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thiagomf11's avatar
thiagomf11
Explorer | Level 4
7 years ago

Dropbox stopped working on Windows Server 2008 R2 on 01/19.2018

Dropbox stopped working on Windows Server 2008 R2 on 01/19.2018. Is there any incompatibility with this system?    Does any version of windows server support? (2012, 2016?)
Desktop
Error Messages
Setting up the apps
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    7 years ago

    Dropbox has never officially supported server operating systems. It has worked in the past, but newer releases have had issues and you may not be able to get it working. You can try contacting Support by opening a ticket, but since they don't provide support for server operating systems, you may be on your own.

     

    Open your ticket here: https://dropbox.com/support
    Track your ticket here: https://dropbox.zendesk.com

    Replies take approximately 1 - 3 business days with Plus and Professional users getting priority (longer for Basic users).

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    7 years ago
    There are two questions that been brought up in this thread:
     
    • Why is Windows Server 2008 no longer supported?
    • Why weren’t we informed about this change?
     
    For these questions, I can provide the following answers:
     
     
    However, this does require delving into detail. Even though our site specifically states we don’t support Windows Server, we do know that some users do use Dropbox on their server, so we provide very limited information about how to make it work. After that, if issues crop up, then we can’t really help out.
     
    Now, as you know, as of January 16th, support for Mac OS 10.6, 10.7,  and 10.8 were removed, along with Windows Vista.
     
    The curious thing about Vista is that Windows Server 2008 is “built from the same code base as Windows Vista; therefore, it shares much of the same architecture and functionality.” according to Wikipedia and our dev team.
     
    So, long story short, when support for the desktop app for Vista ended, so did the desktop app for Windows Server 2008. No notifications were sent out to server users because it was never supported to begin with.
     
    We do understand your frustration over this matter and have logged it with our team here to take this into consideration for the future, should other server users be affected with any deprecation of other OSes.
     
    Note however that this can’t be guaranteed from my end, as (and I hate to repeat myself again) Dropbox doesn’t officially support server editions of Windows, or any OSes not on this page.

     

     

    [This thread is now closed. If you have a similar or new question, you can ask here.]

thiagomf11's avatar
thiagomf11
Explorer | Level 4

I have always used Dropbox on Windows Server, but now after what they did, as I will have to migrate to a newer version of windows, I will take advantage of it and migrate to Google Drive which is cheaper (it also only works in Windows 7 / 8/10). Tip: Install a virtual machine on your servers and run any version of the dropbox or google drive!

Rich's avatar
Rich
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
7 years ago
thiagomf11 wrote:

I have always used Dropbox on Windows Server

It has worked in the past but was never officially supported. The fact that it has worked was likely due to the fact that previous server operating systems were based on the exact same technologies used in your desktop operating systems (XP, Windows 7, etc.). That's not so much the case anymore, and the dependencies that Dropbox has likely don't exist in Server 2008/12/16 anymore.

  • Bob N.6's avatar
    Bob N.6
    Helpful | Level 5
    7 years ago

    I understand that.  The problem is that there was NO NOTICE of this.  On August 30, 2017 I got a notice that support was ending for certain operating systems.  Windows 2008 Server WAS NOT LISTED THERE.  And Dropbox has been fully aware that it worked on that system -- there's even a support page describing how to do it. 

     

    • Rich's avatar
      Rich
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
      7 years ago
      There was no need to post a notice about Server 2008 because Dropbox has never supported Server 2008 (or any server OS). The fact that it did work on previous server operating systems is immaterial to the notification that was sent.

      Dropbox ending support and disabling the client on XP, Vista, etc. had nothing to do with the client no longer working on Server 2008. They didn't specifically stop it from working on Server 2008. It just doesn't work anymore.
      • Bob N.6's avatar
        Bob N.6
        Helpful | Level 5
        7 years ago

        Actually, it had everything to do with them dropping support for other operating systems. 

         

        Perhaps you should look into the problem before making pronouncements.

         

        This is a mistake on Dropbox's part.  It can be easily reversed for at least a short period to allow customers who had setups using Windows 2008 Server. 

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