders and files from your Dropbox into Train so Centrus can answer questions from them. This guide covers connecting, choosing what to sync, keeping it up to date, and what happens when you remove a sync or disconnect.
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Before you start
Dropbox is one of the cards on the Integrations tab of Train. You need Train access to see it. Admins always have it, and an admin can give it to anyone else from Edit users and roles.
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Import and sync your Google Drive documents to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your files securely.
- Import documents from Google Drive
- Sync entire folders or select individual files
- Smart incremental sync preserves your tags
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync your OneDrive documents to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your files securely.
- Import documents from OneDrive
- Sync entire folders or select individual files
- Smart incremental sync preserves your tags
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync your SharePoint documents to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your sites and document libraries securely.
- Import documents from SharePoint sites
- Sync specific document libraries for AI analysis
- Access team sites and communication sites
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
- Import documents from Dropbox
- Sync entire folders or individual files
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync your Microsoft Teams conversations to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your Teams channels securely.
- Import conversations from Teams channels
- Create AI-searchable knowledge from chats
- Keep your team's shared knowledge accessible
- 1Train, in the menu on the left.
- 2The Integrations tab.
- 3The Dropbox card. Its badge reads Available until you connect.
- 4The Sources bar, which shows how much of your storage is used.
Each person connects their own Dropbox account, and the syncs they set up belong to them. Once the files are tagged, colleagues can see them in Train and get answers from them in chat. Only the person who set up a sync can see it under Active Syncs and re-sync, pause or remove it, so agree who looks after each folder before you start.
Centrus asks Dropbox for read-only access: it can list your folders, download the files you choose, and read your basic account details. It cannot change, move or delete anything in your Dropbox. Everything you sync counts towards your organisation's storage, which is covered at the end of this guide.
Connect Dropbox
- 1Open Train from the menu on the left and choose the Integrations tab.
- 2On the Dropbox card, click Connect. Dropbox opens in the same browser tab.
- 3Sign in to Dropbox if it asks you to, then allow Centrus to access your account.
- 4Dropbox sends you back to the Integrations tab. The badge on the card now reads Connected, and your Dropbox appears in the card as a folder called Root.
Not connected yet
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
- Import documents from Dropbox
- Sync entire folders or individual files
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
After you allow access
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
- 1Connect takes you to Dropbox to sign in and allow access.
- 2Learn More gives a short summary of how the integration works.
- 3The badge reads Connected once you are back in Centrus.
- 4Root is the top of your Dropbox. Click it to see what is inside.
Centrus does not show a message when the connection succeeds, and it does not show one when it fails either. If the card still reads Available when you come back, the connection did not complete, so click Connect and try again. Once you are connected, you stay connected until you click Disconnect, so there is no need to sign in each time you open Train.
Learn More opens a short summary called How to use Dropbox with Centrus. If your organisation has given the assistant its own name, the summary uses that name instead. Click Close to return to the card.
Import and sync your SharePoint documents to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your sites and document libraries securely.
- Import documents from SharePoint sites
- Sync specific document libraries for AI analysis
- Access team sites and communication sites
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
- Import documents from Dropbox
- Sync entire folders or individual files
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync your Microsoft Teams conversations to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your Teams channels securely.
- Import conversations from Teams channels
- Create AI-searchable knowledge from chats
- Keep your team's shared knowledge accessible
How to use Dropbox with Centrus
- Connect your Dropbox account to give Centrus access to selected files and folders
- Expand Root folder, then choose a folder or individual file to sync
- Your synced documents become available in Files for tagging and AI retrieval
- Re-sync anytime to pull new, updated, or deleted content changes
- Automatic re-sync can be enabled per active folder/file sync
Privacy note: Centrus only accesses Dropbox locations you explicitly select to sync
Choose what to sync
Once you are connected, the card shows your Dropbox as a folder list. Nothing is synced until you tick something and click Sync selected, so connecting on its own adds no files to Train.
- 1Click Root to open it. It lists the files at the top level of your Dropbox first, then the folders.
- 2Click a folder's name to open it and see what is inside. Each folder loads as you open it.
- 3Tick the box beside each folder or file you want in Train. A bar appears under the list with a count, such as 1 folder, 1 file selected.
- 4Click Sync selected, either in that bar or in the larger button at the foot of the card. The button spins while Centrus downloads and reads the files.
