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.

[Michael C.121]

An 'alias' has never worked properly. For years I have used a sym link (symbolic link). For those who don't know, it's like a smarter alias.

The tiny original lives where Dropbox wants it and the real stuff is on an external.

Years ago I was using a free sym link maker but it seemingly became unsupported with a later Mac OS. I then just bought a cheap one off the App Store for a couple of bucks and it's been great. I'm not sure that will solve this upcoming issue, but apart from this thread, I've heard nothing else about this change.

[TheMainOne]

This is such a big issue to me and the failure on the part of dropbox so enormous by not getting ahead of this, that I have just now opened an account at a different provider as well to test them. 

To be honest, I don't think they are quite as fast as dropbox. But they appear to be far more secure which is also very important to me. Dropbox is anything but secure. Meaning, dropbox in their policies, says that they can read and even give your content to trusted third parties. The question I have is "trusted" according to whom? I probably would not agree with who they think is trusted with my private information. 

I have already canceled my year membership with dropbox and gone to a month to month. If this test works as it has so far, then I will be canceling dropbox altogether. Our company has already canceled all services with them at my prompting. 

Another huge negative for me is the "woke" nonsense that dropbox spews. They actually have a manager who is white, who claims to find it better to hire people of other colors than white people. This is racist plain, period, and simple. I wrote to them several times and they just dismissed everything I had to say about it. Choosing people based on their qualifications and ability to do their job should be the deciding factor. Nothing else. I am from a mixed race family and this is how we all feel. It is all about the qualification and ability to do the job - not color. This gives all of us a fair chance. I am very much hoping the maxim here applies... "Go woke, go broke".

So I am looking for any possible alternative so that I don't have to deal with the dropbox failure to actually do their job and make sure that our programs are protected. I'm looking to make sure that our service is safe and stable and not trying to put everything onto our primary Drive regardless of what Apple says. There are always workarounds available, and not notifying us in advance and simply throwing up some comment to it that I had to stumble onto to even find. 

I sense my time is extremely short with them. Maybe even days. I hope. They have crossed the line far too many times in far too many egregious ways. 

Dropbox, I am only one person. But you have created a whirlwind of a mess around you. I for one am out of here as fast as I possibly can. You no longer are deserving of my business. Frankly you haven't been for a long time. Your failure to deal with these issues, address my concerns of your racism and stay in front of these problems with timely notice to us, is beyond the pale. 

Clearly I don't matter. You have made that abundantly clear. But I do believe all the people posting here do matter to you. And I think it's time you take this seriously. 

For those who are interested in trying something different. I would suggest trying sync dot com.  If you have two or more users, you can get an unlimited plan, unlimited storage that cost less than most any plan from dropbox. It does not seem quite as fast. But it is far more secure. It also does not force you to use your primary drive. It is also plenty fast enough.

You brought this on your own head, dropbox. And by the way, stop falsely marking this as solved. This issue is not solved until you do your job and provide us with answers and solutions as so many here have instructed you to do. 

[Igor S.8]

Hi, 

I'd just like to add my 5 cents here - as a QA principal on various softwares for the past dozen of years:

1) Communication about change is very unclear

I got notification today, stating that I shall update - but then - you'll move MY data to a more secure place on my hard drive. Like - NO.

That is marketing team sugar coated BS.

Reading all this, I understand this is driven by Apple (who took "Documents", "Pictures" and few other folders already, and reserved them for iCloud only - to push you to use iCloud and sync with iCloud and pay iCloud, but that's another topic of Apple being Apple and people not giving them proper attribution and demand changes) but Dropbox is your product - so YOU have some obligations towards your paid customers and you need to be clear.
 

There are no Why's and "What if I can't do that"? - Yes, there's a link to a text, but again - it does not say anything except that "if you don't update you'll not get the latest experience"? What? I wasn't aware Dropbox was experience ... I had it as a daemon, background task that is syncing my stuff from folders I've chosen to the cloud. No - I'm not letting Dropbox/Apple organise my hard drive. Are you insane? 

2) You are paid service - let's not forget about it. Use some of that money to keep your customers happy and push Apple to reason? 

3) It's not clear - If I update MacOS from Monterey (now) to Ventura (wanted to do it tonight) - Will Dropbox app be updated automatically and will I loose my data that is not in "proper local location"? 

