MacOS 13.0 Ventura, and Dropbox follows OneDrive in forcing the folder on the system drive

You may have gotten things to work the way that you want with the latest version of Dropbox, but personally, I would not trust it to continue to work in the future. The following is official documentation from Dropbox:

https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes

Note that it very explicitly says the following things:

• Changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.
• Your Dropbox folder will be moved to ~/Library/CloudStorage.
• Storing your Dropbox folder on an external drive is no longer supported by macOS.
  

If you wish to live your life on an unsupported edge, then more power to you. Me, there's no way that I'm configuring my Dropbox syncing to work in a way that Dropbox explicitly states that they don't support.

In addition to the above official documentation, my Dropbox preferences says:

• This version of macOS requires Dropbox to be store here:
  /Users/nessus42/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

Now might be a good time for Dropbox staff to clarify this ongoing confusion.

The current stable versions* can install the Dropbox folder to external drives and is not limited to the macOS Library folder in any version of macOS.

The current stable versions* can still automatically sync online-only files linked to Adobe Creative Cloud apps within macOS 12.2 and earlier.

The current stable versions* can not automatically sync online-only files linked to Adobe Creative Cloud apps within macOS 12.3 and later.

The opt-in early-release versions* can not install to external drives on any macOS version and are limited to the macOS Library folder in any version of macOS.

The opt-in early-release versions*  can automatically sync online-only files linked to Adobe Creative Cloud apps in any version of macOS.

*The opt-in early-release version may or may not have already been released as a stable version for some people in some regions.

Is any of this right or wrong, Dropbox staff?

Guys?

I have been trying to assuage the doubts of this group by pointing you to a solution, which people's disbelief or opinion, rather than empirical trial, has seemed to muddy.

I've written here a number of times that I am running a version of Dropbox which forced me to move all my dropbox data into the "Users" folder, which at 1.3 T was untenable.  This occurred because I bought a new laptop in November, and Dropbox installed an unwanted upgrade which was irreversible.

I used the Advanced Installation, here (https://help.dropbox.com/installs/advanced-reinstall), and was able to bypass the requirement to keep my dropbox folder in \Users, and successfully installed it at the root level of a partitioned data drive.  Not within \Users.  This has continued to work to this day.

pollen didn't seem to believe it could be true.

Fluk3 replied to pollen with an "opinion" that my experience is "wrong."  I am impressed by his/her confidence to contradict described experience with their own "opinion," without attempting a comparable maneuver themselves.  I can only state that I continue to experience that the workaround continues to work for me just fine.

Some, e.g. TRO_Berlin, have worried that the difference between our two posts, eg. mine and Fluk3's opinion, is confusing.  

nessus42 then opines that using the solution might somehow revert the installation.  I have not observed any version downgrade.  I am currently running v167.3.4684

Fluk3 then opines into the dark that "Now would be a Good Time for a Dropbox staff to clarify the conversation" but doesn't invite any to the thread.

So, please know that the solution was presented by Walter , a professional Dropboxer, in this thread https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/Take-Dropbox-out-of-Mac-Library/td-p/633050/page/2.  Later in that thread, Hannah , also a professional Dropboxer,  also advises the advanced install.  Hopefully either of them, having been flagged, will now Hear the Call by Fluk3.

Notably, further down the line on that thread, the OP ShanaC states in December that she was forced into a reinstall.
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/Take-Dropbox-out-of-Mac-Library/td-p/633050/page/4 
I note, however, that her version at the time of posting was v162.4.5419.  My current version (above in this post) seems to be more recent, and the Advanced Install continues to work. ShanaC are you still experiencing a problem, or were you able to resolve it?

I hope input by professional Dropboxers, and by the OP of the thread where I found my solution, is enough to convince people on this thread to call this problem "Solved," at least temporarily.  It would allow so many people to stop wasting time and get on with their lives if this solution were spread more widely (which is my goal), because it is causing a lot of suffering and stress.  It made me so grateful to find @Walter's solution, I hope others can experience the same sense of relief and satisfaction that they can continue with their orginal data architecture.

---

pollen wrote:

Wait wait wait. The new Dropbox does allow you to keep your Dropbox folder on an external drive with that "advanced reinstall" thing? All this hubbub is unnecessary? The Dropbox support article stating that "changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS" is not fully true?

