You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Request: All files available offline by default
Moving the Mac to the new File Provider is great - very happy this is finally happening and support on the new M1 is much better. Kudos!
Feature request: Really miss the feature to have Dropbox...
Hi everyone, and thanks for your patience.
We're re-launching the option to choose the default status of synced files in the Dropbox desktop application (in the Preferences > Sync tab) for users of the newer File Provider version.
It should be available to you shortly. If you haven't received it yet, make sure to update your desktop app, and let us know if you have any questions!
Based on the comments I have read and playing with this, seems to me that if you want to "make available offline" your default:
Select all files/folders in root and right click, select make available offline
Then, and I don't know why this is necessary - perhaps I am impatient, click every single cloud symbol to force download. Just setting the white check in green circle via "make available offline" does not seem to do that without some help.
Create a new folder, let's call it DBRoot, in the root of Dropbox and make sure that one folder - DBRoot - is set to "make available offline" then move everything into this. From here on in, create all future files and folders under DBRoot. I have not fully done this due to space caps. This will create a new file as far as Dropbox is concerned for every file you move and will probably require double the space until the old location files get removed from Dropbox history and I would not want to do that too quickly. But if you have enough space, this would appear to meet the feature request (feature re-instatement) while Dropbox folks dance on.
I'm not sure this solution really meets the requirement as new files created on other computers don't seem to download automatically onto the all machines. You have to go back and re-click to make that folder offline available all the time. e.g. You make "MyOfflineFiles" folder available offline on ComputerA, and you add a new file to that folder in ComputerB. ComputerA will not automatically download that new file because that new file wasn't there when you made that request.
The point is to have all your Dropbox files downloaded on a machine, all the time, e.g. so you can leave home on your laptop and know the files are there, even if you lose network. If you create a file on a different computer, and your laptop isn't auto-downloading that new file, you can still leave home without the file you need to work on.
Making files available offline as a per-folder setting doesn't appear to work as a status that applies to all new files on all machines. It feels like a one-time action that needs to be re-run as new files are created. If I could right-click "Make available offline" on the main Dropbox folder, or on any sub-folder, and all future files put into that folder will download, then yes, that would meet the need. Just doesn't seem to be how it works.
This isn't new or novel, this is how Dropbox worked from inception. We just want that ability restored. And iCloud has this option.
I tested with files from another computer, albeit an iphone and found:
- if the file is created outside of a folder that is marked as "make available offline" then is does not appear on the mac and has a cloud symbol beside it when that directory is viewed from the mac
- if the file is created or moved to a folder that is marked as "make available offline" then the file is made available offline on the mac and is marked with a green check mark on the mac
So, I stand by my prior suggestion but add one additional note: if a file is created in a folder marked as "make available offline" even from another computer, and that file does not end up marked with a green check mark and made available offline when viewed from the folder where the "make available offline" request was made then that's a plain and simple bug. Not a feature request but a bug and should be reported as such.
>> This isn't new or novel, this is how Dropbox worked from inception. We just want that ability restored. And iCloud has this option. <<
We've all had situations in life where we are trying to repair something, but the best solution is just to throw it away and buy something new. I wonder if we should start looking at alternatives, or talking about if there are alternatives that will work correctly? I'm at the point now where I no longer trust this program. I find myself putting important files on a USB thumb drive so I KNOW I will have them. My primary computer is a 2020 Mac Pro, I miss the days when I would switch on my MacBook Pro and I would see a notification from Dropbox a few seconds later saying "17 files were updated". THAT is how it SHOULD work.
Right now, I'm only using iCloud for my Contacts. I wonder how it compares?
Hello
I also find this completely unbelievable the dropbox would gut the core of what made their service unique and useful. This change has destroyed my workflow.
Does anyone know of another service that will seamlessly keep files local and synced to the cloud and across machines?
This issue only appeared for me when I migrated to a new PC and the new dropbox app was installed. I guess my machine running the older version was immune but apparently there is no way to run the old app on my new machine?
Dropbox is no longer serving my needs so please offer suggested alternatives!
I was a paid OneDrive user and some time ago the "online ony" issue of OneDrive pressed me to Dropbox (not a paid user yet), and now it seems Dropbox is making the same transition...
Too bad that maybe we'll have to go back to the good old time of portable USB sticks...
If it is Apple behind all these and Dropbox (and OneDrive, etc.) has no choice, is it because Apple wants to kill all the other cloud sync services so that every macOS user will be using iCloud?
Before the latest update (v163.4.5456), when I placed something in my local dropbox folder (Mac), it would automatically sync, and be available offline (green check mark). Now, when I put something in the folder, it only shows a cloud icon to the right of the file, and I have to manually make it available offline. This is pointlessly irritating. Is there a way to make it go back to the previous behavior?
I create a pdf using my phone using Dropbox, which uploads to Cloud. The corresponding folder on my laptop used to get the file. It would be seen by HAZEL then moved out to another folder and used for work purposes. Work flow worked great until I did the recent MAC upgrade that moved the Dropbox folder to the path user/library/CloudStorage.
I have given DropBox full disk access, the FILE is showing up in the folder, but showing as not downloaded. The online app shows the folders as synched. But the folder on laptop shows file as not being downloaded. As a result rest of workflow won't work. When I click on the cloud, it downloads and all works as it did before.
I have checked the boxes so all files will be downloaded.
Can't find an 'auto download' button that I might have missed.
Thoughts
Be careful with online only files. Apparently if you move them, the system will just completely delete the files off your system from Finder leaving you with a 0 byte placeholder and it doesn't auto download any online files before moving it. OneDrive doesn't do this. Just be forewarned.
I strongly feel this to be due to certain mandatory rules (not known to the end users) from the Apple side, because neither Dropbox nor OneDrive would voluntarily implement such behavior which completely sabotages their own products.
OneDrive will download the files before it moves the file. Dropbox will not even try to download the file. It just moves the placeholder. Regardless of "oh, this is Apple" or whatever, the fact that it does it means that it should disable online only until it finds a way to fix it.
The fact OneDrive doesn't have this problem seems to indicate that Dropbox could fix it but hasn't yet.
Of course, it's not deliberate. I had someone from Dropbox say "well, you should just download them first...." That is a cop-out to the problem. That's an answer someone gives from tech support when they have no interest in fixing it. And that's their choice... fine. I have choices too and now have to consider them because of this bug.
I have a 30 days to recover what I see as missing files and if even 1 file is missing because it was marked online only inside a subfolder, now I have a problem if I don't realize it's missing in 30 days. It doesn't make sense why I'd want a 0kB placeholder file and why people think this is "by design" or what someone should see and learn a lesson from.... it's just apathy to the problem.