- 5When it finishes, a message such as Synced 1 folder, 1 file appears at the top of the screen and the ticks clear.
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
Import and sync your Microsoft Teams conversations to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your Teams channels securely.
- Import conversations from Teams channels
- Create AI-searchable knowledge from chats
- Keep your team's shared knowledge accessible
- 1Refresh reloads the folder list from Dropbox and clears your ticks.
- 2The folder list. Click a name to open it, and tick the box to choose it. Files Train cannot read are greyed out and cannot be ticked.
- 3The selection bar. Sync selected brings what you ticked into Train, and Clear removes every tick.
- Ticking a folder syncs everything in it, including every subfolder at every level. The boxes inside it stay clear, but their contents are still included. If you also tick something inside a folder you have ticked, Centrus ignores the inner tick so nothing comes in twice.
- Ticking a file syncs that file on its own. Use this when you only need one or two documents from a busy folder.
- Ticking Root syncs your whole Dropbox. Check your storage first, because a full Dropbox can be large.
The list sits in a short box that scrolls, so scroll inside it to reach folders further down. If you have added folders in Dropbox since you opened the page, click Refresh to see them. Centrus allows ten folder openings and ten syncs a minute for each person. If you open folders in quick succession and one appears empty when you know it is not, wait a minute and click Refresh. In the same way, tick no more than ten separate folders in one go, or tick the folder that holds them all. If anything goes wrong, the message reads Failed to sync the selection, and the folders that synced before the problem stay in Train.
On a phone the cards are stacked in one column, so scroll past Custom Integration, Google Drive, OneDrive and SharePoint to reach Dropbox. The card works in the same way.
Centrus
Import and sync your SharePoint documents to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your sites and document libraries securely.
- Import documents from SharePoint sites
- Sync specific document libraries for AI analysis
- Access team sites and communication sites
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
Import and sync your Microsoft Teams conversations to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your Teams channels securely.
- Import conversations from Teams channels
- Create AI-searchable knowledge from chats
- Keep your team's shared knowledge accessible
Check your active syncs
After your first sync, a See Active Syncs button appears at the foot of the card with the number of syncs you have. Click it to swap the folder list for a table of your syncs, and click Back to Integration to return.
After your first sync
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
Active Syncs
Manage your active Dropbox syncs.
Scrolled to the right
Manage your active Dropbox syncs.
- 1See Active Syncs shows how many syncs you have and opens the table.
- 2One row for each folder or file you ticked. The table is wider than the card, so scroll it sideways to see every column.
- 3The buttons at the end of each row. The next two sections explain them.
- 4Back to Integration returns to the folder list.
- Location shows the folder or file name, with a folder or file icon, and its Path in Dropbox. Paths are shown in lower case, which is how Dropbox stores them. A sync of Root is listed as Dropbox Root, with no path.
- Status is Active, Paused or Error.
- Documents is the number of files that sync has put into Train.
- Last Sync says how long ago the sync last ran, or Never.
Every folder and every file you tick becomes a row of its own, so ticking three separate files gives you three rows. A sync that brought in no files at all, such as a folder that only holds photos, is removed from the table automatically once it is more than five minutes old.
Keep files up to date
Train keeps its own copy of each file, so a change made in Dropbox does not reach Centrus until the sync runs again. You can run it yourself whenever you like, or set it to run on a schedule.
Contracts, scrolled to the right
Manage your active Dropbox syncs.
The same buttons, enlarged
Contracts has automatic re-sync on, so its clock is green.
- 1Re-sync runs the sync again now.
- 2Automatic Re-sync sets the sync to run on a schedule. The clock turns green when it is on.
- 3Pause stops the sync until you resume it.
- 4Remove stops the sync and deletes its files from Train.
Re-sync checks every file in the folder against Dropbox. It adds files that are new, reads changed files again, and removes from Train any file that has been deleted from Dropbox or moved out of the folder. Files that have not changed are left alone, so a re-sync of a large folder is quick when little has changed. For a folder, the message reads Synced. For a single file, it reads File updated successfully! or File was already up to date.
Tags are kept through every re-sync, including on files that have changed. A changed file takes its name from Dropbox, and its date in Train becomes the time of the update. A name you gave the file in Train is therefore replaced the next time it changes in Dropbox, so rename files in Dropbox rather than in Train.
- 1Open See Active Syncs and click the clock on the row you want to schedule.
