New named Dropbox structure

[t4ngml]

I am a user of DropBox Business, on Windows 10.

Last week, I suddenly realized that the shortcuts to some of my Dropbox folders were broken.

A quick look learned me that the structure had changed.

While I used to access my folder through:

C:/User/{username}/Dropbox (COMPANY NAME)/, I can now find them at:
C:/User/{username}/{COMPANY NAME} Dropbox/MyFirstName LASTNAME/

Now, both structures seem to remain while the first one is now a hidden shortcut (although I can't seem to see where it links to).

So that I don't really know where my files actually are.

Is this change documented anywhere?

Thanks

After a couple of days, I realized this happened to all of this Dropbox Business users across the company, Mac and Windows, and that it messes up with backup strategies.

I didn't find anything about this new structure in DropBox's changelog.

[Rich]

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@sarke wrote:
Dropbox, why did you move all our files?

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• https://help.dropbox.com/accounts-billing/plans-upgrades/upcoming-business-team-changes

[WCdesign]

Same thing happened to us. Whole path structure is broken, software we are using non of them work properly as they cannot access files with correct paths. Whos great idea on Dropbox side was this? Especially in Business sector when companies relies on precise file structures?

[marathon]

The whole reason we use Dropbox for Business is to share files within the organization. With the new, unwanted rearchitecture, all the folders got put inside a User Name folder, and I can't drag/move them back to the top level where I want them. It prevents me from moving them in the Finder plugin (MacOS) and it is also grayed out / not possible in the web app.

Any thoughts on how to restore previous organization to shared files? We DO NOT want user-named folders, just the top level DropBox <businessname> as it was before.

[krutsch]

First post... but today, I received my "Important changes to your Dropbox account" e-mail.

We have a ton of client files, organized by client, with access restricted by team groupings. The first thing I did was postpone the 'upgrade' until Oct 14th, to give me time to find a new solution. 

Honestly, I am having a hard time (a) understanding the e-mail's contents, as well as the "upcoming business team changes" help document, and (b) I am struggling to see what problem this is solving for me or anyone else.

One thing is for sure: this looks like a great time to move our agency off of Dropbox. I've been considering this for some time for the following reasons:

1. The whole 'off-line/on-line' files things has been a real headache, as Dropbox seems to quietly change the setting back to online only, from time-to-time, which makes syncing with a local copy for editing difficult.
2. Some of my teammates have had sync issues with M1 macs, resulting in automatically generated conflict copies being created.
3. Sharing a folder with people outside of the organization is difficult, unless you purchase a Dropbox for Business seat for the recipient.
4. For working files, you really need TWO copies of your files on your hard drive, which means my teammates are all lugging around external drives for Dropbox to hold the complete copies of their client files, as most new laptops don't have a ton of free space.
5. Dropbox recently changed the restore feature from 'forever' to 'one year', unless you pay an upgrade fee.

And now, this forced re-organization of content that looks to a ton of work on our side to get back to where we are, today.

I was an early adopter of Dropbox, but I think we are moving our content elsewhere.

[mscheffel-jsf]

This is not an acceptable change that you are pushing as an "upgrade". You are going to break systems for my team and I'm going to have to try to fix what you've "improved" over the weekend. You should not modify any file system paths. We rely on them being static. Your postponement window is also too narrow and does not allow for long-term planning of this project - and it is a project to adjust to this on our side.

[Megan]

Hi @marathon, welcome to our Community! 

At the moment, you wouldn't be able to change the structure, I'm afraid. However, I am here to help you understand your options as much as I can. 

You mentioned that you have some content inside your personal folder, that you want to share with the rest of your Team, right? 

Have you tried adding the members to the folders, and essentially sharing the content with them? 

Let me know more! 

[marathon]

Thanks for your reply.

You call it a "personal folder" that I want to "share with the rest of the team". The entire Business Dropbox is (or was) shared with the entire team, before this Downgrade in functionality.

I fail to understand why Dropbox for Business, with emphasis on Business, would try to isolate content based on an individual's identity. That's completely contrary to the idea of a Business Dropbox.

I can share the individual folders with the team -- again -- but that leaves a totally unnecessary folder with My Name in the structure.

Please communicate to your management that this is a dumb decision and should be reversed. I've used Dropbox for many years and have paid a lot of money for multiple licenses (recently downgraded) but I'm about to dump the whole thing, between this "architectural" decision and the never-ending push to try to get me to keep everything in the cloud. The entire reason I chose Dropbox was because it does local syncing. There are lots of others who do Cloud stuff, many of them do it better than you do. Your unique value proposition is (or was) the excellence of sync across multiple devices. Don't ruint that!

[Jay]

Hi @krutsch, thanks for messaging the Community.

We appreciate your feedback on this change to the Dropbox Business teams.

If you require any specific assistance or have any further queries, please let us know in more detail so we can assist further.

[ChrisHunt2022]

I am glad to hear you got the email before the "mandatory Upgrade".

We were not so lucky and are looking elsewhere to store our files since we have to do all our setup again anyways.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one caught off guard/surprised they were doing this.

Good Luck on your endeavors.

[Walter]

Hey @marathon, thanks for your feedback on this.

It's been noted in our system for our devs' consideration. 

Let us know if you have anything else to add.