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Forum Discussion
New named Dropbox structure
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.
Hello Dropbox,
I am wondering why Dropbox runs out a fundamental folder structure change without notifying it's customer beforehand?
What has changed?
- Main Dropbox folder name changed from "Dropbox (*Company*)" to "Dropbox *Company*"
- A "User folder" added as a "root directory", so an extra step into the Dropbox file directory.
- "Team folder" sits alongside "User folder" in the Dropbox "root directory"
Why Dropbox should notify before this kind of change?
- This change broke all links in all programs that use reference links. (InDesign, CAD programs).
- Our company now needs to go through all files using links and relink files with the added step of the user folder.
- This change broke the "Virtual drive letter" link in Windows.
- Creates confusion in the company, suddenly files dont work, links that were there, are not there...general confusion for a whole day.
I want to emphasize that I am not againts this change, it makes sense. But it is a change that Dropbox needed to notify beforehand. At the minimum write something about it in the "Whats new" page. I cannot find any information about this change.
We are having the same issue and I don't understand why this is not a bigger 'headline'.
Before my local folder was called "Dropbox (companyname)" but now it has been automatically renamed to "companyname Dropbox"
And for some reason there's now a personal folder with my name placed in the root of the dropbox folder and when I open it, it contains folders (that were previously located in dropbox root) it makes no sense to us and we have not been making these changes our selves. Something has happened 3-4 days ago?We face the same issue - the structure automatically updated somehow and now it doesn't work like before because of the personal suborders, so if somebody creats a link to any document in an folder where everybody has access to in another folder, the otherones are not able to open the link.
What's worse is that during the first few hours/days after the "Upgrade" I was able to move folders from [Your Name Here] up one level so they were back where they used to be. It seems that Dropbox did a "bug fix" to close this loophole so it isn't possible any more. But the folders I did drag are left in a weird state, some of them deny access to me, and tell me I must be an Admin. I *am* the Admin.
So it wasn't just a bad design decision to pull the architectural rug out from all their paying Business customers -- their implementation was faulty, as well.
Make you/me/us realize that "cloud-based storage" is delicate and we are at the whim of these companies. For a company like Dropbox to delete all local copies of OUR files and move them to the cloud WITHOUT PERMISSION sounds borderline criminal to me. You can market it with "we've moved you from Sync to Cloud-based with optional 'offline storage' but that is a fundamental change that is not what anybody signed up for. At least not us.
I get that sync is expensive and they want to save money, but fundamentally yanking it without warning is not okay. It will not play out well, I predict, because a lot of their paying Business customers will jump ship. I see that they already barred one door by not offering a refund if you downgrade but paid yearly. Interesting timing that this change came a week or two after we paid for a yearly upgrade, which they will not refund (not without class action, anyway).
Check out sync.com, who will be experiencing quite a growth spurt soon. Let's just hope they don't do similarly stupid things.
Can anyone from Dropbox please acknowledge the issues we are all facing and update us on what is being done to resolve this before you start losing your customers!
We are all very frustrated, your support teams are ignoring our questions and following a script that is completely off topic and sending us round in circles, moving the goalposts at every opportunity and being actually quite rude in how they are dealing with our VERY legitimate complaints about how Dropbox has treated their paying customers.We haven't been able to administer our account for well over a week, HR folders are accessible to the entire organisation (yes files are private but it's still dangerous to have confidential information somewhat accessible to the wider staff base). This may result in GDPR compliance issues for both us & Dropbox.
None of your support teams are taking the brevity of this seriously.
Why is anyone paying for this service when it's obviously broken and unfit for purpose!
For the love of god can someone please communicate with us!
I find totally irresponsible from Dropbox to suddenly decide to change the structure of the business folders that forces a total resync of your data.
In my case I have 2 TB in dropbox and 3 computers at home syncing, and the internet provider charges when data goes beyond 1 TB... I have to reload 6TB therefore pay for 5 TB of data... data that is already on the 3 computers!
This is beyond absurdity, irresponsibility, and lack of respect with users time and money.
Who is making these decisions at Dropbox?
Before, the folder structure was:
User Folder A
User Folder B
Team Folder C
User Folder DBut now it's all of a sudden:
User/Folder A
User/Folder B
User/Folder D
Team Folder CSeriously,? People depend on files being in certain locations! Don't break stuff!
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:
- 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.
- Some of my teammates have had sync issues with M1 macs, resulting in automatically generated conflict copies being created.
- Sharing a folder with people outside of the organization is difficult, unless you purchase a Dropbox for Business seat for the recipient.
- 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.
- 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.
We too rely on the local sync as being the primary reason for using Dropbox. If you find a solid alternative, let us know; we are looking, too.
I'm not sure why Dropbox is pushing so hard to move everybody to the cloud, other than resources (pushing files back out to sync to clients). But when they charge hundreds of dollars per year, that's what we're paying for. There are lots of cheaper cloud storage solutions that are as good or better than Dropbox if all you want is cloud storage.
We are in the process of moving everything over to Google Drive. Our Agency is already using Google Workspace, so the cost part was easy.
It took some experimentation to understand all of the security settings, but we make the cut-over on Wednesday the 21st - the day before our business account renews. We are using GoodSync for cloud-to/from-local sync (i.e. working files), which syncs directly to/from Google Drive, on-line only (which Google calls 'streaming') will sync correctly without two local copies. In the end, I am hopeful that our cloud storage will be easier to use and will definitely use less HDD space.
