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?

[Rich]

Sorry, ?dl=0 or 1 doesn't matter (the former is a preview the latter is a forced download of the file). You still use ?raw=1 for what you're attempting.

[Jayjay]

Hey Dropbox team, just wanted to say thanks for the reminder that the service I PAY FOR is going to be losing even more features that I still use very soon!

Sure, I can still do most things in a more convoluted way: manually generating new links for each of the hundreds of files and going back through YEARS of tutorials across various sites and updating the link... but I think I'll just let people message me directly when they come looking for them so that I can spread the message of how glad I am that Dropbox is removing public folders, and how everyone definitely should consider buying services from Dropbox in the future?

[RichardK26]

Open Letter to Dropbox:

I urge you to provide a tool for customers to automatically migrate URL's from their legacy Public folders to the new Shared Links feature, in order to avoid suddenly breaking hundreds of thousands of links on the internet come September 1.

Some time ago you announced you would be ending the Public Folders feature, and I opened a feature request asking you to reconsider. Overnight, that feature request was voted to the 7th most popular spot on your tracker.

After the story was featured on Slashdot you unilaterally killed off the feature request and moved it to a discussion thread, which has since generated hundreds of comments from irate users. I suspect that thread is one of the most active in your forums.

I understand your need to evolve the platform and occasionally deprecate features. However I fail to see why you refuse to perform this relatively straightforward action, and instead chose to leave us users who have been loyal customers for years high and dry.

I urge you to reconsider and take prompt action.

[ROMAD]

This just reminds me of how glad I wasn't stupid to pay Dropbox for any extra space.

[Jayjay]

I wonder just how different this situation is to the PS3 buyers who lost features after Sony removed Linux: https://www.polygon.com/2016/10/12/13261780/ps3-otheros-linux-lawsuit-settlement-claims

Perhaps worth investigating?

[adamdz]

This is a disaster for me. Dropbox had the easiest way of sharing files for posting on forums, etc. I have hundreds of images and files that were posted to various forums over MANY years. I host game mods I make.

Having one isolated folder for public sharing seems to me safer than being able to share any file anywhere.

This looks like a stupid idea cooked up by some drone in marketing. If I have to migrate my files and use more convoluted way of sharing I will be dropping Dropbox.

Dropbox needs to be aware that both One Drive and Google drive offerings are better. If they want to alienate long term users and cause massive exodus, be my guest.

[RichardK26]

Join this petition to save your Public folder links!

https://www.change.org/p/dropbox-save-our-public-links

There are nearly 600 comments on this thread and over 22,000 views.  If we all sign the petition it will be very hard for them to ignore.

[awolff]

It is important to remember that you don't really own anything you are not physically in possession of. If anything you value is in the possession of some faceless Internet company, some banksters, brokers or other third party, it can be taken from you with the stroke of a pen or keyboard by some bureaucrat, judge or as in the Dropbox case, by a drone in the marketing department in cahoots with management. If you post a truth that greatly contradicts current political correctness, expect the political gatekeepers at Google, Facebook and others to do everything in their power to suppress anything they consider politically incorrect. The Internet is no longer the open place it used to be.

[khromov]

I share everyones sentiment that dropping public folder support is a bad idea.

I have written a script that you can put on your web host to continue using direct links to files similar to how shared folders work by utilizing the Dropbox API. The only thing you will need to do after configuring the script is to change the domain from http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/<id> to http://yourdomain.com/

It's still in the early stages but fully functional, give it a try here: https://github.com/khromov/dropbox-public-folder-replacement

[awolff]

I now share web content using my own virtual private server because Dropbox has destroyed my trust that they will not in the future make other changes that will make the content I shared unavailable to the public without me having to once again do a huge mountain of work. If or more likely when the bean counters at Dropbox decide to take measures against your script, then the users will once again be screwed and forced to continue the cat and mouse game. Thanks for trying to help your fellow Dropbox users.