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.

[gfawcett777]

This is a disaster! We are a creative firm using external drives for big file storage on our Macs. Why Apple!? Why!? Please give us back the ability to store data where we want to!!

[TheMainOne]

@gfawcett777 

I only partly blame Apple. This lies squarely in the lap of drop your box. They have mismanaged their company, mismanaged their service, mismanaged their communication with their customers and dropped the ball and the box entirely. They should be ashamed of themselves. 

They could've created their own an API. Apparently other companies are doing exactly that. They are figuring a way to make this work we're only drop your box is screwed the pooch every which way but loose. 

Due to the way they treated me previously when I confronted them on their silly decisions to let a woman act racist in a public way who is the manager for them, I am happy to keep the pressure on them. Next time when I ask for an answer, maybe you'll give one. Or maybe you won't be here to be able to give one. Either way works for me. 

Drop your box could've handled this had they got their asses in gear long ago. They are big enough to actually exert pressure on Apple. I don't know what they have or haven't done but whatever it is it hasn't worked. And they have failed to communicate with their customers in a timely manner as well. 

Drop your box disgusts me. This is a perfect study on a slow moving disaster. I think though it will speed up here quite shortly. 

[gfawcett777]

I'm happy to keep applying pressure to get this fixed. Dropbox is a big part of our creative business and we pay a lot of $ every month for it. Not it is pretty much rendered useless. 

[shinbeth]

Dropbox Product Manager & Community Manager

"We understand that you want an update on this issue as soon as possible, and our engineering team is working to get the external drive support reinstated. We are sorry that we don't have any updates for you at this time, as we know this can be frustrating. We have shared your responses with the team, and we will get back to you as soon as we've an update."

Hehehe. Could be fixed tomorrow. Or in a month. Or in a year. Or in five years. Who knows 🙂 This is what you get with 'Agile Development' these days.

[jw83876]

So... I was trying to get support and clarification on this but cannot reach tech support.

I am running dropbox 172.4.7555 with automatic downloads/updates turned OFF. As of today, I am running Mac OS 13.2.1 (22D68)

Having content on my external RAID array... well, it works just fine. And I like the older version of the software SO MUCH BETTER, the upload status icons are so helpful to my workflow. I don't know why dropbox wants to change it and make things work worse, not better. There's absolutely zero logic in that.

But I guess my biggest question is... if it doesn't work, then why is it working?

[Megan]

Hi @jw83876, let's jump into this! 

When you mention: "if it doesn't work, then why is it working?" are you referring to the automatic downloads, or the version of the app that you're using? If you meant something entirely different, let me know, please. 

You also mentioned that automatic downloads/updates are turned off, but it's working on your end without an issue. Can you walk me though the steps that you follow on your end?

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

[jmeredi2]

I'm running the current version of both dropbox and Mac OS, and I can also still locate my dropbox on an external drive. I can't do this with any other cloud service (like Google Drive, or Box). What I'm worried about is this functionality suddenly disappearing with DropBox as well, which would significantly disrupt my workflow.

[pampy]

Feels like dropbox is trying to hide something, i've read somewhere where apple responded that dropbox won't fix their malicious API, it could be the API that tries to collect our data to sell to advertisers and Apple wanted to put a stop on it.

As dropbox stated, their engineer are trying so hard to fix it, in other words "We're trying to make a workaround to still get your data bypassing Apple's strict API". 

But honestly, I do care a bit about the privacy, but I really care more of dropbox fixing this ASAP. Had to use icloud temporarily for my audio files and it sucks.

[leeharris]

Woah! I was just looking at the update and was about to ask about this, this is not good news I don't want my hard drive full of files I use extensive externals and soon a raid, the hard drive is just for Apps and some current projects.

Dropbox will lose customers if they force this on clients, I have a pro account and would look for alternative if this was to happen.

[ArthurPix]

Hang on a bit @pampy . Before going on about “something I read somewhere,” please share your source.

Otherwise I must say that your post is not substantiated by any facts I know about this dilemma. I know of no DropBox scene to mine your data, and I have never seen any evidence that Apple is trying to thwart any DropBox scheme. The truth is rather that:

1. Apple has introduced a new API for cloud storage providers such as DropBox.

2. DropBox hasn’t YET been able to engineer a way both to support this new API and to continue letting users place our DropBox folders on external storage devices.

3. However, DropBox reps have told us Mac users on this forum that they will let us continue using the old API and keeping our folders on external devices.

4. DropBox reps have also stated they are actively working on how to support both the new API and external storage.

And thems are the facts to date as I know them. So, unless you have real sources that you can document, please let me gently advise you not to worry about free-floating conspiracy theories. This forum exists for users to help one another solve their DropBox dilemmas, and conspiracy theories help no one. For the benefit of all users, I urge everyone to keep our discussions anchored in documented facts.