Dropbox’s failure to focus on file management

[drpbxisgarbage]

I'm here because the Dropbox desktop app stopped working without warning, disrupting my workflow. Even when it was functioning, I often had to babysit the files because I couldn't trust the status messages from the file transfers. It’s just a debug log, and as unreliable as the debug log allows it to be.

When Dropbox fails, the relationship between the source and desktop files is broken. files no longer have the relationship to sync. So rather than having files that are being shared between two devices you simply have two exact copies of something without Dropbox knowing it. Please tell me I'm wrong about that and show me how I can reconnect my existing desktop setup.

Having been a Dropbox customer for over 15 years, my instincts tell me that Dropbox’s standard response to this issue will likely be to suggest reinstalling the program, setting everything up again from scratch, and deleting the old desktop folder. But I would say to the Dropbox person who tells me that... No Dropbox person that’s not my solution. It's your solution. — it’s two days of my life. This is Dropbox, like all the other uninvolved web companies hanging on for dear life—like the kittens in the calendar, but nowhere near as cute. They’re essentially asking the user to do all the work for them, knowing they have a psychological edge on their users.

We know this because Dropbox hasn’t added any significant value to its file management process in years, if not since its inception. This approach represents a non-sustaining capitalistic model—the equivalent of building a subpar mousetrap and then selling purchasers the parts to improve it. What happens when every company operates this way? The system will no longer be trusted. It’s not supposed to capitalize on inefficiency, especially when the inefficiency is being created by the product itself.

Whatever the reasons, it might be partly due to Dropbox’s focus on innovation which i refer to as aintNOvation. Instead of iterating and improving its core product to address fundamental user needs—like improving file management, which is part of the public trust—Dropbox has launched a slew of irrelevant sub-products like Replay, Shop, Transfer, Vault, and Dash. I can’t help but wonder: do some of these products exist purely to capitalize on inefficiencies in their own base system? This seems like strategic passivity—relying on user complacency rather than solving the root problems.

If you knowingly build products on top of a bad foundation, and then turn around to sell users the “fix,” that’s a serious problem. It may not be illegal, but it’s certainly not in the spirit of what the economic system is supposed to be. If the product itself isn’t committed to becoming better (take file duplicity as an example), users will inevitably hit their storage limits, creating a Nopportunity for Dropbox to sell more space. Whether this is the intended strategy or not, nothing in Dropbox’s actions signals that they’re actively trying to avoid these issues, and this lack of genuine improvement reflects strategic passivity at its core.

And doesn't this also lead to a bad Dropbox Dash? If users are stuck with duplicate files and AI selects the wrong version, the results could be disastrous. Building new features on a faulty product only makes those issues worse.

I won’t go so far as to call this a predatory business model, but it’s certainly possible that it’s built on strategic passivity, taking advantage of users’ reluctance to switch services. Dropbox knows that users will often put up with these frustrations because it’s easier than making a change. This was never the intention of the economic system—it works when companies do what they’re supposed to do, which isn’t innovating to the middle and then nickel-and-diming users.

Oh and here's something positive.  I love the emails that tell me that I logged on. Sometimes I forget that I logged on. Thank Gods you provided that service. Someday you're going to soon email me tell me I'm up about to login. That would blow my mind.

So I tried to add More specific labeling for this but of course something like product Improvement isn't a label and why are you asking me to do it at the end of my if you're only going to give me options to talk about the apps. You probably have a system I'll just shut up. Great job

The End 

[Walter]

HI there @drpbxisgarbage - thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.

I've noted your feedback down in our system and you can let us know if you have anything else to add.

When it comes to your syncing issue on the desktop you mentioned, we'd need some additional information to troubleshoot, such as your device's OS version, the app's status and version etc. 

Keep me posted!