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.

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Pysio13's avatar
Pysio13
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

Shared Link / "scl" to "s"

Hello. My question concerns my recent issue with file sharing. Usually, my links were generated in this way: 'https://www.dropbox.com/s/'. However, lately, every file is being generated in this way: ...
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  • JasonSilverDBX's avatar
    JasonSilverDBX
    2 years ago
    Thank you BenDBX  for splitting off a new thread specific to the 3rd party integrations issue, and especially for doing it in a way that migrates all the relevant posts to date!  To properly wrap up this thread, below is a summary.


    Why the new "/scl" link format?

     

    Dropbox is moving to an updated shared link architecture where links are based on the content being shared rather than on the user doing the sharing.  This new content-based link architecture is already in place for edit access links to folders and newly created links to files, and can be identified by the presence of an ‘rlkey’ parameter in the URL.  (They also begin with "/scl" instead of the previous architecture's  "/s".)  It is the rlkey parameter which grants access to the content.  That is why removing that parameter results in visitors having to sign in and request access.  I talk more about this transition in this forum thread.
     
    Over the next few months, we’ll round out the shared link portfolio by bringing this new architecture to newly created view-only access folder links, or view folder links for short.

    Direct Download on new link architecture is Solved

     
    Regarding this thread on “direct / forced” download not working on new links, this should be solved since a fix was implemented 2 weeks ago.  That is, all new links should now function the same as legacy links for these purposes.  This can be accomplished in two ways.  
    1. modifying the dl parameter in the URL
    2. modifying using dl.dropbox.com or dl.dropboxusercontent.com.  

     

    👉 In both cases you must retain the rlkey parameter for the URL to grant your recipients permission rights to access your file.

     

    What is the DL parameter?

     

    Anything following the ? in a URL are query parameters.  It’s worth reemphasizing that dl parameter in new links did not break and will continue to function identically to those in legacy links.  Manually changing the dl parameter does the following:

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0

    • Default link. This will render the content in the Dropbox file viewer.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=1

    • Downloads the content of the link (if the user has access to the content based on link settings). This query parameter takes precedence even if raw=1 is also added.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&raw=1

    • Directly renders the content in the browser (if the link has a public audience and no other restrictions). Note that this link has an HTTP 302 redirect, so the application or browser must be able to follow the redirect.

     

    What are the dl.dropbox... modifications?

     
    These are link transformations from the early days of Dropbox.  While we don't "officially" list these anymore in our Help Center, we are continuing to support them for now.  
     
    https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0
    • Replacing www with dl works exactly like a ?raw=1 link: this will directly render content for public links in the browser. It requires following an HTTP 302 redirect.
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0
    • Works like a ?raw=1 link, but the application or browser will not need to follow an HTTP 302 redirect to access the content.
     
Forebears's avatar
Forebears
Helpful | Level 6
Yep, the audio player use case completely breaks with this change.

Seems like a pretty dumb way to lose a significant amount of customers on Dropboxes end. I’m surprised they aren’t concerned about this functionality at all.
matthewdbx's avatar
matthewdbx
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
2 years ago
Hi everyone, thank you for providing feedback in this post and bringing to our attention the issue with dl.dropbox.com and dl.dropboxusercontent.com not working for /scl/fi/ shared links.
 
Our engineering team is now aware of the issue and is actively working on a fix to restore the functionality that’s been mentioned. We expect this to be available within the week, and we’ll continue to keep you informed of the fix status in this forum post.
 
As we continue to roll out the centralized /scl/ link model in the future, we’ll continue to monitor this post and the community forum for any additional feedback.
 
Thank you again for the feedback and input in this post, and sincere apologies for the disruption the issue has caused.
  • caitycordova's avatar
    caitycordova
    New member | Level 2
    2 years ago

    Hi, what about the dl=0 vs dl=0key....  I need to be able to replace with raw=1 

    • matthewdbx's avatar
      matthewdbx
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      2 years ago

      Hi caitycordova! You should be able to continue using dl=1 or raw=1 by changing the link in the following way:

      Default shared link - dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?dl=0&rlkey=<token>

      Download link - dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?dl=1&rlkey=<token>

      Raw link - dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?raw=1&rlkey=<token>

       

      • Stratoman's avatar
        Stratoman
        Helpful | Level 7
        2 years ago

        Many thanks 
        For the record .

        I am trying to rendering a .jpg file on the Geocaching.com site.

         

        The second link works ok   dl=1

        The third link does not work raw = 1

        Thankfully all existing link stay as /s/ so my 300+ images will still work OK.

         

         

  • stiletto2's avatar
    stiletto2
    Helpful | Level 6
    2 years ago

    Great news!  Thanks!

    • eagledrop's avatar
      eagledrop
      Helpful | Level 6
      2 years ago
      Thank you!!
      • ramonB's avatar
        ramonB
        Helpful | Level 5
        2 years ago
        All's well That ends well. Thank you so much.
  • bleach hawk's avatar
    bleach hawk
    Helpful | Level 6
    2 years ago

    Good to hear, thank you!

    • Tanaproma's avatar
      Tanaproma
      Explorer | Level 3
      11 months ago

      So I store a lot of fonts that I've paid for on my dropbox, in case my computer dies and I lose them. And I have the .woff files linked to stylesheets, so they are accessible in coding. 

      @import url('https://dl.dropbox.com/s/p6qsidr93tbp8n7/stylesheet.css');



      This is how I link a file, however, out of nowhere, a lot of the characters inside the link changed. And there are instances where none of the link changed, but I have to change .dropbox to .dropboxusercontent.

      And then there's this instance where the links really look messed up:

      @import url('https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/th6o83rg7fwcvl1atzpla/stylesheet.css?rlkey=wbz9a4j77k43ilp1bgw283xyq');

       

      It requires a key now?? IDK

      Does anyone know why this is happening, and how I can restore the original links as they were?

      • Megan's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        11 months ago

        Hi Tanaproma, thanks for posting here! 

         

        I've merged your post under a similar thread. I'd appreciate it if you went through this thread, take a look and let me know if you have any questions. 

         

        Thanks a bunch!

  • dunghv26's avatar
    dunghv26
    Explorer | Level 4
    2 years ago

    Please also fix for .zip file type, it had worked fine for /s/ link

     

     

    • matthewdbx's avatar
      matthewdbx
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      2 years ago

      Hi everyone,

       

      As an update on the dropboxusercontent issue, the fix is now available. For your shared links that look like "www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/...",  you should now be able to generate a direct download of the content using either "dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/..." or "dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/..."

       

      Thanks again for the feedback in this post!

      • Здравко's avatar
        Здравко
        Legendary | Level 20
        2 years ago
        matthewdbx wrote:

        ...,  you should now be able to generate a direct download of the content using either "dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/..." or ...

        No exactly. The link isn't direct yet; there is still one redirection! One is less than two, but... redirection is still needed. 👈

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