Dropbox
Overview
Section titled “Overview”Signals collects files from a Dropbox folder you control, so exports your team already saves to Dropbox can be sent to an advertising destination without moving them anywhere else.
It suits teams who produce exports by hand or from a tool that saves to Dropbox. If your data is produced by a pipeline that can write to object storage, a bucket-based connector is usually less to maintain.
Signals reads files from a folder you control, on a schedule, and sends the rows to the destinations you have connected. Nothing is written back into your Dropbox.
Supported destinations
Section titled “Supported destinations”Destinations supported by Dropbox
| Category | Supported |
|---|---|
| Offline Conversions | |
| Lead Conversions | |
| Custom Audience |
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”- A Dropbox account with access to the folder holding your files.
- A folder holding your files, and the ability to sign in as an account that can read it.
- The URL of that folder, taken from your browser address bar.
Authentication
Section titled “Authentication”In Studio, open Sources, find the Files category, and click the Dropbox tile. This connector uses single sign-on, so there is no key or secret to manage.
- Click Login with Dropbox.
- Sign in as an account that can read the folder, and approve the requested permissions. Give the authentication a name so it can be reused on another instance.
Sign in with an account that can already see the folder. Datahash reads as that account, so a folder it cannot open will not become visible by connecting.
If the folder sits in a team space rather than a personal one, make sure the account you sign in with is a member of it rather than relying on a shared link.
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”Instance Setup
Section titled “Instance Setup”Select the Integration Type, which is the kind of data your files hold, give the instance a name, and click Next.
Ten integration types are available: Offline Events, Audience, Meta CAPI CRM, Google Leads, TikTok Leads, Snapchat Leads, LinkedIn Leads, Store Sales, Local Product Inventory and Product Catalog. Offline Events is selected by default.It decides the column structure Signals expects and which destinations the connection can feed, so a connection set up as Offline Events cannot be pointed at a Custom Audience destination later without the files changing too. Settle it before anyone starts producing exports.
Folder and file name
Section titled “Folder and file name”Enter the Folder URL, taken from your browser address bar with the folder open in Dropbox. Enter the File Name, which is the base name only, since Signals adds the date and the extension itself. Click Download File Format to get the template for the integration type you selected, then click Finish.
Signals will only pick up files whose names follow the pattern it composes from what you typed. If the File Name is Test, the names it looks for are:
| Filename | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Test_2026_07_29.csv | The file for that date. |
| Test_2026_07_29_1.csv | A second file for the same date. |
| Test_2026_07_29_2.csv | A third, and so on. |
The date segment is the file’s date in YYYY_MM_DD form, and the extension is fixed. A file named anything else sits in the folder untouched, which is the single most common reason a connection validates and then appears to do nothing. Whatever job writes your exports has to produce this pattern.
Manage instance
Section titled “Manage instance”One instance reads one location for one integration type. To read another location, or to feed a different integration type, add another instance from the Manage existing instance table. To change an existing one, open it from there, click the edit option in the menu to the top right, update the fields and click Finish.
File format and schema
Section titled “File format and schema”Start from the file you downloaded with Download File Format rather than from an existing export. The column headers in it are what Signals matches on, so a header that has been renamed, reordered into a different case, or padded with a stray space will not be recognized, and the row it belongs to is dropped rather than reported.
The schema follows the integration type you chose, not the storage provider. An Offline Events file and an Audience file have different columns, and a file built for one will not work for the other. Within a schema, contact identifiers are typically accepted in more than one column, for example up to three email addresses and three phone numbers per person, with one value per cell rather than several separated by commas.
Data & identifiers
Section titled “Data & identifiers”Personal identifiers in your files are normalized and hashed before they are sent to a destination.
Best practices
Section titled “Best practices”- Automate the filename. The date-stamped pattern is easy to type correctly once and easy to get wrong every day after that, and a mismatched name fails silently.
- Use a dedicated folder for Datahash rather than one your team already writes to for other purposes. The connection reads a folder, not a file, so anything matching the pattern is collected.
- Sign in with a team or service account rather than an individual’s, so the connection survives someone leaving.
- Clean the data at source: lowercase email, phone in E.164, no stray whitespace. Hashing a badly formatted value produces a hash that will never match.
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Section titled “Troubleshooting & FAQ”The connection is set up but nothing is collected. Check the filenames first. They have to match the pattern Signals composed from your File Name, including the date segment and the extension. A file with the right contents and the wrong name is ignored.
The folder URL is rejected. Copy it from the browser address bar with the folder open, rather than from a share dialog. A share link is not the same address.
The folder is not found after signing in. The account you signed in with cannot see it. Share the folder with that account, or sign in as one that already has access.
The file is picked up but rows are rejected. The column headers do not match the downloaded file format, or required values are missing. Compare your header row against it character for character.
Some rows land and others do not. The ones failing are missing a field the destination requires. That requirement comes from the destination, not from this connector.
Only the first file for a date is collected. Additional files for the same date need the numbered suffix. Without it they do not match the pattern.
It was working and stopped. The sign-in grant may have been revoked, or the account may have lost access to the folder. Reconnect and check the folder is still shared with it.