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Forum Discussion
New named Dropbox structure
I am a user of DropBox Business, on Windows 10.
Last week, I suddenly realized that the shortcuts to some of my Dropbox folders were broken.
A quick look learned me that the structure had changed...
DropBox recently changed their business acounts in a number of ways. Notably, my previous settings of everything being local are not screwed up, and I am having to RE-download EVERYTHING after going back and forcing everything to local. What a bloody mess.
But the bigger issue are the changes to Team Folders.
Team Folders used to appear within my user-folder. I.E. /pacergh/TEAM-FOLDER-HERE
Now all organizational team folders are in an organizational DropBox Folder (which replaced my business DropBox folder) as a top-level folder.
And my individual user-folder is within this top-level folder as well, next to all the team folders.
Okay, so it's not that I can't understand this change in default behavior. The problem is that a number of syncing services sync per DropBox ACCOUNT, and do not sync to DropBox TEAMS or ORGANIZATIONS like my business.
This was not a problem when team folders showed up within my individual business DropBox folder, with that folder being the top-level one. I could create a team folder in my folder, and it would go across all the other team members within my organization. The upside is that anytime someone joined the team, they would have the folder automatically. Fantastic. Leaving the organization? It would be removed automatically. Fantastic.
NOW? Ugh. So, the same functionality CAN be done with shared folders that are shared with EVERYONE. But Team Folders have (or had, maybe everything has changed since I last dived into this) different feature sets that are helpful that a simple shared folder does not. (In fact, I DO have multiple Shared Folders shared with everyone that DropBox recommends I make into Team Folders . . . yeah, no, not how this transition has gone!)
Anyhow, long story short, because Team Folders have been YANKED out of DropBox Business individual folders and moved to a new Top Level organizational folder, and we cannot place them back in there, all my bloody Team Folder syncing systems have become broken.
So, thanks DropBox. Thanks for all your ham-fisted transitions.
Has anyone found a way around this? Anyone see integration partners be able to sync with Team Folders now? (I assume DropBox will provide new integration tools for this they did not have back when Team Folders first came out?)
Or am I just stuck making a bunch of Shared Folders shared with everyone (or finally migrating to Google Drive, which my business already pays for, or MS OneDrive, which my business already pays for, or going with an alternative like Box, which would probably have other idiosyncratic madness).
I very much miss when DropBox was a cloud-storage and syncing solution, and wasn't trying to be some do-it-all Business platform. It was a great, easy-to-use file storage and syncing solution that didn't require a lot of time to manage. Now I'm spending more and more time trying to manage my DropBox setup than doing my bloody work, and their other solutions frankly are not competitive with other companies' offerings.
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey pacergh, thanks for your feedback about this change.
As you outlined, during the migration the structure of your Dropbox changed and it is possible that this change has disrupted the functionality of some apps you are using.
If simply relinking these apps again is not enough to restore functionality, we would recommend reaching out to the developer of these 3rd party apps. They should be able to assist with setting up the apps again or modifying the settings of existing apps to allow them to function as before.
The 3rd party app developers can find everything they need to update their app here and are welcome to reach out to our developer support.
Let us know if you have anything else to add.
The issue is this—the third party app developer does not support DropBox for business team folders at this time (and never really did).
However, one could let it sync and create it's App folder, then temporarily rename it, followed by creating a new Team Folder by the same App folder name with the proper permissions, then move the contents of the App's renamed folder into the newly-created Team folder with the App's folder name.
Voila! Team folder synced by the App.
Except, that doesn't work with the new structure.
Also, your moving everything to the cloud resulted in my Operating System's meta databases for searching for file names and file contents using it's file systems built-in search mechanisms is now all broken.
So, also, thanks for that!!!
Well i leave a message here as well because we have been using dropbox for 12 years now.
For a while we have been thinking about moving all our projects somehwer else, like nextcloud or google drive but simply didnt because dropbox was still the best option. Now with this really useless change that questions everything and means we have to resync and then also update all folder pathes in our projects anyway makes us question if this isnt the right time to finally move to another cloud service.
I still hope for DB to make this change optional, which would make us stayl, if there is no way to avoid it, then this is probably the right moment to switch to another service for good.The same thing happened to us this morning. I am the team admin, and as far as I can see there has been no notification.
Apart from nearly having a heart attack when I (didn't see) my folders in the new arrangement the two really big issues are:
• All of our files are now offline and this takes time to download again = waste of time = waste of money
• Our fonts stopped working via RightFont and had to troubleshoot that to get it working again.
Also wondering if now is the time to reconsider which cloud provider I use
Ongoing saga of this DropBox nightmare. Seriously, this is really pushing me towards Google Drive (which we already have) and/or Box.com. Maybe even Microsoft's OneDrive.
Tried to do some basic work—autogenerate a templated file, move it into a new matter's folder.
AH, but the project management system is no longer linked to DropBox. Okay, though, Zapier is . . .
BUT, now Zapier is not linked to the Team Folder and is creating a new folder structure based on the Project Management / Client / Matter structure in my personal folder.
Okay, so maybe I just go ahead and migrate and all my literally thousands of files from the Team Folder that got moved out and into a fully-shared folder in my personal folder.
I mean, we made Groups in DropBox for this, including the automatically-created Everyone group.
Ah, but you can only add auto-generated groups to TEAM FOLDERS!!!!! GLDMWFMNL:SDNF:KAJNFAD:KLFJAS:KFADJN:FKDSNJFDS:KLDFJ
You have got to be kidding me. So now I am creating an EVERYONE group that is not the EVERYONE group . . .
I hate DropBox so much. It is like they are trying to make me work to migrate away from them.
Remember when DropBox was file-syncing and file-sharing? Remember when it was the simple solution anyone could use? Remember when it was the best, simplest, easy-to-use option for that?
Ah, yes, I remember those days . . . now there's Paper and whatever nonsense they have now.
Could be worse—have a matter involving a large company that shared a large set of files using a janky-90s-era solution.
Still, this is becoming unbearable, and I am afraid when I have the time (because owner, CTO, CLO, CEO, all the **bleep** hats guy) we will be migrating.
Which is a bloody shame. DropBox was literally the first company software tool we purchased (back before DropBox for business; paid for the professional personal DropBox . . . ah, the days).