If not - can I update to Ventura and keep old dropbox with old setup - and will it all work the same? (just without "Modern experience" whatever that is)

If everything will still work with Ventura and old DropBox app - how long will you support old app?

All these questions and clarifications are needed from Dropbox - and you simply didn't provide them. Paid service. 

I was postponing getting Apple One because I was lazy, and I have everything on DropBox, and "I don't want to lock myself to Apple only" - but - If you can't handle things, and can't properly communicate - maybe I should just move to Apple then? Not willingly, but... it will be cheaper in the end and with less hassle. 

[Jamesgangcc]

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. 

[digisam]

Appalling. I really don't know what to say.

I have been using Dropbox for as long as I can remember, I have files in there from 2009 so let's say I started using it around then. Over 13 years

Sure it is not perfect, but I don't need to think about it, I just use it.

It is integral to my work and play. I have so many apps that use Dropbox to sync their preferences, watch folders with various rules and automations, other cloud services like Epsonconnect, various Wordpress sites backing up daily to it, the more I think about it the more the I worry.

I physically feel sick thinking about how much this is going to affect and break.

It doesn't make a difference, as there is no going back, we are being told what we have used for years is going to be taken away whether we like it or not.

And I do not believe for a second that such disruption and regression was unavoidable. Work it out, develop your own API or encryption, or do stuff behind the scenes that pushes stuff around, but do what it takes to not have to tell your customers what you are telling us now.

We should not get a popup saying "we are going to upgrade you now and that upgrade is going to break this this and this, and won't be able to do this this or this ever again"

Something as big as this should be apologetically announced, with ample time (at least 12 months) to sort things out to work with the changes, with the options to export all your data to another service.

Given the amount of work it will take to make Dropbox usable for me again, I will probably kludge something together myself that will perform the basics rather than continue to give you money 

I know I probably don't make much sense with what I have written, but I am fuming, absolutely livid.

[Jennifer G.29]

I appreciate that Dropbox sees that this change is a significant problem (putting it mildly). What’s the timeline for an accommodation for Mac users? I can’t just have Dropbox taking hard drive space by surprise, with no option to stop it.

It’s shameful that longtime customers are finding out about this by accident in the forums. Quietly rolling out an experience this bad is a slippery slope.

[Ru 1971]

@KzDbx 

Just so I full understand where we are now. If I buy a new Mac this week (which I have to do) which will come pre-installed with Ventura, can I *currently* install my dropbox folder on an external drive, whilst Dropbox try & fix this messy situation? I sure can't afford to buy one with a 4TB internal drive at Apple prices!

[shinbeth]

@Ru 1971 

Just buy 4TB or even 8TB internal Mac to be honest yes it's costly but so much more effective than having to rely on external storage cloud sync. External disks even SSDs are not an option for anything having to do with real-time sync such as heavy video editing, music production, AI and computational projects etc. (I mean in 2023, we're in the future already, not living in the 90s anymore lol which sometimes Dropbox feels like)

Also it's way faster (6000 MB/s - for the M1 anyway, Apple messed up with the M2 as SSD speeds went down surprisingly, so I'd wait for the M3 if you're not getting a M1 yet) than even the faster external SSDs like SanDisk which unfortunately as of today only reach more or less 2'000 MB/s (so I only use those as TimeMachine backups of the internal Mac drive) and are limited to 4TB (SanDisk is working on the first 8TB dongle but it's going to take a few more years I'm afraid as it stands :/).

I really don't know how you guys keep saying you rely on external drives to sync 10s of TBs of data as individual, professional or even more so as business with many people relying on external sources. Very unreliable in my opinion, even before the Dropbox upgrade / sync issue.

Just buy 8TB internal disks people and PLEASE DROPBOX FINALLY EXPAND YOUR PRICE PLANS FOR THE PRO PLAN 3TB (+1 extra max) IS WAY TOO SMALL I NEED AT LEAST 15/20TB OPTION to back up my entire data + some headroom just in case to be safe. Ready to pay 100+ a month for it.

[buster0409]

NNNO MAC - WINDOWS 10

[Bluebicycle]

@Ru 1971

Our 16TB Gtech SSD Raid is just fine. We need more headroom than 8TB