You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.

Forum Discussion

marioshadj's avatar
marioshadj
Helpful | Level 6
5 years ago

Dropbox Vault offline access

Hello, 

 

Dropbox Vault sounds like a very nice new feature, and I was wondering how to access it while I'm not connected to the internet (i.e. offline).

 

On my Mac, when I click on the Vault icon it always opens up the dropbox website, and doesn't seem to be letting me access it locally.

 

Any way to access dropbox vault offline/locally?

  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II

    No there isnt. This is because the security for accessing it is set up on the website itself. 

    • MikhailVb's avatar
      MikhailVb
      New member | Level 2

      Seems to me that offline access to files in Vault via conventional Dropbox sync could still be a valid approach.

       

      In the cloud and through the Dropbox interface, the extra protection from Vault would be available.  On a local storage device, it  would be "business as usual".  However, some users (like myself) might find the extra security more valuable specifically in the cloud and through the Dropbox interface.

       

      As secure as Dropbox sync presumably is, perhaps Dropbox wished to eliminate recurring sync from Vaulted files to avoid the repeated exposure of such files to data transfer between cloud and local, just to be extra cautious.  However, I'd still be interested in "business as usual" syncing of such files with the added security of Vault limited to the cloud storage / Dropbox UI side.

      • anirguha's avatar
        anirguha
        New member | Level 2

        I don't see the problem there in providign access to the Vault folder offline. There can be just an extra encyption for the folder which should solve the issue. Othe cloud storage and backup providers like pCloud which also I am using has got this feature available which is making the secret folders easy to access from desktops locally.

  • JohnnyDogman's avatar
    JohnnyDogman
    Collaborator | Level 8

    Unfortunately, Vault is designed to be accessed through the Dropbox website, which requires an internet connection for security reasons. This means you can’t access Vault offline or locally on your Mac.

    If you need offline access to important files, consider moving them to a regular Dropbox folder, which can be synced to your computer and accessed without an internet connection.

    • Bort's avatar
      Bort
      Helpful | Level 6
      Thanks, we had this on page 1 already. It is a bit confusing how the threads here are arranged.

      Microsoft is able to deliver this security and storing the data offline.
  • Bort's avatar
    Bort
    Helpful | Level 6

    I need to excuse.

    Dropbox is way better than OneDrive. We planned to move our 3 users to OD as we have 1 TB each in our office license, resulting in about 400€/year savings.

    OD was not able to upload all our files (3 DB accounts to 3 separate OD accounts). We suffered data loss on one PC during migration to OD. I did not understand how that was possible. OD during the uploads/downloads killed all, the PCs as well as the networks they were in. It once killed itself so hard, it forgot that it was installed on my PC. WTF?!
    And a bunch of more issues like randomly changing between file stati like "only online", making it even necessary to download the just uploaded files again, resulting in continous blockage of PC and Network. :(

    One week work and a blockage of our office later, we restored our DBs.

    2 features I stay with OD:
    -The vault - maybe DB can develop it a similar way, with keeping the files available offline.

    -Camera Uploads:
    Camera Uploads in different folders: Whatsapp Images and Insta and etc, should not be mixed in one folder. Would really wish that for Dropbox.

    Thanks!

About Delete, edit, and organize

Solve issues with deleting, editing, and organizing files and folders in your Dropbox account with support from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!