Ending support of public folder

[ae2rigc]

Just heard from dropbox that support for the public folder is ending.

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As a result, we’ll soon be ending support for the Public folder. Dropbox Pro users will be able to use the Public folder until
September 1, 2017. After that date the files in your Public folder will become private, and links to these files will be deactivated. Your files will remain safe in Dropbox.

If you’d like to keep sharing files in your Public folder, you can create new shared links. Just make sure to send the new URLs to your collaborators.

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It is one of the most useful features of the service for me as I use it to get links to single files that I can send to people without setting up shared folders and requiring them to have dropbox accounts.

(Save file to my public folder locally, syncs, right click, get publick link, paste. Doesn't get any easier than that.)

It's also useful for bb style forum posts where you can link to images with an easy tag.

With the public folder support being removed, is there going to be an alternative solution to allow easy public sharing of single files?

[Metta]

Thanks for your feedback, Pablo f6! Much appreciated.

I haven't watched this entire video playlist yet -- but, FWIW, these videos may provide some helpful comparative information for those who are now considering alternatives to Dropbox, in light of the planned death of the Public Folder

> Dropbox vs Google Drive vs iCloud vs OneDrive vs Amazon Cloud Drive | 2016 Edition

Note:

> From what I can tell, Dropbox quit providing the Public Folder in new user accounts back in 2012.

> Since this video play list was created in January of 2016:

-- the Dropbox video does not address anything spefically related to the Public Folder and

-- it will obviously not be informed by today's Dropbox announcement to kill the Public Folder next year (09.01.17).

[Dr-Sleep]

This is very distressing. The public folder is the ONLY reason I use DropBox. For five years I have been posting graphics and sound files to a public forum (involving musical instruments) by linking to my public folder. These posts are still available and are continually accessed. I will have to find and change five years worth of posts. Additionally, there is a document I have created for work that I periodically update. The header includes the words "for most recent revision, see:" and then a custom "tinyurl" of the link to the file in my public folder. I will not be able to use the same custom tinyurl for a new link, so if the public folder goes away, it will make a large mess at work. Please reconsider the decision to kill existing links to files in public folders. I can't see how such a decision "improve(s) the Dropbox sharing experience."

[Rosa S.4]

I agree also!  I use my public folder daily and my links are connected to my blog.  I will be devastated if the 'lights go out' as I've got blood, sweat, and tears invested in it.  My blog has a search tool and my readers are able to pull up old files that I want to remain available.  Is there anything that can be done to prevent existing links from being lost when Drop Box makes the change?  If it must happen, can it just effect future links and not existing ones?  Please?

[Metta]

Well said!

I agree completely, I can't even begin to imagine how catastrohic this decision will be for individuals, professionals and businesses that have been actively using the public folder since there is NO feasible way to replace ALL the links created and shared by heavy users of the Public Folder.

This could have profound (and costly) business implications for many of Dropbox's Pro (professional) users, and I sincerely hope Dropbox will consider the terrible impact of this decision.

Morever, this breach of trust is disconcerting at best -- for both professional and personal users alike.

In fact, this decision alone may provide sufficent grounds for a HUGE migration away from Dropbox to other, more trustworthy service providers.

I, for one, may well be part of that migration.....

[Matthew T.27]

This is absurd and the final straw. Goodbye Dropbox. Pro user no more - I encourage others vote with their feet too.

[Matthew T.27]

@Pablo

Unfortunately, both S3 and Google Cloud storage are not really designed to be used by people for personal reasons - I mean, you can, it's just not friendly or intuiative (e.g. no search function). Most people who use them automate them through their respective APIs, rather than using the primative web interface. I do use S3 to distribute installation files for software I develop to people, mostly because Dropbox is insistant on asking users to 'sign up' before downloading files. I wouldn't use it for anything personal though.

Other cloud storage services including OneDrive and Google Drive are still good contenders. I used DB for the slickness of the web interface (recently bogged down with upgrade notifications to already-paying clients), and for Linux support. I will find aways around it. I refuse to use a service which refuses to listen to its customers and makes decisions purely for the purposes of how it will will be viewed by investors.

I don't think this company will be around in 5 years. 

[Jreidariux]

I know right? The public folder has been an essential piece to my business and art deals, so why kill it off even if shared links are going to be a thing? I don't understand what is the logic and reason for removing Public and making it private. It's fallacy I tell you. Dropbox, keep the Public folder public accessible. Again I state, taking Public and making it private is completely unnecessary. This is not an improvement but rather a downgrade.

[Jette]

This is an exceptionally poor decision. Shared links load slowly, take more effort to produce, require more management, and basically suck all around.

I only use Dropbox for two things: redundant, off-site file storage, and public links. Apart from destroying hundreds, if not thousands of links I've sent to people over the years--many of which exist in forums and such that people still read--this completely obviates the whole point of the Dropbox service.

Public files are so simple; it works like a file server, but without having to run a file server on your home computer. Things in the public folder are viewable; things outside are not. This sort of divine simplicity cannot be replicated with some bogus, social-media-style sharing feature. The public folder reduces the complexity of sharing files to that of posting flyers on a bulletin board; the sharing-style feature creates a mess of files amidst your box--which are shared? Which are visible? Which need to be changed? Which can remain the same? Which should be updated? I keep tens of thousands of small files in my dropbox; well over a thousand are in the public folder. I don't expect I lie particularly far to the end of the bell curve, either; anyone with photo collections or automatically generated files or an extensive correspondence or a software project or whatever will have a boatload of files.

To say I am disappointed vastly understates my feelings. If this development goes through, I will be closing my Dropbox account permanently, and finding another service. Mind, you, I doubt I'll find one anywhere near as good as the Public folder--there's a reason I've stayed with Dropbox for so many years.

[WayneMcK]

Public folder deactivated???  Oh no!  All the QR codes I have given to my past students are going to stop working.  All the memories I have shared with them through images and videos as well as work samples that they can only access through these QR codes will be lost to them forever.  I have no way of contacting these past students.

Very disappointing that this is being stripped away for no real reason!!!

Wayne

[eremikos]

This is a terrible decision! Why are you doing this, Dropbox?!

I've got hundreds of links in my public folder for university courses that I've been teaching for years. It will be a massive inconvenience for me (to say the least) if all of a sudden every one of those links is dead. 

Please re-think this.