- 2In the Automatic Re-sync window, open Re-sync interval and choose Every 1 hour, Every 2 hours, Every 4 hours, Every 8 hours, Every 24 hours or Every 48 hours.
- 3Click Enable. The clock on that row turns green.
Manage your active Dropbox syncs.
Import and sync your Microsoft Teams conversations to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your Teams channels securely.
- Import conversations from Teams channels
- Create AI-searchable knowledge from chats
- Keep your team's shared knowledge accessible
Automatic Re-sync
Set up automatic re-syncing for this folder. Centrus will automatically check for changes and sync any new, updated or deleted documents at your chosen interval.
Re-sync interval
Every 24 hoursThe sync will run automatically in the background. Your existing tags will be preserved.
The interval is counted from the last time the sync ran, so a manual re-sync resets the clock. Centrus looks for syncs that are due every 30 minutes, which means a scheduled run can start up to half an hour after it falls due. It runs in the background without a message, so check Last Sync to see when it last ran. To change the interval, click the clock again, choose a new interval and click Update, or click Disable to turn the schedule off.
Tag synced files
Files arrive from Dropbox with no tag, and this is the step that makes them useful. Centrus only answers from files that carry the tags a chat is allowed to search, so an untagged file sits in Train without ever being used. Until it has a tag, it is also hidden from everyone except admins and the person who synced it.
Panel test log.xlsxZone 3 panel manual.pdfRiverside House SLA.pdfMaintenance contract 2026.docxTag synced files on the Files tab in exactly the same way as files you upload: click Primary tag on a row and choose a tag, or tick several files and use Actions, then Apply Tag. A file can carry up to three tags, and each tag after the first counts the file's size against your storage again. The full steps are under tagging in Upload files, and which tags exist and who can use them is covered in Control who sees what with tags.
You only need to tag each file once. Re-syncs, whether manual or automatic, keep the tags you have set, and new files that a later re-sync brings in arrive untagged, so check for them after each one.
Find synced files in Train
Synced files appear in the main list on the Files tab alongside everything else, with a small Dropbox logo beside the file icon. The uploader shown on each row is the person who synced it. There are two quick ways to see only your Dropbox files.
The first is Cloud Folders, at the foot of the Folders card. Open the card, then open Dropbox to see each of your syncs with its number of files and when it last synced. Click a sync to list its files underneath, with its path, its type and when it last synced, or click Dropbox itself to see all your Dropbox files together.
Manual Folders
Cloud Folders
Dropbox63Google Drive41Contracts38Path: /contracts
Type: Personal Folder
Last synced: 2 hours ago
Riverside House SLA.pdfMaintenance contract 2026.docx- 1Dropbox under Cloud Folders, with one entry for each sync. A paused sync is marked paused beside its name.
- 2The files in the sync you clicked, with its path and when it last synced.
Cloud Folders only shows your own syncs, and a file you synced on its own is listed there with a folder icon like the others. Files your colleagues have synced appear in the main list if you can see them, but not under your Cloud Folders.
The second way is the Filter button above the documents list. Choose Source, then Dropbox, to show only files synced from Dropbox, including ones colleagues have synced that you can see. Combine it with Tag and No Tag to find every Dropbox file that still needs a tag.
Panel test log.xlsxZone 3 panel manual.pdfRiverside House SLA.pdfRate card 2026.xlsxCommissioning call.mp32- 1Filter, then Source, then Dropbox.
- 2The Dropbox logo marks a file synced from Dropbox.
Pause, resume or remove a sync
Each row in Active Syncs ends in the same four buttons. The last two control whether the sync carries on.
- Pause sets the status to Paused. The files stay in Train and Centrus still answers from them, but Re-sync and the automatic schedule are switched off until you resume.
- Resume, the play button that replaces pause, sets the status back to Active. An automatic schedule you set earlier picks up again, and if a run is overdue it starts within half an hour.
- Remove, the red bin, stops the sync and deletes every file it brought into Train, along with their tags. Centrus stops using them straight away. Nothing in your Dropbox is touched.
Manage your active Dropbox syncs.
Remove sync
This will stop syncing and remove all documents. Are you sure?
Import and sync your Microsoft Teams conversations to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your Teams channels securely.
