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
Dropbox removing external disk support for Mac users
In case anyone's unaware... if you're a Mac user storing your Dropbox on an external drive, you'll shortly lose that ability.
https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
Just confirmed this with DB support (see below). Gutted - been with Dropbox for years and our entire video team flow is based around it 😕
>Hi there, I read today that you are scrapping the ability to store the Dropbox folder on external disks, on OSX. I'd like to ask more about this please.
> Hello Jon, and thank you for contacting Dropbox Support. My name is Joseph, and I will be more than happy to look into your request, right away.
That is correct Jon, as part of the Dropbox for macOS update, the Dropbox folder must be located in ~/Library/CloudStorage.
>This is a showstopper for us, and will mean we have to move to another service. We have a large distributed team using DB for video work, no way it'll fit within internal drives.
Is there a workaround?
> I totally understand and I apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, there is no workaround on this as changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.
>This change doesn't seem to have hit us yet - we're running a variety of machines inc Ventura
What will trigger its enforcement? Can we stay on an earlier OS or Dropbox version?
>The updates happening automatically every time the Dropbox app is restarting, for example if your device never restarts it should maintain the older version but we can't guarantee full functionality on older versions of the application.
>So what will happen - if we have a Dropbox folder on an 8TB drive and a tiny internal drive - will it try to clone stuff across and eat up the space? What's the mechanism?
>That's right, it will try to move the content on your internal drive until it has no space and gives you an error.
>Is Smartsync still supported? I.e. will it move stuff to being online only if it won't fit?
>It is, however it is now known as online-only.
I'm very confused about what is happening with Dropbox. I've read the help documentation and read through some posts on this forum.
The standard copy-and-paste reply from Dropbox support is from this article: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
"Storing your Dropbox folder on an external drive is no longer supported by macOS."
The issue with this and all the replies I've seen is that there is no explanation or understanding as to how much of a disadvantage this to some of us long-time Dropbox users. I want to understand what has happened and what the workarounds (if any) are.
I'm currently on Mac OS 12.5 (Monterery).
I am concerned about upgrading because it looks like I will no longer be able to store my Dropbox folder on my external drive.
On my 1Tb MacBook Pro, this isn't an issue.
But on my 512Gb Mac Mini, this is a significant issue.
Like many people, I work with very large video files, and I quickly run out of space on my Mac's hard drive. And it's not an option to store many of these files online, because of the time it takes to download (even on a fast connection).
From what I gather, Apple are requiring 3rd party tools to work with their iCloud API and to store all files within the user library.
But, is it not possible to move my Apple user library to an external library? Even on Ventura? If so, wouldn't that mean I CAN use Dropbox on an external drive?
On my Mac Mini, I don't really want any of my documents on my main drive, because there just isn't enough room.
Can someone explain what is happening here, and if there are any workarounds? Specifically, can I move my user library to an external drive and so use Dropbox there?
Thanks!
- Mark
Super User II
Hi iagdotme
So the simplest answer here is 'no'. Due to the changes Apple have made they are no longer allowing this. However, disclaimer here in that is the official supported line. There may be ways of doing so which involve tweaking / changing things BUT these wouldnt be supported by either Apple or Dropbox should something go wrong. At this moment I dont actually know of any, but, I imagine over time some will appear.
Thanks, Mark.
Would it be cynical of me to think this could be Apple wanting us to upgrade our Macs to ones with HUGE hard drives? 😉
I can't seem to find any explanations of what Apple are doing and that they are definitely no longer supporting external drives. I can't be the only person who needs to do this.
I don't understand. Won't we be able to store the files on dropbox online only and pull them down when needed? I actually JUST set up an iMovie library on Dropbox this morning. It took a ridiculous amount of time to upload an 800mb MB! film - it was a 30 second video for Pete Sake. I'm in the process of upgrading to a macmini2 with only 512gb on it. I have a Mac mini 1TB that currently has 850 gb used. I need to already move everything and planned on working from a 2TB External.
So, bottom line, can I just drag everything out of drop box - right now! - and stick in on the 2TB external, then either do Google or some other cloud service and be done with dropbox?
