Disaster: Dropbox removing external disk support for Mac users :(

[Jon C.10]

In case anyone's unaware... if you're a Mac user storing your Dropbox on an external drive, you'll shortly lose that ability.

https://talk.tidbits.com/t/dropbox-drops-support-for-storing-files-on-an-external-drive-and-onedrive...

https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes

Just confirmed this with DB support (see below).  Gutted - been with Dropbox for years and our entire video team flow is based around it 😕

>Hi there, I read today that you are scrapping the ability to store the Dropbox folder on external disks, on OSX. I'd like to ask more about this please.

> Hello Jon, and thank you for contacting Dropbox Support. My name is Joseph, and I will be more than happy to look into your request, right away.  

That is correct Jon, as part of the Dropbox for macOS update, the Dropbox folder must be located in ~/Library/CloudStorage.

>This is a showstopper for us, and will mean we have to move to another service. We have a large distributed team using DB for video work, no way it'll fit within internal drives.
Is there a workaround?

> I totally understand and I apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, there is no workaround on this as changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.

>This change doesn't seem to have hit us yet - we're running a variety of machines inc Ventura
What will trigger its enforcement? Can we stay on an earlier OS or Dropbox version?

>The updates happening automatically every time the Dropbox app is restarting, for example if your device never restarts it should maintain the older version but we can't guarantee full functionality on older versions of the application.

>So what will happen - if we have a Dropbox folder on an 8TB drive and a tiny internal drive - will it try to clone stuff across and eat up the space? What's the mechanism?

>That's right, it will try to move the content on your internal drive until it has no space and gives you an error.

>Is Smartsync still supported? I.e. will it move stuff to being online only if it won't fit?

>It is, however it is now known as online-only.

[The Dark Knight]

Has anyone got onto Apple about this?

[studioj23]

It appears One Drive has developed a work around for this huge problem. See the heading "Using Another Volume" at this link:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/inside-the-new-files-on-demand-experi...

Essentially the system drive still has the file aliases in the library folder but you can choose, on initial install, for these items to be synced locally at another location. This doesn't look like a hack, but rather something officially implemented by OneDrive. Unclear what the downsides are... 

Insane to me that there has been no outreach from Dropbox about this upcoming change. The service has been such a key component to our workflow for so long. will be unfortunate to have to find an alternative. 

[millifoo]

@studioj23- that post is dated Jan 2022!  So not only did OneDrive fix this over a year ago, this means that DropBox sat around for a year NOT coming up with a similiar workaround?!

[rpaillot]

This is a terrible move.

If dropbox forces us not to use external drive anymore, I'll simply unsubscribe to dropbox, as will thousands of users.

[The Dark Knight]

Totally - using aliasing seems to be what Dropbox need to implement. Their current position of forcing everybody's data onto the system drive is untenable. 

The criticality of the issue makes it shocking they haven't had any user outreach.

[Ru 1971]

>Totally - using aliasing seems to be what Dropbox need to implement. Their current position of forcing everybody's data onto the system drive is >untenable. 
>The criticality of the issue makes it shocking they haven't had any user outreach.

It's quite extraordinary, I learnt about this from Appleinsider, not *dropbox*..🙈🙈.....I can't believe they are trying to sneak this under the radar like its a minor GUI change...its going to literally break thousands of businesses that have relied on it for syncing for over a decade....does no one in management understand how catastrophic this is for Pro users?

For years folks have bought Macs with smaller systems drives, because they can always add an external SSD for Dropbox syncing. 

[The Dark Knight]

Exactly! They quietly put up a webpage like it's a minor point release and don't even bother alerting anybody to the fact that our operations are going be upended.

I learned about this from a colleague who works in the creative industries (as I do). I posted the info to some industry forums this afternoon - so far, NOBODY had heard about it.

The way Dropbox have handled this beggars belief.

[steve_straus]

Has anyone lost functionality yet? If so, have you attempted to move your Home User folder over to your external? I found a great article on how to move your Home User folder but haven't tried it yet: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/01/25/how-to-move-mac-user-folder-to-another-drive/

Since my business and clients are all on Dropbox, cancelling the service isn't possible. Buying a new Mac with at least 1 TB of storage seems a bit pricey to fix this issue. 

I have been preaching the gospel of Dropbox for decades and now they do this to the faithful. Shame on them. 

[jomarie777]

Could you kindly provide a link with information on how to make One Drive work as an alternative? Would love to find an alternative service but unable to find anything as of yet

[BringBackExternalStorage]

Dropbox, you need to do better than this.  It's a failure on your part not to have communicated this better.  It will cost your customers time, money, and energy to salvage their workflows.  Rolling out an update like this should have been at least a 90 day progression, NOT a next time you restart all your frickin' files will either be offline or crash your 1TB OS HD.  COME ON DB! Make this right and get a workaround.