

Show HN: Visualize your Dropbox Space Usage - mkx
https://mkolysh.scripts.mit.edu/whatsinthebox

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Renaud
I fail to see the need to authorize a third party to visualise your Dropbox
when your files probably all sit at least on one of your machines anyway and
there are perectly fine open source tools that do treemap visualisation very
well:

* For Windows,use [http://windirstat.info/](http://windirstat.info/)

* For Mac, use [http://www.derlien.com/](http://www.derlien.com/)

* For Linux, use [http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/](http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/)

~~~
j_s
I use Dropbox as a glorified email attachment sharing system without
installing the desktop client; this is perfect for me because there is no way
in the web interface to find large files.

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kevincrane
"Treemap Visualizer would like access to all files and folders in your
Dropbox. This app will be able to read and modify everything."

Has anyone tried this yet? Something about "hey this app may or may not alter
every file you have on Dropbox" makes me wary, even if the title does imply
it's a read-only operation.

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
It's absolutely ridiculous that the permissions required are no more granular
than that. Is that the fault of the app or of the Dropbox API?

~~~
FriedPickles
That's the dropbox API. Apparently there's no read/write distinction, and
access to metadata is considered a "read", so this app needs full read/write
permission.

~~~
umeshunni
Once you've tried it and got your treemap, you can unauthorize the app from
[https://www.dropbox.com/account/security#applications](https://www.dropbox.com/account/security#applications)

------
JosephRedfern
Screenshot: [http://i.imgur.com/z9hkHT7.png](http://i.imgur.com/z9hkHT7.png)

The colour and area of the blocks would seem to correspond to the file type
and file size respectively.

~~~
jaynos
Thanks for that. I thought it broke for me, but then I realized my entire
dropbox is one movie file and the blue screen was appropriate.

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kcon
I made the exact same thing at PennApps Fall 2013! Great minds think alike. ;)

[https://github.com/kevincon/utilityknife](https://github.com/kevincon/utilityknife)

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vineetdhanawat
"This app will be able to read and modify everything."

Why modify?

~~~
kcon
Unfortunately, there's currently no read-only access for Dropbox API users to
access all of the user's files and folders (e.g. to make a treemap
visualization). It's read/write or nothing.

~~~
vineetdhanawat
ouch.

------
anigbrowl
Treemaps have been around for ages. why not just run one on your local dropbox
folder?

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xymostech
Would be nice if it would tell me where things are located. I can tell they're
grouped by folder, but it doesn't tell me what folder that is or where it is
within the Dropbox folder. (I know I can find it in my actual Dropbox folder,
just wondering why that information is missing from here)

Also, there seems to be a bunch of "undefinedByte"-sized files lying around.
Anyone know what those are? Maybe 0-sized files or something?

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misterparker
I'm sure this was a cool and fun dev project. I've used a program like this
before: [http://www.derlien.com/](http://www.derlien.com/) to visualize and
edit/delete files.

But for space management have since switched to
[http://spacieapp.com/](http://spacieapp.com/)

------
stedaniels
I'm intrigued, but not enough to click. Ahh. Can someone else take the leap?
Provide some details, screenshots, any credentials about who made this? Can't
be bothered looking into how hard it is for someone nefarious to get something
on *.mit.edu subdomain.

------
iancarroll
Guys, seriously. Somebody built something. He's sharing it with you. Yes,
there are other things that can do it.

You don't have to leap on every thread and complain that someone else had the
same idea.

------
blackstache
This is just like [http://windirstat.info/](http://windirstat.info/) which can
be run on the desktop. Very handy tool...

~~~
lelandbatey
Yep, and if you're on OS X, you can use Disk Inventory X[0] to get the same
tree-like layout.

[0] [http://www.derlien.com/](http://www.derlien.com/)

~~~
Groxx
I've been using GrandPerspective for quite a long time. Pretty happy with it,
lots of ways to drill down deeper / filter / etc to get at what you're looking
for.

[http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/](http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/)

edit: oh, hah, they're almost identical. interesting.

~~~
lelandbatey
Ah, I have used both, but I also haven't been using OS X for the past couple
years. One of them, I didn't remember which, was actually a PPC program that
required a Rosetta to work. At some point it stopped working, and I switched
to the other.

Since I hadn't used them in a while, I forgot which was which. However, some
further research says that Disk Inventory X was the PPC program. In that case,
I'd also recommend GrandPerspective.

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j_s
Dropbox has left it difficult to track down large files in their web
interface; nice to see someone fill in the (purposely) missing piece.

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Robadob
On my 5-year old netbook and my pretty decent spec desktop I just get a white
page that goes grey when I move the mouse over it. :(

~~~
mkx
Maybe you have too many files in your Dropbox for the app to handle? It only
displays files over 10kb, though..

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indraneel24
OP: how are you getting around 429 errors thrown by Dropbox when you do a full
dirwalk like this?

~~~
mkx
Seems like Dropbox allows that many metadata calls. When I was testing this
for myself, I started getting 429s when I would make 5+ refreshes in a minute,
but it also rate limits on a user-by-user basis.

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aflam
Did anyone dare authorize? I find using simple commands like `du` and `tree`
sufficient for me...

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jhaaps
Sample output would be great.

~~~
toomuchtodo
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6736049](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6736049)

