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?

[Alastair L.]

I found this Dropbox alternative comparison site, they want your email for the tabulated comparison data but its all there for free in the long analysis.

https://www.cloudwards.net/top-10-secure-dropbox-alternatives/

[Mark]

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@Alastair L. wrote:

Dropbox only keeps files backuped for a month I think (a year at the most). I found that out to my suprise assuming all deleted/corrupted files were backed up forever.

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Just to give links for that.

Recovery is available for 30 days for non-paying users and up to a year if you have Extended Version History - at the time of deletion.

Its one of the reasons I'm very vocal on not using Dropbox as a backup tool. Use something like Carbonite or Backblaze. 

[ThomasPaul]

Yes, this is a diaster for millions of DropBox users who have posted links to billions of files. It seems impossible that Dropbox would do this. I think it is time to drop my subcription and move to iDrive.

Thomas Paul

[ROMAD]

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@Alastair L. wrote:
I found this Dropbox alternative comparison site, they want your email for the tabulated comparison data but its all there for free in the long analysis.

https://www.cloudwards.net/top-10-secure-dropbox-alternatives/

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Or, if you don't want to provide your email address:  https://www.cloudwards.net/comparison/

[BradJohnson]

@Alastair L., In Dropbox I hosted my static site with hundreds of files (images, javascript and css).

In the index file the path to the files is relative so there wasn't any problem with that.

I simply moved to pCloud, extracted my backup file and my site was live again! 😉

About embed pictures on forums, yes, this won't work, you have change them somehow.

I don't use this, just host my static site and in forums I post only link to html, so I need to change only one link, not every related image in file.

Hope that makes a sense.

Take care,

Image already added

[BradJohnson]

And if you check this comparison you will notice pCloud is the in the top position!
Check the review - https://www.cloudwards.net/review/pcloud/

And as far as I know - only they provide Public Folder functionality, same as it was in good old Dropbox...

Image already added

[LeoC2]

With the loss of the Public folder's benefits (I pay for Dropbox Pro!) I have a major problem. I use the Public oder to upload score sheets from car shows I run. I then publish links to these score sheets on my web site for attendees to see their's and other's sheets. Obviously I can't name hundreds of people to each individual file for sharing so how dos I set a folder and it's contents so that a simple link to any file will allow anyone to see it, in other words like it was the Public folder.

Now to be clear as this was posted in another forum and the answer given was incorrect then marked solved and closed. I do not want to make a fiolder public so that people need to go to the foilder and choose a file, I need to make all the files "public" so that a link I create in a table will bring the user to the individual file which is an image actually. To show you how it works here is a link to a table that uses the public folder which is about to expire: http://nyautofest.com/NYAF/rulesresultsscores/show-results-and-score/springwestbury.html Toy will notice in the right coplumn a link called SCORE SHEET, that is the file that anypone can see. Once the public folder is dead these will no longer work. I have transfered all over to my server to acomplish the same goal but I don't want to do this, I prefer to keep using Dropbox (or equivalent) as it's easier to just dump new files into the folder. I did payt for this ability after all!

This loss of the public folder is a very bad thing by the way, why not just prevent people from using it to host web sites and leave the rest alone?

[Photo O.]

You can still get this to work because those Score Sheet links can point to any file in your dropbox, public folder or not. The new, improved (not IMO) dropbox allows you to link files from anyhere not just the public folder.

My public folder no longer works (not a pro user) nonetheless, I do not like the idea of sharing links from all over my dropbox. I like to have them all in one place so that they are easier to keep track of, so I created a folder called (as you would expect) "Links". Everything I share is in that folder, and further within folders inside that folder so that I can keep track of where I shared them e.g. all the images I have posted on XYZ Blog are in dropbox/links/xyxforum

I think you'll find that you can leave the Score Sheets in the Public Folder (which will become just an ordinary folder in dropbox),  and simply  change the links in your html master sheet to the new type of link url

e.g. the top link on your page is currently

.....dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18728859/ScoreSheets/2017/Spring125.png

it will have to be changed to something like

.....dropbox.com/s/owcjw6pgdp6sybb/Spring125.png?dl=0

I presume you now have the capability to link from anywhere in your dropbox (they were phasing that in befiore doing away with the Public Folder) Just do a test... try copying a score sheet image from your Public Folder into another folder (outside of the Public Folder) , create a link and paste the url into your html master sheet. (you may have to change the "dl=0" into "dl=1" or "raw=1" to get the client mouse click behaviour you want)

If you don't have that capability yet, I would be happy enough to drop that Spring125.png image into my dropbox and give you a link so you can see what it looks like and test it on your html master sheet.

[BradJohnson]

Leo, I was in the same boat man!

I can't understand why there is no exception for current files/folders - so they can continue to work, so there won't be huge broken files and images around the web...but the decision was made and we have no choice.

Personaly, I've tested pCloud Public folder functionality, it's a ironic competitor implemented Dropbox abandoned feature, which was one of the best unique things... Take a look and try it.

Image already added

[Terry P.]

It's now 1st September, 10:15 am here in the UK. As a Pro user, when exactly should I expect my old Public folder links to expire please?

Terry, East Grinstead, UK