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

Hi iagdotme 

 

So the simplest answer here is 'no'. Due to the changes Apple have made they are no longer allowing this. However, disclaimer here in that is the official supported line. There may be ways of doing so which involve tweaking / changing things BUT these wouldnt be supported by either Apple or Dropbox should something go wrong. At this moment I dont actually know of any, but, I imagine over time some will appear. 

Jamesgangcc's avatar
Jamesgangcc
Collaborator | Level 9
2 years ago

Personal Update. I managed to get the 1 1/2 TB out of dropbox and into externals. Some notes to help folks who've decided this is enough: 

 

1. Be sure and do the DROPBOX Download (not just drag and drop). If you drag and drop you'll end up with folders that look as though they moved, but they will have zero bytes. Dropbox zips large folders, so you have to go through the hassle after you download the folder to unzip the folder. I'm sure this is by design. 

2. I canceled on the last day of my billing cycle and note this: The last billing cycle was 1/31 through 2/28. The New billing cycle was 2/28 through 3/31. Neat huh? One day, two billing cycles. Huh? And... get this... It was 6:30 pm EST when I was trying to finish before midnight, and the billing notice stated "billed at 9:45pm GMT. Seriously. GMT.

3. Hurdles and hoops. I went on chat the next morning, and after battling the bot,  was able to get the fee refunded (3-4 business days of course but billing is always automatic). Nickels and dimes. 

4. The 2GB freebie will be fine for sharing large folders or files when needed. Then I'll delete. So, will keep the account for now. 

 

Thanks for all the input and information. It finally motivated me to do this. 

 

 

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