Good luck!
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.
As a longtime Dropbox Business Advanced customer, I recently received an email saying my plan would be "upgraded" in 7 days that included numerous changes that will be incredibly disruptive to our business operations. The changes include:
- Forcing the rename of the root Dropbox folder, breaking bookmarks and other integrations.
- Creating a new "team space" folder where all existing folders will be moved, creating yet another break in existing links and an even longer file path name.
- Forcing all folders that are available offline to "online only", requiring all users + admins to go back through all folders and mark respective folders offline again. This may result in some users having to re-download large amounts of data, stressing their bandwidth connections (especially remote workers). They may also lose access to critical files after the migration.
- Forcing the team admin to become the owner of the existing team folders, even if they don't actively use or manage those folders personally (e.g. the IT admin personally becomes the owner of the HR and Finance department folders).
- Downtime overnight while the entire change happens without any preview or testing phase.
Naturally, this is terribly disruptive to our business operations as it requires making everyone go through a downtime without any way to know the impacts or prepare for them. This will then cause disruptions to our delivery to services to our customers. I contacted Dropbox support and was told there is no way to opt out permanently and that they are willing to offer me a refund of my annual fees (several thousand dollars) if I wanted to leave and go to another platform.
Furthermore, while you can postpone the upgrade up to 30 days, you cannot permanently opt out of the change. And, you will have to re-postpone within 7 days of the new date, for up to another 30 days. I was told this could go on indefinitely, but of course if you miss it, the upgrade will be forced upon your entire company and there is no way to go back.
Frankly, all of this sounds like an ongoing nightmare that benefits no one, and would serve to only drive customers away to other platforms like Microsoft's OneDrive or Google Drive. What's even more remarkable is that most business customers likely already pay for either Microsoft365 for Office apps, or Google's services for their apps, both of which come with online storage that the customer chooses not to use but do pay Dropbox for separately. Most business customers using Dropbox choose Dropbox because it's different and administration has been friendly and easier. This change is in the complete opposite direction, and what's worse is the way in which Dropbox is forcing customers into the rollout with very little notice is insensitive to how their customers actually use their product.
I'm posting this message to see if anyone else is being affected by the same issue and if so, to please comment and let Dropbox know this change is not welcome. Or at the least, to allow us to opt out permanently, or provide some smoother way to make the transition that just an overnight change without any migration or test process.
We have the exact same problem since yesterday.
All our folderpath, which link to a local dropbox file/folder, don't work anymore. Also Folders became visible but not accesible for users who don't have permissions.
Why do you change the top folder name of Dropbox in my case from e.g.
"C:\AB\Dropbox (MUSTER)" to
"C:\AB\MUSTER Dropbox" and
How can I change the name back to "Dropbox (MUSTER)"?This is a disaster. All links and connections, established in the past, are now broken.
Why not give users the option to decide whether they want to have the new name (made up by dropbox) or keep the old name?
The whole set-up of my company is based on the Dropbox folder.
All software that builds on data from Windows files now uses invalid addresses because Dropbox changes the path name. My software is therefore flying blind at the moment. I have to set everything up again. And I am only one of x-million customers.
The reason for staying with Dropbox and not switching to OneDrive was that Dropbox understands how important file structures are, and Dropbox keeps its hands off the top folder level, unlike Microsoft. That reason no longer exists.- Jackson
Dropbox Staff
Hello Eastsite, sorry to hear about your issue.
The Dropbox folder is named automatically, and it can not be manually renamed.
Each Team Admin, should have been notified prior to the upgrade, about the incoming changes.
You can request renaming the folder as feature, by up-voting it in our Share an Idea part of the forum.
Hope this clears things up.
- Rich
Super User II
Eastsite wrote:
All links and connections, established in the past, are now broken.
Create a symbolic link that points C:\AB\Dropbox (MUSTER) to C:\AB\MUSTER Dropbox.
Rich wrote:
Eastsite wrote:All links and connections, established in the past, are now broken.
Create a symbolic link that points C:\AB\Dropbox (MUSTER) to C:\AB\MUSTER Dropbox.
That helped, to create
mklink /J "C:\AB\Dropbox (MUSTER)" "C:\AB\MUSTER Dropbox"
and to integrate the folder Dropbox (MUSTER) into boxcryptor.@Dropbox: Please give us a reason why you have renamed the root folder and not given the user the option to keep the old spelling of the root folder.
@Dropbox: Remember that you can only remain a leader (or competitive with the big ones) if you explain your actions.
Please incorperate the ability to disable the new personal folders you created in the latest update. We have a business account with you and have no need for that folder to be on our computers. It just causes confusion and files being placed in the wrong folders.
Thank you
The private folder for each user is a serious file management problem.
We understand that administrators can view the contents of these "private" folders, but we think that's problematic from a privacy standpoint (even if notified). Also, that workflow creates work for our administrators and doesn't build trust with our users.
Our business account is for business files. We don't want users storing private or personal files in our business account. We have a hard enough time preventing people from storing files on their desktops; we don't want another location where files can become disassociated from workflows.
We understand this might work for other organizations, but there should be an option to disable this "feature" for all users.