- Import conversations from Teams channels
- Create AI-searchable knowledge from chats
- Keep your team's shared knowledge accessible
Remove asks you to confirm with Yes, remove, and it cannot be undone. To bring the files back, tick the folder or file again and sync it, then tag the files again. The messages read Folder sync paused, Folder sync resumed and Folder sync removed, even when the sync is for a single file.
A sync shows Error when its last run failed, for example because Dropbox could not be reached. The play button is greyed out on an errored sync, so click Re-sync instead. When it runs successfully, the status returns to Active.
What syncs and what does not
Dropbox syncs the same ten file types you can upload to Train: PDF (.pdf), Word (.docx), spreadsheets (.xlsx, .xls and .csv), text and web pages (.txt, .md and .html), and audio (.mp3 and .wav). Each file is read in the same way as an upload, so spreadsheets become tables and audio is transcribed.
One ticked folder, every level inside it
O&M manuals
Fire panels
Drawings
4 files go into Train
From the folder and both subfolders, with no tag yet.
6 files are skipped
Without a message. The sync still reads Synced.
Types Train reads
.pdf.docx.xlsx.xls.csv.txt.md.html.mp3.wav
- Everything else is skipped, including images, video, PowerPoint, CAD drawings and older Word files saved as .doc. They are greyed out in the folder list, and a ticked folder passes over them without a message.
- Audio is transcribed by a service that takes files of up to 25 MB, so a longer recording is skipped. Split it into shorter files in Dropbox, then re-sync.
- Storage is checked file by file. When your organisation runs out, the remaining files are skipped and the message still reads Synced, so compare the Documents count with what you expected.
- Overlapping syncs are not merged. If you sync a folder, and later sync a folder or file inside it as a separate selection, Train holds two copies of those files and counts both against your storage.
A file whose extension is in capitals, such as Fire door schedule.PDF, can be ticked in the list but is never added to Train. Inside a folder it is skipped quietly, and ticked on its own it fails with Failed to sync the selection. Rename it in Dropbox with a lower-case extension, such as Fire door schedule.pdf, and sync again.
Disconnect
Disconnect sits beside the sync button at the foot of the card, which reads Select folders or files until you tick something. It works straight away, without asking you to confirm. A message reads Integration disconnected, and the card goes back to Available.
Connected
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
Straight after
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
- Import documents from Dropbox
- Sync entire folders or individual files
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
- 1Disconnect ends the connection as soon as you click it.
- 2The card reads Available again. Files you synced stay in Train.
Disconnecting does not remove anything from Train. Files you synced stay where they are, keep their tags, and Centrus carries on answering from them, but they no longer update, and automatic re-syncs stop working. Dropbox also drops out of your Cloud Folders list. If you connect again later, your earlier syncs reappear under See Active Syncs, ready to re-sync.
To take Dropbox files out of Train, remove each sync under See Active Syncs before you disconnect. Once you are disconnected the table is out of reach, so you would need to delete the files on the Files tab yourself, or connect again and remove the syncs.
Disconnecting in Centrus does not withdraw the permission you gave in Dropbox. To withdraw it as well, remove Centrus from the connected apps in your Dropbox account settings.
Storage
Every file you sync from Dropbox counts towards your organisation's storage limit, in the same way as an upload. A file counts once at its original size, plus once more for each extra tag. The Small Team plan includes 1 GB and the Large Team plan includes 10 GB.
Import and sync your SharePoint documents to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your sites and document libraries securely.
- Import documents from SharePoint sites
- Sync specific document libraries for AI analysis
- Access team sites and communication sites
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync documents from your Dropbox.
Browse folders and tick any folders or files to sync to Centrus.
- Import documents from Dropbox
- Sync entire folders or individual files
- Keep your knowledge base up to date
Import and sync your Microsoft Teams conversations to use with Centrus.
Connect with Centrus to access your Teams channels securely.
- Import conversations from Teams channels
- Create AI-searchable knowledge from chats
- Keep your team's shared knowledge accessible
The Sources bar at the foot of the Integrations tab shows how much is used, and admins also see it under Settings, then Billing, on the Current Plan card. Check it before you sync a large folder or your whole Dropbox. To make room, remove syncs you no longer need, delete files on the Files tab, or remove extra tags. If you need more space, extra storage is available as an add-on. See Add-ons.
Other sources on the same tab work in a similar way: Sync Google Drive, Sync OneDrive, Sync SharePoint and Sync Microsoft Teams.
