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Forum Discussion
Dropbox support for macOS 12.3
So I'm referring to https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/macos-12-monterey-support
Does this mean it will be 100% safe to upgrade to macOS 12.3 as long as I keep Smart sync to Loc...
You can never ever say its 100% safe - simply because you'd be using a Beta OS and also a Beta version of Dropbox. However, it should work well, but, be cautious of the fact it is beta at all levels.
I know previously at last minute notice Apple have changed how stuff worked in beta versions meaning stuff which used to work no longer did when updated to the next release so thats also something to be aware of.
We just finished switching our entire creative department of over 100 people to Dropbox from OneDrive for Business. (You can read about the experience here: Dropbox vs OneDrive .) But after fighting to make this change you can imagine how embarrassed I am that Dropbox has not yet made Smart Sync fully compatible in Monterey.
I think Smart Sync might just be going away in the future and it's mostly Apple's fault
I noticed that Dropbox has removed any mention of "Smart Sync" and "Automatic Space Saving" from the plan comparison page here: https://www.dropbox.com/plans
You can see on the Way Back Machine that in January of 2022 Smart Sync was still touted as a feature for paid plans: https://web.archive.org/web/20220102172813/https://www.dropbox.com/plans
Compare Jan 2022
vs now, May 2022
Reading between the lines, I suspect the "Smart" part of "Smart Sync" is going away. My guess is Smart Sync is just going to become "dumb sync" and require you to go to a file/folder in Finder and click "make online-only" or "make available offline". Basically just selective sync with more control and visibility. It might get smarter in the future, but that depends on Apple making the right APIs available. Given Apple's competition with Dropbox (iCloud Drive), they probably don't have too much incentive.
Honestly, I blame Apple for this. Smart Sync worked great until Apple banned kernel extensions. Sure Apple announced kexts were going away 2 years ago, but it's been 2 years and Apple still hasn't offered a suitable replacement. I might be wrong, but I believe the old Smart Sync behavior is impossible to re-create with the FileProvider APIs Apple offers. So this really is at least 50% Apple's fault.
(Apple's iCloud Drive has the same limitation as Dropbox's "Smart" Sync does on Monterey 12.3. You must use Finder or a File Picker to make a cloud hosted file available locally before any other program can access it.)
Dropbox has had over a year to get with the program, yet still drags its feet. This isn't some tiny mom and pop software outfit with a few thousand users...it's a multinational corporation valued at over $8 billion. Not million, BILLION. How can they possibly have any excuses left at this point?
You say we are whinging, but where I come from, we have a saying: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It is absolutely unacceptable to pay 10s of thousands of dollars, every year, for software that does not work as advertised! Now is not the time for making excuses. Nor is it time for Dropbox to "put their hand up."
They need to FIX the software and get it current, NOW. We (and many others I'm sure) are sick of the delays and broken implementation. We are looking elsewhere. Some of us have already dropped the service entirely. The longer this goes on, the more incentive there is for the rest of us to move on and leave Dropbox in the rear view. If Sharepoint wasn't such a nightmare we'd be gone already.
When can we expect a dropbox fix for 12.3 and onwards (latest 12.4).
There was promised a solution and so far nothing has happened.... clients are not happy about this, and pushing on with sharepoint/onedrive as a replacement option
- Seriously?!?!??!? I never thought that Dropbox would have literally NOTHING to say about 12.3+ support to this day. No beta no nothing. We are extremely close to 90 days after the release of 12.3 and will not be able to prevent users from updating. What’s the deal?!
We pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for this service. We love it as it is but **bleep** is gonna hit fan real soon. We just need transparency in what is going on! yes, we are having the same issue for months w/o any ETA from Dropbox. it would force us to use a competitor as this is not a good workflow.
Well, this all makes it very easy. My dropbox account renews in a week. I'm moving it all over to OneDrive. 12.3 has been out for well over a month and this lack of support is UNACCEPTABLE for a product that I am paying for.
OneDrive on Monterey is an absolute train wreck too. They did fully transition to the FileProvider API, unlike Dropbox, but it comes with tons of downsides and their users are rebelling. Read the comments on these OneDrive posts:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/updates-to-files-on-demand-on-macos/bc-p/3253983/highlight/true#M2940
(the actual posts are great though because they explaining in more detail the technical changes and challenges that Dropbox must deal with too)
Based on OneDrive's experience, it sounds like Apple's FileProvider API is in no way ready to replace Dropbox's old behavior without other huge downsides. If you try out the Dropbox Beta, you can see what Dropbox's FileProvider implementation is like, but it sounds far worse and I wouldn't recommend anyone try it. Unfortunately Apple has backed both companies into a corner and there's not much they can do but hope Apple improves the FileProvider API in future updates.Have been trying out Google drive under macOS 12.3, and can confirm this works "correctly", i.e., how dropbox worked before (can also report dropbox is still broken on v147.4.4800)
Yes It works fine, but with a major difference that it isn't possible to use the finder (spotlight) to search for files
I just got a new MacBook that came with 12.4 preinstalled. Dropbox is completely unusable like this and my workflow is at an absolute standstill.
I really don't know what to do. PLEASE help us, dropbox!
