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
What happens if I don't update to the new Dropbox for MacOS?
I have Dropbox on my M1 MacMini, M1 Macbook Air, old 2015 MacBook Air (all three on Monterey 12.6.3) as well as my iPad Pro and iPhone 13. On the computers, my DropBox folder is in users/{myname}/Dro...
By default, new files added to the account from the site or another device would sync as online-only on your machine, but you can still mark them as available offline.
Files will still sync as normal, and yes, you'd need to change your aliases if any apps of programs need to locate the Dropbox folder.
Jay wrote:If you choose to upgrade or not, files will still sync from one device to another like normal.
Jay, I think this is the core of the comms problem Dropbox has around this update. If this is true, then there is simply no reason to "upgrade" to the new version of the app, which provides an inferior experience.
If Apple will at some point forcibly EOL the old version of Dropbox, Dropbox needs to communicate that (along with the expected timeline) to customers. If this change isn't actually required by Apple, but is being pushed by Dropbox for some other reason, then Dropbox needs to own up and clearly communicate that to customers. As it stands, the message you're sending to long-time customers is "Upgrade to this limited version of our software for no reason. There's no consequence for not doing so except constant vigilance against our suggestions to upgrade."
Can you provide a clear explanation of the benefit to Dropbox customers of accepting this upgrade, rather than just staying on the current, working version?
Perfect exactly what I was thinking. I use Dropbox for all the things in the previous version. The new version and its file location is something I do not want or will subscribe to. If forced I will just delete Dropbox and move to the Apple version as I only have Apple devices.
CarloUK: When you say "all the things in the previous version", I'm curious what you're referring to. Not being able to place the Dropbox folder on an external drive is definitely a disadvantage. But other than that, I haven't seen any loss of functionality.
- Well im no expert but I like the current version as its right there in my finder. Available whether i am online or not. Synced to all my other apple devices. Its not hidden in some obscure directory and possibly going to my apple cloud. Plus a lot of my other apple devices have old ios versions so the new dropbox version may cause a bunch of issues i can do without. Ill read up some more. Maybe its time to drop dropbox and go with apple cloud drive. Looks like its the same as the new dropbox roll out
It's still right there in Finder--now appears under "Locations" in the Sidebar. (If by chance you don't see it, you might need to check "Cloud Storage" in Finder Preferences / Sidebar.)
Still syncs to other devices just like before.
Doesn't do unwanted sync to iCloud.
Since I didn't have my Dropbox folder on an external drive, it's worked fine for me. My biggest problem with the update is the horrible job Dropbox Support has done of providing documentation about it. There are a few settings you have to know how to check and then set, after which everything works fine. But they don't have a document that clearly explains this.
