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
Ending support of public folder
Just heard from dropbox that support for the public folder is ending.
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As a result, we’ll soon be ending support for the Public folder. Dropbox Pro users will be able to use the Publ...
- LGM - the issue is that people are abusing it and causing issues for everybody by getting the Dropbox domains blacklisted which cause emails to fail and downloads to be blocked by firewalls etc.
In terms of changing the extension, sorry, no idea how you would do that!
This I fear is disasterous news for anyone (like me) who has used the public folder links to post images on web forums.
Web forum software, it seems when using the [img]....[/img] codes , accepts the "https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com......." format of current public folder links , but rejects the "https://www.dropbox.com......" format of current links from any other folder.
This means the horrible prospect of not only the loss of many years of input across multi forums (with the upcoming negation of 'old' links to the Public Folder) but the need to seek out alternate on-line storage for the future!
- That's a real shame.
I've been praising Dropbox for this very efficient way of sharing images in forums for a few years now.
There is absolutely no reason to give up the Public folder.
The only point here it to get some advertising for dropbox services through users shares .. really lame.
Dropbox used to be so clean and easy and .. well, let's find some other online hosting service then. I am in exact same position as narikka having used drop box for years using links for photos on review forums. No way can i waste the rest of my life redoing all the links to photos. Cheers dropbox you just screwed up about 5 years worth of post + reviews for no real reason.
Not at all happy you seriously need a rethink on this :-(
Well thank you Dropbox for changing the rules after the game started. It looks like come September 2017 I'll be dropping Dropbox since you no longer will let me have the Public Folder I signed up for when I subscribed many years ago. I have years of public links in thousands of posts to dozens of web forums that link to pictures and short videos in my public folder. With one broad arbitrary decission, and without asking your paying custoers how it will effect them, you've negated my only reason for being a Dropbox customer. And you have not provided any workable option for myself and the others on this forum who you have placed in the same boat. I can't begin to describe how angry I am right now for this brain dead decision you have forced down our throats.
Same here - we have 100s of links thoughout a few websites to content on Dropbox in the Public folder. Can you PLEASE not remove the public folder? Or at least let the existing links still function?
This could takes hours and hours of work, and we'd still leave some holes. Please Dropbox, reconsider or find another solution!
- I have used DB public to share reading materials with students in the school via links on the school website: this is a decision that makes DB pretty well useless for us.
As already indicated by so many others, this is an absolute desaster.
We spend 4 years making 100s of documents with 1000s of internal and external links. Whenever a user reads something of his interest, he just has to click on the word and the relevant document will open. We even dare to say no website is needed anymore.
We already send a request to the support team but the only answer we got was an "auto-reply" which looks at first glance sympathic and constructive but basically is the exact opposite.
Although we don't used normally the word "begging" in our vocabulary, we actually begged the Dropbox-team to reconsider and keep the public folder as it is, at least for the actual users. Make it eventually impossible to use it by someone who's thinking starting doning so in the future. I would like to repait here this scream for common sence and understanding!!
If not, it'll take us months of work to recreate and rewrite everything. I'm convinced many other, up to now very loyal, users will have the same gigantic problem. Once again, do NOT implement this dramatic action!!
Best regards,
Guido
- Oh dear! No Public folder access even for Pro.
It started with no html access which did not affect me too much as I was using kml - BUT?
I support a number of systems to provide public access to some conservation work I do with Google Earth.
I maintain a small group of tiny.cc short urls to a set of kml files stored in my public folder. e.g. http://tiny.cc/WhTraps
These provide kml code to view trap locations and results and are updated frequently.
In turn some traps have links to image files of those traps. This allows the trap sponsors to see on Google Earth a picture of 'their' traps. This works really well.
The image files reside on another shared DropBox maintained by the trap owners and need to have calculable file names via a DropBox folder rather than individually coded file names. So the : https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8532225/TrapImages/B23.jpg
rather than:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4rvtdegltl863uz/File%2028-02-16%2016%2045%2017%20enhanced.jpg?dl=0
which do not show up in Google Earth.
I moved to DropBox Pro to maintain this a little longer.
My DropBox options are getting smaller by the day
In another project i have similar links to tiny html files so that a client can scan a QR code on a chemical bottle and get a quick view of its contents, and more importantly to access safety information using their phone.
My use of both of these now ends in less than a year.
What to do?
Bob J.Yes, if anybody has an option that is similar to Dropbox (especially the use of a Public folder), please do share. I realize this is Dropbox's forum, and I don't want to incite cross-advertising, but I don't think I'll stick with Dropbox.
