Recent Dropbox - Mac 12.3 Monterey support

[Nousmedis]

The official support page relating to Mac OS Monterey 12.3 Dropbox compatibility is 2 months old now, and Apple just released (April 2022) first beta version of 12.4 and patched 12.3 with 12.3.1, but still no references to current status other than "in late march we will release a beta version...". How can I know is the beta version is now secure or how many days, weeks or months (or years!) do we still need to wait for the final stable release of a 12.3 and up supported version of Dropbox?

[mick_bg]

Why don't you use Maestral instead? It works fine, it's very light and Apple Silicon-ready.

[CRD-CD415]

I've been holding off on updating my OS (Still at 12.2.1), but would like to update to the latest OS (12.4). Is Dropbox up to the task yet? I know there were a lot of warnings out there for 12.3. 

[Megan]

Hi @CRD-CD415, I hope you're doing well!

Have a look at what my colleague @Hannah mentioned right here. 

If you have any questions, let me know. 

[REK1]

So, @Megan from Dropbox support, you’re saying your solution is to link to your colleague Hannah’s post higher up in this same topic? Really? That’s Dropbox’s solution for businesses waiting to upgrade their software and leaving them open to vulnerabilities while they wait for Dropbox to come up with a solution to a problem the company was aware of ahead of time? Well, we are a small company that spends just short of $10,000 on Dropbox each year, but I believe with a solution like that, it’s likely we won’t be spending that money on Dropbox next year.

[CRD-CD415]

So basically no, it's not up to the task yet. 

[keithswd]

We're all still waiting for 12.3 compatibility, so 12.4 is some way off no doubt...

[CRD-CD415]

Not an option...work machine. All our files are on dropbox, including papers. 

[KimFelton]

And here with are with the 12.4 release...the final  rollout for Monterey. Next month Apple will be starting to roll out the beta for OS 13. So what then? The fact that this massive corporation has yet to fix this is enough for me. I was already on edge with losing the desktop client, and now the current one is eating up the memory on my computer like no other app. But the fact that so many businesses have been left vulnerable and without prioritized support shows that my money is better spent elsewhere.

[AngusHart]

OneDrive definitely changed location upon upgrading to 12.3, which wasn’t without problems, but I’ve been quite happy with how OneDrive has behaved since the upgrade. OneDrive was ready for Apple’s update — Dropbox, not so much. 

[Grant6]

As I understand it, in macOS Monterey, Apple introduced the File Provider framework which builds "smart sync"-style functionality directly into macOS.  Services using this framework most notably end up in the Finder's sidebar rather than syncing files into a folder in your home directory (local copies are stored in ~/Library/CloudStorage, but you're not supposed to care about that). This is modeled after the way iCloud Drive works.

OneDrive quickly adopted this. Dropbox didn't.

There is an app named "Strongsync" which connects to various services, including Dropbox, using the File Provider framework. It runs natively on Intel and M1 Macs. Although I own it (there was a sale), I don't personally use it, but I do use the company's similar product, ExpanDrive on Linux (I'm working on getting off of macOS, but that's a different, related, story), and have used ExpanDrive previously on Mac with good results. If your data is stuck in Dropbox and you need "smart sync" (i.e., all the files synced, but not stored locally taking up disk space), Strongdrive may be a solid replacement for Dropbox's client, and it's not in beta.

I also use OneDrive (two accounts) and iCloud Drive. I've had more sync issues with the other services than I have with Dropbox: duplicating files, issues with "illegal characters" in filenames that I can't change (e.g. because they're in an app's package), file deletions (iCloud Drive), etc. I'm definitely considering moving to OneDrive, since I already have it anyway, but like many in this thread have said, my workflows are based on Dropbox, so moving would be inconvenient (plus I'd have to deal with the stability and filename issues I mentioned).

If you try Strongsync (I think there's a free trial), let us know how it works.