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?

[l8nite]

I'm really sad that all the links to pictures of my beautiful aquariums, beloved pets, etc. on my favorite forums are going to be broken. 😞

[Terry R.2]

As a teacher over the last 6+ years I have been a paying customer of Dropbox utilizing the public folder HEAVILY with links in my school's LMS. I simply can't believe with one action Dropbox is going to wipe all those years worth of links away. I RELY on the public folder feature. This is not the way to do business with your long-time paying customers. If I am forced to upgrade all my links in my LMS you can bet it won't be through Dropbox. The school offers all teachers onedrive for free, which I loath, but at least I won't have to pay for the feature of being noodled over by execs that don't ask their users how a change like this will affect them.

[parassidhu]

Hello Everyone,

I'm an Android app developer and I'm really disappointed to know that Public folder support is ending on March 15, 2017. Till now, I have developed only one android app which downloads files which I uploaded to public folder of Dropbox. I just copied the public links and put in the app to download. And there are over 100 files 😞

Now my fear is that after March 15, my app will become unusable. My question is if Dropbox is providing some different method to share DIRECT links? Is there no way existing links may work?

Isn't there any way or should I move to Drive or somewhere else? Thank you everyone.

[vini y.]

Me llegó un correo con la lamentable noticia de que la antigua carpeta "public" -la cual fue deshabilitada con las cuentas nuevas-; ahora resulta ser que sera completamente inutilizada. ¡Sí, todos los vínculos o enlaces directos!... que nos permitían hacer "streaming" o descargar sin reparo un simple fichero, se van para donde ya saben.

Qué lamentable. Dropbox ha sido pionero en todo, viene para atrás removiendo prestaciones que lo hacían distintivo; si tenía ventaja competitiva pues creo que ya no. Desearía que me siguieran llegando correos hablando de mejoras y no alertas que ya han hecho que se me venga el mundo encima.

Porque Yo estaba mal acostumbrado a manejar script que cargaba desde dropbox y otras imagenes para insertar en unas webs y fue letal...

[leonard_as]

Totally agree. Cannot imagine all the time will be wasted for this sudden homework from dropbox.

[Rosa S.4]

I'm devastated by this decision because I have many images on my blog that will disappear when they turn off my links.  I could deal with future changes, as I'm willing to do something different if necessary.  However; disabling my current links is something I can't fix.  I'm very upset that the very reason I use Dropbox is being removed and my work is being ruined.  I'm desperatly hoping that there be so many outraged customer responses to this decision that they will reconsider their plans kill our links.  I strongly believe it will cost them many customers.

[rfdesigner]

End of an era it is then.

So long Dropbox, it was nice while it lasted but as you are no longer trustworthy I need to look elsewhere.

You see I need a service that I can trust will be there in years to come, you have shown you aren't prepared to provide continuation of service.  You aren't prepared to make the change only to new files but leave old ones alone, so I don't trust you not to do the same again in some other way in a year or two...  in shor:

I cannot trust you.

Goodbye

[Bob J.]

Yes please preserve the existing ones.
I can handle new links by other means (albeit less conveniently) but it would be almost impossible to modify existing links on forums that are probably closed now.

If you have problems with specific links causing issues then get in touch with the person - they will understand and will fix the issues one by one.

But please at least keep those old links working

[Bob J.]

I depend on DropBox for my whole computing experience - share folders amongst my three computers.

This makes my computer wor=k simple - mynlatest file is always there wherever I am

I am a Pro user

As part of my contribution to the computing community I share images, screenshots etc via my public folder

I do conservation work that needs pwoplw to have access to my work - for this I use dropbox

I wish to continue all of this as part of my seemless DropBox Exerience

How much extra would you like me to pay to keep this status quo please DropBox - it is worth real money to me!

The Pro upgrade was a no brainer for me. I wuld pay more!!

[LarsK]

All good things come to an end.

I know I promised to stick around until renewal day in case you changed your mind regarding public folders, but unfortunately I realized that even if you do change your minds, I've already lost confidence in your company. Having looked both at what the competition is offering and into my crystal ball, I'm not seeing Dropbox as a viable alternative going forward, so with more than a hint of sadness I just cancelled my $138/year Pro + Packrat legacy subscription.

I'm migrating to Google Drive as I type, and will keep my free Dropbox account until I've found replacements and workarounds for existing shares and integrations.

So long, and thanks for all the bits.