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Forum Discussion
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...
Can’t move the directory that’s the issue. It’s locked to the system drive. I guess you could run the system from an external, but that would probably create all sorts of other issues.
You CAN move the directory, as part of the "home" folder associated with your login, it's just not recommended.
If you go to system settings > users & groups > CTRL-CLICK your username > Advanced - you are given the option to relocate the entire home folder which contains the cloud storage folder.
But as I said above, doing so now comes with a stern warning from the OS that it may break your login, and many, many people on the internet are experiencing that exact thing.
Re: external drives working for people now...
As it stands, unless something major changes this seems to be temporary. Until Dropbox makes an official statement otherwise, my understanding is that the versions of Dropbox which allow us to continue using external storage nonetheless still rely on older kernel extensions which Apple is depreciating. At some point Apple will make an update to the OS which will permanently break those extensions. That could happen with with MacOS Sonoma later this year. (I don't think anyone outside Apple really knows.) Hopefully Apple will hold off on making those extensions obsolete until they add some kind of external storage functionality to the Apple File Provider API. It makes no sense that they would offer the Mac Pro with PCI slots for raid storage, and not envision users ever wanting to sync and offline the files living on the raid.
For what it's worth, Dropbox support gave me this link to download the Universal MacOS version that should allow a fresh install using external storage. I have not tried it yet myself, as I'm reconfiguring my external storage and waiting for some components to arrive. Make sure to tell it not to update when it asks:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-desktop-client-builds/Stable-Build-176-4-5108/td-p/691723
I recommend anyone affected by this make a feature request or bug report directly to Apple as well. Mention Apple File Provider API and external storage. Maybe tell them you're ready to buy four Mac Pros, but you need to know what their solution is to cloud sync and offline files on the raids you're going to install.
https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html... and remember.. Dropbox has marked this entire thread as "solved" which is the HEIGHT of bull**bleep**.
psalcalThe longer they leave us to twist in the wind, the more I’m coming round to your ultra-skeptical way of thinking. The bigger the corporation gets the less they listen to us users. Doubtless this is why smaller providers such as Sync and pCloud DO listen.
But I have a question to pose for everyone who says they can’t leave Dropbox because they have clients with huge unlimited accounts, viz, What are THEY doing with their Dropbox folders? Or are they all on PCs?
- Thanks for confirming that. Good to know, but not something I can entertain really. Too much data on the line and waay to much paid work to risk. I need to be solid and secure. This has cost me about a grand, but my business is worth paying that for to ensure everything keeps working properly. Hopefully Dropbox will fix it properly at some point.
GraphicQuarter I have a feeling it's not up to Dropbox. They're going to stay with Apple File Provider API, because there doesn't seem to be much of a choice. If Apple updates the API to support external storage, that will be how Dropbox remedies the situation. If Apple fails to do this... I'm afraid we're out of luck. That's my take, at least.
- You might be right, although that doesn’t explain why Dropbox can make this work now for some users. Apple aren’t blameless obviously, but I’m in too deep with them now. This has all been a frustrating realisation today, but at least I can afford to fix it myself. I’m sure Dropbox will lose customers over this though.