Why? Because I don't see a reason for this change other than to stir up the pot.
This is so bad Dropbox..All my forum post are totally gone..:( all work on my forum is gone..many years of posting is gone...
You need to go back and make this right again..
My car forum have lost 1000 of picture today :(
- I have over 1300 images in my Public Folder shared across hotlinks all over the internet, on websites, forums and blogs, many of theme are shared in multiple links. The end of the Public folder will be an absolute disaster for me. I will have thousands of links to chase down and it will take me months of work to do so. Dropbox was supplied to make my life easier, not harder.
**bleep** you Dropbox. This is yet another example of developers and software engineers that just cannot resist the temptation to muck around with things that are already working.
If I cant trust Dropbox to keep my links safe, how can I ever trust them to keep my files safe?- Has anyone from Dropbox actually addressed our concerns, or are they just ignoring us and hoping we will all go away?
If you're upset by this change.... We're trying (perhaps in vain) to get Dropbox to take notice! Like our Facebookpage and help us get the message to Dropbox that as paying customers, we do not want to lose the Public Folder! :triumph:
https://www.facebook.com/Dropbox-dont-kill-public-folders-1757807227875969/
DimaSuper User alumni
You can still create those links - just need to change the hostname to get a direct link instead of the HTML page.
Create a regular shared link to an image; you'll get a URL that looks like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ynzjfwe0lfdlr2e/cat.jpg?dl=0
Then, replace "www.dropbox.com" with "dl.dropboxusercontent.com", and you have:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ynzjfwe0lfdlr2e/cat.jpg?dl=0
You can then use it in [img] codes and so on.
Are you 1000% sure about that?
That the files with https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com and http://dl.dropbox.com will continue to work past Sept9th?
My account automatically renews tomorrow, I could cancel it right now.
If they fail to honor the contract I have with them to provide public links of my stuff, surely this is FRAUD?
- Forgot to add I have 22,000 items stored in Dropbox, all images or KMZ files used on web pages.
I just copied them back to my hard drive, just in case.
IF this is ever read by corporate:
Your letter about "looking to improve the Dropbox sharing experience" was the same cheap BS that has become prevalent lately. But you know that.
You also are aware of the harm you are causing with this business decision, but you surely had your reasons. That has to be profit - somehow. Ads? less traffic? We don't know.
You may call this naive but if you left the public folder for Pro & Business users you'd have a lot of those free users ponying up. You have a huge amount of free subscribers by the short hairs.
Hasn't even started working for me.. I've just tried with a shared image to a forum, once moved it disappears from the forum.
Thank you Dima, you're a lifesaver. Your solution worked beautifully.
Can't find this beautiful solution. Please, save my life too
I have been using dropbox like this..
Clicking the "Copy Public link" in the app on Win10, it gives me this link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15491148/Trolls/_Goat.jpg
If THIS doesn't work after the lockdown WHY THE HELL DOES IT STILL WORK ON THE APP !!
If the above link will still work after March, then let us know that too !
I think many of us will be good with the FOLDER not being accessed. As long as all our links work.
Maybe someone just isnt clearly explaining what is being taken away.
cdgoin wrote :
Clicking the "Copy Public link" in the app on Win10, it gives me this link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15491148/Trolls/_Goat.jpg
If THIS doesn't work after the lockdown WHY THE HELL DOES IT STILL WORK ON THE APP !!
If the above link will still work after March, then let us know that too !
@cdgoin : What I understood from their mail is that this 'Copy Public Link' won't be working anymore after March 15 since there won't be any more 'Public' folder (the latter being moved to 'Private')
I also suppose that **past** link structures as https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15491148/Trolls/_Goat.jpg will then lead to nowhere (404) ... hence our overall disappointment, if not to say anger !
I have linked hundreds of pictures forums etc..
This is not good at all.
That is only reason why I have use dropbox, because easy picture share "Copy Public Link"
After that change, I think I need to find another service...
This is exactly my issue, I keep my school's blog and there's years of materials posted in it, that use public links. I can't even start imagining how much it'll take me to change all that!
I am with everyone else here, and think this is deploreable. I have over 600 images shared on a blog site, and am going to have to change all of them. I just reluctantly signed up to Photobucket (with much nervousness, as that site is very unstable from what I've seen).
But now that I know I've got till September, I will take a bit of time and find another.
