Safari 16.1 (macOS Ventura) cannot access Dropbox files

[GMart1120]

Safari cannot open the page.The error is: "The operation couldn't be completed.  (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 1.)" (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork:1)

Dropbox recently moved itself to "a safer location", i.e., ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox.  Everything was fine.  Afterward, I upgraded macOS to 13.0 (Ventura).  Safari is now ver 16.1 and cannot open html files stored in Dropbox.  All other apps appear to be quite happy with cloud versions of Dropbox files, including Chrome, TextEdit, macVim, Terminal, etc.  Probably something minor, but not sure what.

[DCSkipper]

Thanks!

[GMart1120]

@mrkva - Thank you!  Yes, I believe that will work.  However, I will hold off implementing pending additional research on granting "Full Disk Access" to Safari.  There are less than 10 items on the Full Disk Access list and none of them are enabled.  My intuition tells me enabling Safari is not the safe thing to do.  

[Megan · Accepted solution]

Happy Monday guys! 

Thanks for keeping us updated, and for sharing your finds with the Community. I'll forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve.

If you need anything else, let me know!

[Jasiu]

Just read through this whole thread... So do I have it right that the only solution at this point is full disk access?

If that's the case, where does the "real" fix need to be done? (Apple or Dropbox?)

Thanks!

[GMart1120]

@Jasiu - everyone will probably have different opinions on the answer to your question.  In my case, the situation was initiated by Dropbox moving itself to "a protected location" on the boot drive of my MacBook Pro.  So my opinion is that Dropbox is responsible for the ultimate resolution.  And granting Full Disk Access to Safari is not, in my opinion, the solution.

[GMart1120]

As I think about this situation, it occurs to me that I don't understand enough about "the protected area" where Dropbox moved now resides.  If that is the case, educate me (us).  Explain where Dropbox moved to and why.  What are the advantages, the side effects, the restrictions?  It obviously affects our daily interactions with macOS, knowing more about it would help.  BTW, thanks to everyone who contributed to this conversation.  All of our comments helped lead us to this point.

[DCSkipper]

I found this on the web about this topic: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/438689/is-allowing-full-disk-access-to-safari-dangerous

[wbrehob]

Same issue on macOS 12.6.2, Safari 16.2, Dropbox 6 / 165.4.4300

I feel that much of this is due to macOS / Safari sandboxing, but I think Dropbox in its pursuit of online/offline capabilities also added t this.  It would be nice if Dropbox developers could provide a better solution than "give Safari full disk access".  Firefox seems to understand that it needs special access to Dropbox (and not full disk access), so could Dropbox work with Apple and Safari devlopers for the same thing?

[kpitt]

I'm running on  macOS Ventura 13.2.1, and I'm having the same problem with accessing Dropbox files from Safari. However, my company uses OneDrive for file sharing and I'm having the same problem there. It seems to be a general problem with Safari accessing files from any "Cloud Storage" provider that is using the Apple File Provider API. Every other application I've tried will prompt for access the first time I try to open a file from one of these locations, but Safari does not.

It's probably not directly related to the same issue, but there is also a problem with displaying the access permissions under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Files and Folders. I used a text editor application to open a file from both Dropbox and OneDrive, and it brought up the appropriate access prompt for each provider. However, if I then look at the "access user files" permissions, I see two entries for "Dropbox" instead of one for "Dropbox" and one for "OneDrive".