Dropbox, Inc.

Josh Kaplan

Thomas Wright

Stephen Poletto

David Euresti

Andrew Bortz

Luke Faraone

Adam Cook

Viraj Mody

Huy Nguyen

Ritu Vincent

Sang Tian

Alison Kao

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for authenticating a user account with a synchronized content management system are disclosed. A synchronized online content management system may receive a request from a client device to access content in the content management system via a web browser that is running on the client device. The system may identify that a client-side application for the content management system has been installed on the client device and that the client-side application is already logged into a user account with the content management system. The system can cause the web browser to open a local host connection to the client-side application such that the web browser may be able to obtain from the client application some user account identifying information for the user account. The system can then cause the web browser to log into the user account by using the user account identifying information.

Application-assisted login for a web browser

A content management system can tag a client installer with an information tag linking the client installer to a user account. The client installer can be configured to install the client-side application on the client device and pass the identification tag to the installed client-side application. The client-side application can transmit the identification tag to the content management system, which can use the identification tag to identify the linked user account and log the client-side application into the user account. The content management system can implement several verification measures such as limiting the number of times and when an identification tag can be used, as well as IP addresses that can use the identification tag. The content management system can also use data cached by the web-browser application to determine if the web-browser application was used to access the user account in the past.

Pre-authorizing a client application to access a user account on a content management system

Various embodiments of the present technology enable users to sign in to an account without a password. For example, when receiving a request to register a device with an account, a user can be prompted to enter their email address. In response, two tokens are generated. A first token is sent to a client application on the device and the second token is sent to the user's email. The user can then only login to their account with the device if the device has both tokens. Thus, if someone intercepts the email, they will be unable to login from another device since they don't have the first token. If the client token and email token cannot be automatically joined on the same device, a web page showing a code can be displayed on a first device, which can be entered on the second device to finish login process.

No password user account access

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for authenticating a user account with a content management system are disclosed. A synchronized content management system may receive an identifier via a first access platform. The identifier may be associated with a device. The content management system can generate a link based on the identifier and the device. The link may be then send to the device by using the identifier. When accessed by the device, the link may authenticate a user account associated with the device at a second access platform.

Authenticating a user account with a content management system

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for securely accessing locally stored synchronized content using a local web server. A client application on a client device may receive from a web browser on the client device a request to access a local content stored on a client device. The client application may be configured to synchronize the local content with a remote content stored in an online content management system. The client application may issue a challenge for the web browser. The client application or the online content management system may then receive a response to the challenge. If the response is a valid response to the challenge, the web browser may be allowed to access the local content via the client application.

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Josh Kaplan