But it's bugging the heck out of me that I've got to go through my thread and change the links on 600 + images, and I can't change the links for anyone who quoted my pics, so the images in their quotes will dissappear, and their quotes will become meaningless........
Shame, SHAME on Dropbox for doing this! BYE.
While I didn't use the public folder extensively as others here and am can see pros and cons of deprecating it -
- I think its ridiculous they don't maintain the existing links which should be a trivial operation
- i.e. they could make the 'Public' folder private and translate all the existing links to new shared links.
- I think any deprecation of public folder in favour of shared folders, the shared folder should be as easy to use - which in my opinion it currently isn't it
- I have shared items before outside of the public folder and the people I shared with got incredibly confused about having to sign up for dropbox. Its basically unworkable.
- Note - I can see can a pro in deprecating it therebye having one consistent interface .... if that interface was as good!
- I think its ridiculous they don't maintain the existing links which should be a trivial operation
I agree with @narikaa.
We're told that Dropbox will have better sharing options as a result of disabling links. That just doesn't make sense to me. I've used Dropbox for years, mainly to embed images in many educational and non-profit org sites. It sounds like, as a result of this change, I will have to update perhaps hundreds of links, representing a huge waste of my time. And, as a Pro user, I get to pay for this inconvenience. :-(
This is the same issue I have! It is beyond frustrating that Dropbox would do this. The shared files just simply are not the same! Dropbox -- please listen up.
I don't want to put countless hours of work into finding and replacing all my links. DROPBOX CANNOT BE TRUSTED
- It's also added complexity.
I think the main reasons Dropbox ever became popular were due to these 3 things that created simplicity:
1.) Public Folder - you just managed a file system. With the addition of a desktop application for seamless syncing and context menu URL copying, it was a dead simple and fully integrated way of effectively hosting a part of your file system on the internet for sharing and fun.
2.) Hot-linking - this was the logical addition to the public folder. It meant that if you shared an image, you'd get a link that ended in .png or .jpeg and was directly viewable or embeddable by anyone using well established SIMPLE technologies that people don't even think about anymore.
I think the main reason Dropbox are removing public folders is to phase hot-linking from their application. No longer will you get direct links. Instead, you'll get download buttons and media previews with proprietary comment systems and surrounding UI. Just like the file hosts of old. It's a shame, because this is initially what set Dropbox apart.
3.) HTML hosting - a sort of extension to hot-linking within the public folder. They disabled this one last year, which is a real shame. It allowed people with the knowledge to host small static pages that could be filled with other content in the Dropbox public folder.
For example, instead of being forced to use the Dropbox image gallery you land on when you click on a shared folder, this allowed people to design their own - write text and even embed things from other sites.
These things are going away - the main things that made Dropbox different. Now, if you want to develop your own applications or functionality, you have to use the Dropbox platform instead of the simplistic but powerful features of the past.
If you want to manage your files, you will have to manage both a file-system and a link sharing system that many people already confuse with the Dropbox shared folders; a feature that allows you to sync what things automatically with other people.
More cognitive overhead, less features, less power.
- Completely agree!
YEARS OF WORK thrown away in a moment for no reason.
The worst idea Dropbox could have had.
Forcing users to REDO a LOT OF WORK, just useless, annoying, will cause a lot of users to give up Dropbox. It's a suicide attempt.
I'm astonished CEOs didn't think about that.
Let's make it clear: the whole point of Dropbox is the possibility to embed documents in blogs, web pages, etc. I can have a doc linked in several blogs and posts etc., working "forever". If I have to update the document, I do it only once, and it will be updated on any site I have embedded it.
Now you are forcing me to go scan all my hundreds posts and documents and change the links, one by one.
Do you think I have slaves doing that huge, boring and annoying work for me?
Think about it seriously: it's a suicide attempt?
I like to have the possibility to make public ANY document, regardeless it is inside the public folder or not. That's ok.
I like the possibility to move documents from a folder to another without losing the sharing. This is completely fine.
Now, you go BACKWARD and brake existing links.
This is a complete nonsense. <This I fear is disasterous news for anyone (like me) who has used the public folder links to post images on web forums.>
And me. And as you can't edit your old posts it will all turn into broken links. Dropbox does not simply piss off their own users but damages communities all over the internet.
I'm sure that wasn't the intend, but the decision seems short-sighted with very unfortunate consequences.
When Dropbox cancels this feature i will stop using it, is there a alternative wich offers direct linking like Dropbox did?
I think Google drive and MS Onedrive also doesn't allow direct linking.
