With Lifetime, your notes can travel between your devices through your own Dropbox. Each device talks to Dropbox directly, so Grape's servers never see your notes, your files or your Dropbox sign in. If you would rather use Google Drive, see Sync with Google Drive: your devices sync through one or the other.
Who it is for
An account with Lifetime and without the Sync or Pro subscription. Sync and Pro keep syncing through Grape Cloud, Grape's own servers, the way Sync your notes across devices describes. If you have Lifetime and also subscribe to Pro, your devices sync through Grape Cloud while the subscription runs, and through your Dropbox again when it ends.
Connecting a device
Sign in to Grape, open Settings and go to Cloud Sync: the Cloud Sync tab under Account on desktop, or Settings, then Cloud Sync on the phone. Under Sync with Dropbox or Google Drive, choose Connect Dropbox.
On a computer your browser opens Dropbox's page, and on a phone a sign in sheet opens. Sign in to Dropbox and choose Allow, and you are back in Grape. Cloud Sync now says Connected as and your Dropbox email, and the first sync starts by itself. If something goes wrong on the way, it says Could not connect to Dropbox. Try again.
Do the same on every device, signed in to the same Grape account and the same Dropbox account. From then on, what you change on one device shows up on the others.
One Dropbox holds one Grape account's notes. If the Dropbox you sign in to already holds another Grape account's notes, Grape does not connect it and says This Dropbox already holds another Grape account's notes. Connect a different Dropbox.
Every device has to use the same storage. To move from Dropbox to Google Drive, disconnect Dropbox in Cloud Sync and connect Google Drive, on each of your devices: your library goes up to Google Drive from the first one, and the others read it from there.
When it runs
The same as Grape Cloud: a couple of seconds after you stop editing, when the app comes to the front, every fifteen minutes, and when you choose Sync Now in Cloud Sync. While it is open, the desktop app also notices changes from your other devices within seconds. The phone syncs while the app is open.
What travels
Folders, notes, handwriting and drawings, flashcards, quizzes, mind maps, slide decks, mini apps with what they saved, AI chats, the note index that AI search uses, your settings with your agents, and attachments: pictures, PDFs and recordings. Locked notes stay locked: what lands in your Dropbox is their encrypted form.
When the same note is changed on two devices, the newer change wins, the same as with Grape Cloud. A note deleted on one device is deleted on all of them.
What does not travel
- Shared folders and notes and live typing. They need Grape Cloud, so they come with the Sync or Pro plan.
- The connection for ChatGPT, Claude and other AI apps, and Brainrot videos.
- An attachment larger than 150 MB. It stays on the device you added it on.
- The text Grape reads out of your PDFs for search and the AI. Each device reads the PDFs it has.
Where your files go
Dropbox gives Grape a folder of its own, Apps/Grape Notes in your Dropbox, and Grape only ever reads and writes there. Under Sync Status, Cloud Sync shows what your Grape Notes folder holds and how much room your Dropbox has left.
Inside, Grape keeps one file for each note, folder and setting, with your pictures, PDFs and recordings in the files folder. When you change a note, Grape writes over that note's file, so the folder takes about as much room as your notes do and does not grow as you edit. When you delete a note, a small mark in the deleted folder tells your other devices it is gone, and the note's own file goes, so the notes folder holds only the notes you have. The files are written for Grape to read: to keep a copy you can open yourself, export your notes or back them up.
Disconnecting
Choose Disconnect beside Sync with Dropbox in Cloud Sync. That device stops syncing through Dropbox. Your notes stay on the device and in your Dropbox, and Connect Dropbox is there whenever you want it back. Signing out of Grape also disconnects Dropbox on that device.
If you remove Grape from the connected apps in your Dropbox account, Grape says Dropbox access was removed. Connect Dropbox again to keep syncing.
Privacy
Your devices talk to Dropbox directly. Grape's servers never see your notes, your files or your Dropbox sign in. The key that lets Grape into your Dropbox stays on the device: in the system keychain on a computer, and in the keychain on a phone. The privacy policy has the rest.