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.

[UKD]

@ArthurPix I've gone on to a team account and I have no issues.

I have found sync to be pretty good. I have 2 very very minor gripes but they seem to be addressing this bit by bit.

1. Their upload speed is quite slow BUT because of this it has made me look at how my cloud storage is used and how much I should have on a 3rd parties cloud server. Due to this I have archived a huge amount of data on to my own NAS and am using it as an archive with my team having access. (Synology have vastly improved their Synology Drive Client software and that is what I am using).
2. Their support is a bit lax and slow because they're in Canada so you have to wait for Canada to wake up.

Like I say, very minor gripes and I can only see them improving as they grow so I'm not going to have a go at them.

I have managed so far to get 3TB up on to sync but it's gonna take a while. I still have about 3TB+ to go.

[kinetogenic]

I'm appreciating all of the updates to this thread, which seems to have become a support group for those looking to move off of dropbox because of this glaring issue. Perhaps all of this activity will make Dropbox look again and address this issue, at the very least with some clear communication. But, more likely, I will be taking Sync for a spin as others have suggested!

[ArthurPix]

@UKD Kudos on a very creative use of your Synology NAS. I have one and am accustomed to using it purely as an archiving and backup resource, when, as you say, it now acts as a personal cloud server!

[fjazzfjazz]

Thanks! Is there a minimum of users? 

[ArthurPix]

@fjazzfjazz Can’t say for sure, but I don’t think so.

[UKD]

@fjazzfjazz for teams on Sync.com? 2+. Look here [removed per the Community's Guidelines]

2 x tier pricing options for teams too so depending on whether you need a little or a lot there's options. 

Overall I find them pretty good value for money but then again I only want 1 main thing, solid, reliable and secure data storage. You could count that as 3 but what I mean is no extra features beyond the core features (no paper, signing stuff, screen recording etc etc).

I want a system that you log in, upload and sync. Then can share with my team. This does it pretty simply but good. The current downside is that the cloud-only feature is still in beta but I'm sure that it'll come out of beta soon. I'm using it and it's been fine to date.

[marcosdutra]

Does Sync work with a Mac external drive in Ventura OS? Thanks

[marcosdutra]

Which OS are you using? Ventura? Thanks

[marcosdutra]

Does Sync work with an external drive? Are you using Ventura? Tks

[TheMainOne]

Hey everyone,

I can tell you that I wish this problem had never come about with the issues of having to use the primary drive. I would love to be a good and paying member of dropbox like I used to be.

And no, today I will not go further into my thoughts of the past. 

I am looking up and looking forward. When I left a couple of months ago, I went to sync dot con. At first I thought I would like it. But their customer service is so bad it wasn't even funny. I would write a message and wait two or more days to get a very low level tech to ask me stupid questions and then I would wait three or four more days and still not hear back from them or from a high-level tech. 

After a couple of months of dealing with this I decided that it was time to move on. So I started experimenting with other options. 

What I found much to my surprise and happiness was pcloud dot calm. They are only a few dollars more however there's one big thing that they do that won me over. They do not throttle the speed at all. You can get all of the upload and download speed that your ISP gives you. At least that's in theory but I have found it is really fast. Even faster than what dropbox was. 

There is a bit of a trade off. Sync dot con was fully encrypted. Now the good news is that makes it a very safe option. The bad news is that it makes uploading and downloading nearly impossible if you have much that you're trying to deal with. I got errors constantly. After a week of trying to upload 400 GB, I finally gave up. 

Pcloud dot calm is unencrypted unless you really want encryption. Now if you buy a business plan like I did with three people, it comes with encryption. If you buy a lower level personal plan you have to pay extra for it. The good news is that it is a separate folder where you can put the things that are really important that you encrypt. The regular stuff you don't need to encrypt, don't. Things going into the encrypted folder or slow. Everywhere else is blinding fast with the service. 

One more thing is that P cloud claims to be unlimited in terms of space. But if you look in their site or you ask them, they will say Unlimited in the business plan equals 2 TB per person and you need three. In our case, 6 TB is more than enough. You can remove storage from the other two and use it for central sharing and let the other people upload and download as they need. You can also ask for more when you reach about 90% of your allotted space.  

I'm on a Mac and I'm just thrilled with the service. 

Just some ideas that I'm sharing here.