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Jon C.10's avatar
Jon C.10
Collaborator | Level 8
2 years ago

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

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...
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  • BenDBX's avatar
    BenDBX
    4 months ago
    Hi Everybody,
     
    We’re excited to share that external drive support for Dropbox for macOS on File Provider is now available for testing as a beta feature. This is available to some users today and will be available to additional users on a rolling basis. In order to be eligible to test this feature, please follow the instructions in this Help Center article. 
     
    Keep in mind that participation in beta programs is subject to the certain terms and conditions. There are certain additional participation requirements:
    • This beta is only available to US-based users
    • You must be on macOS 15 beta
    • You must have an external drive that is APFS formatted and encrypted
     
    Please let me know if you have any further questions!
KzDbx's avatar
KzDbx
Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager

Hello everyone. Thank you for your feedback.


We understand that this is a significant pain point for you and your teams that rely on having Dropbox sync on external drives.
Currently, the File Provider API only supports your Dropbox folder in ~/Library/CloudStorage. We are actively working on a solution to support external drives on the updated Dropbox for macOS. While we work to implement a solution, customers who have their Dropbox folder on an external drive will not be migrated to the updated macOS experience. External drive support will continue to work as usual on your current experience.


We will keep you updated when we have more details to share.

NewStudio's avatar
NewStudio
New member | Level 2
2 years ago

First of all - THANK YOU for working on a solution for this issue.  

Second - Dropbox is located internally on some of our devices and externally on some devices.  It sounds like internally located Dropbox apps will be automatically updated to the new app version.  As you say, the externally located Dropbox apps won't be updated automatically (again, thank you).  Will there be syncing issues between the different versions of Dropbox apps that will be on our different devices?

  • Warhen's avatar
    Warhen
    Helpful | Level 5
    2 years ago

    NewStudio this a disaster for me. I updated a laptop I use on the road and now my main machine is not syncing anything created on the laptop. It will sync from the old version to the new version but not the opposite way. My workflow is trashed. I'm looking for an alternative as I find it unacceptable for the company not having an immediate fix to this. Some posted fixes that require using a second application, but is this really acceptable? What is DropBox thinking!!!!????

    • Jgcamil's avatar
      Jgcamil
      Helpful | Level 6
      2 years ago

      Didnt I read somewhere that Db is pausing this rollout as the complaints from people like us helped?

      Or was I just dreaming?

      Im still working ok with the external drive...

      • millifoo's avatar
        millifoo
        Helpful | Level 7
        2 years ago

        Jgcamil 

         

        The wording of the "pause" was a big cagey:

         

        "While we work to implement a solution, customers who have their Dropbox folder on an external drive will not be migrated to the updated macOS experience."

         

        I take that to mean if you have it set up with an external drive already, and don't mess with it, it'll keep working... for now.

         

        But if you - say - try to migrate to a new machine and have to re-set things up, it's going to switch to the new "internal drive only" mode. That might (???) explain why Warhen and Peter Proulx are having problems now.

         

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