---

It is my opinion that whoever is asserting this is incorrect. It is my understanding that the "new" version of Dropbox for Ventura does not support storing Dropbox-synced files on an external drive.

This doesn't mean there aren't ways to back out to an older version of Dropbox that still supports syncing files on an external drive, but it's not clear for how long Dropbox is going to continue to support this.

---

Fluk3 wrote:

I am using the latest version of Dropbox available to me 166.4.2920 on macOS 12.2 and also on macOS 12.6.2

I am also running 166.4.2920 on MacOS 12.6. However, the dreaded new version is being rolled out to customers in batches and I have it available to me via a red badge on the Dropbox logo in the menu bar. I am not signed up for beta or early release.

At this stage its installation is optional but will no doubt become compulsory soon enough.

FGK-120 Interesting, I do not not have an upgrade notification yet and I am in the southeast US.

I am in interested in what the notification says about he upgrade. Can you share a screenshot or transcribe the text here?

In my case, I can probably live without dropbox on an external drive. What I really, really need is the auto-sync of online-only files for proxy linked Adobe files, such as InDesign and Illustrator links.

I'm not sure if that feature worked or not in the early-release. If it does work in the upcoming upgrade I'll be okay I guess. If not, this will be a disaster for me and my colleagues.

Wow Michael S.197 what performance! I must apologize for the dissent of myself and others! The audacity! To ask questions! Looking for help? My god, what were we thinking?

Thank you for the humiliation and shame. You are so right to go after users like me, personally,  who dared to question your conclusions in any way shape or form. The best way to prove your argument is to admonish your dissenters. Good show.

And for me to ask questions not even remotely related to your external drive solution, like 3rd party syncing? I deserve 50 lashes for my impudence! 

I've only been involved in managing servers and data while art directing massive multimedia projects for 35 years. How dare I have observations, needs and concerns that differ from yours, right? Blasphemy!

There's no possibility that I, or anyone else, might have seen different data from a different perspective and have a different experience and understanding and needs. Perish the thought!

You should totally continue ignore my actual questions, my alternate needs, my contrasting data and my version numbers in my appeal for help - in which I clearly asked where I may have been wrong in my assumptions (I'm a freaking monster!).

It's totally cool for you to ignore my questions about 3rd party links, because that's not your problem, so who cares? Case closed!

Please do continue to vilify us using whatever filter you choose to see through and shame us over not agreeing with you automatically, just because you said so. We completely deserve your infantilization and bile.

I can't wait to see the scores of happy, satisfied users who reply in agreement that the entire Dropbox on macOS problem is finally over, all thanks to you!

All hail Michael S! The S is for Solver!

---

Fluk3 wrote:

Interesting, I do not not have an upgrade notification yet and I am in the southeast US.

 

I am in interested in what the notification says about he upgrade. Can you share a screenshot or transcribe the text here?

Fluk3 I am in Australia but I wouldn't like to guarantee the staged rollout is based on geography.

If I click in the menubar is says "Dropbox for MacOS is now ready. Update Dropbox to use it for the latest version of MacOS. Get started", with the Get Started being a link that I have so far resisted clicking.

A colleague already got the notification to update his dropbox directory to the User Library, another colleague and me did not get the notification yet (all of us are based in germany / berlin).

I am not really ready to trust the "advanced reinstall method" in the future to be honest. It is a huge amount of data we have to reindex / or even redownload when support for this advanced reinstall method may end (i am speaking 20TB+, not 1TB).

Let's hope for an official statement and maybe official (and long time supported) method just like OneDrive gave their users (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/inside-the-new-files-on-demand-experience-on-macos/ba-p/3058922)

We are now thinking about switching to MountainDuck as a Client for Dropbox, which handles offline storage differently and (i guess) will not be forced to switch its behaviour of storing files in the futures

The "advanced reinstall" or here called "sudo" method (sudo is just "running as admin in terminal") sounds like it is just the setup process we know from the old version of dropbox, where we can select external storage for the dropbox folder?

And this method via terminal / sudo works for the new ~/Library/CloudStorage Version of Dropbox to move it to external storage? Can someone confirm this?