What happens if my boot drive IS an external drive (which mine is)?? Is it possible that the Dropbox folder needs to be on the boot drive, wherever that happens to be?? If this is true, it wouldn't help teams whose workflow is based on shared network storage, but it MIGHT help those like me with simpler set-ups. Does anyone know if this is so???
This is a disaster for our my small business. We have 5 Mac Mini's with tiny 250gb hard drives, which run Dropbox on external SSDs (formatted to the AFPS system). I literally setup a new Mac Mini this weekend this way.
Now I am reading that Dropbox just won't work on them at all? So Dropbox has to use what little space is available in the 250gb internal drives??
If this is true...we will have no choice but to leave Dropbox and migrate to something else.
- We are in the same boat. We pay Dropbox thousands a year, I’ve just been talking to support about getting a partial refund when we cancel our account once we work out wth to replace it with :-/. Disaster is right.
Has this change already happened? I just checked one of our Mac Minis and the Dropbox folder is still on the external SSD.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the change is being driven by Apple itself, not by Dropbox, which may mean that all alternative services face a similar limitation. If you continue to use Macs running Ventura or later, you may need to find another way to work or acquire machines with more internal storage (which a cynic might suspect as a reason for Apple to make the change).
So for older systems on older OS's this will or will not happen? ie my main rig is on Catalina and I wasn't planning on upgrading it anytime soon. Will I need to find another solution for our 20TB dropbox?? holy moly this is a disaster.
Do you know of an alternative service that will allow it? I thought it was Apple's fault, so i'm wondering if we just have to all move to Windows. Yuck.
jahshwa I’ve posted about this previously, but I am now using a service called Sync.com, which is not perfect, but terrific for my needs. It’s based in Canada and committed to supporting users with external drives. One other user found their service too slow for his very heavy needs, but I’m very comfortable with them, YMMV, but you may want to give Sync.com a shot.
- +1 that will cancel this service if there is no change or option
This change will make Dropbox unusable for me.
My system SSD has 128 GB and it's absolutely sufficient for me, because I do not store any data on it and I won't in the future, because I can't, because it's not large enough. I absolutely require the functionality to store the Dropbox folder where I want.
What even is this change?! I realize I should complain to Apple about this, and I will, but I'm also surprised how Dropbox doesn't have a louder voice regarding this whole issue...
>That's right, it will try to move the content on your internal drive until it has no space and gives you an error.
This part is actually infuriating and not Apple's fault. Luckily this hasn't happened on my system yet and I'll remove Dropbox completely before it does. Why isn't this being handled more professionally?- Rich
Jon C.10 wrote:
>That's right, it will try to move the content on your internal drive until it has no space and gives you an error.
I'd call this into question. One of the things that happens when your Dropbox folder is moved during this update is that all files are marked as Online-only, meaning they don't take up any space on the local drive. It shouldn't fill the drive.
This is an absolute disaster for my business too! Multiple Macs in different locations with externals SSD sharing several TB of Dropbox to sync Video & Audio apps. What are they thinking??? It's currently running fine so can they not find a solution? If this gos ahead I'll be getting a refund & trying to figure out an alternative.
Has anyone got onto Apple about this?
It appears One Drive has developed a work around for this huge problem. See the heading "Using Another Volume" at this link:
Essentially the system drive still has the file aliases in the library folder but you can choose, on initial install, for these items to be synced locally at another location. This doesn't look like a hack, but rather something officially implemented by OneDrive. Unclear what the downsides are...
Insane to me that there has been no outreach from Dropbox about this upcoming change. The service has been such a key component to our workflow for so long. will be unfortunate to have to find an alternative.
This is a terrible move.
If dropbox forces us not to use external drive anymore, I'll simply unsubscribe to dropbox, as will thousands of users.
- This is nuts. Please Dropbox devs, sort this out ASAP. Our entire workflow relies on external drives for multiple editing stations.
It doesn’t make any sense to have digital video assets playing from an operating drive.
If not sorted, we will be moving to OneDrive (which I’ve now discovered is considerably less cost per year). I haven't tried this, but it looks like you can still move your user folder to an external drive on Ventura.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ventura-cant-move-user-folder-to-external-drive.2378144/Moving your home directory from an internal SSD to a "spinning rust" HD is going to have a massive performance hit on everything you do. This is not a good option.
