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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!
Curly123456's avatar
Curly123456
Helpful | Level 6

Hi,

 

What's the update to this? My team and I will need to switch provider before too long if we cannot store Dropbox files on external drives.

 

Thanks,

 

A

UKD's avatar
UKD
Experienced | Level 12
2 years ago

Curly123456 none that I am aware of. Only that the Beta is out there somewhere I believe and that's it. Even that doesn't allow external drive support though so you'd have to stick with the old version and all the issues that comes with.

 

You should know by now as far as all these big companies are concerned it's this: "Shut up and go away. Be thankful of what we give you and stop complaining. We'll tell you when we have anything for you and our software is amazing, you're the problem. Now just go away."

 

That's the 2020's for ya!!

  • Curly123456's avatar
    Curly123456
    Helpful | Level 6
    2 years ago

    I hear you.

     

    There was some confusing talk above about people who have existing dropbox folders on external drives will be able to keep on using their external drives for Dropbox. 

     

    What would happen if I drag my dropbox folder to an external drive? 

     

    Mac OS Ventura

     

    Currently there is an invitation in the dropbox icon on my mac to update... 'Dropbox for MAc OS on file provider is now ready. Update Dropbox to use it on the latest version of macOS on file provider'

     

    I've been holding back from this update on the off chance that updating will close the external drive loophole...

     

    I hope this make sense!

    • beenyweenies's avatar
      beenyweenies
      Helpful | Level 7
      2 years ago

      Curly123456 The only way to relocate the Dropbox folder is to point the DB software to a new location of your choosing, and it will completely resync to that new location. You can’t drag and drop, or in any other way ‘pre-populate’ the new location with your existing downloaded files. Pointing Dropbox to a new location requires a total re-sync.

       

      Also, if you update to the new version from your invite, you will be unable to use DB on an external drive going forward. The only way to reverse that is to uninstall DB and reinstall the version from their website, and when it asks where you want to locate the folder, choosing an external drive will prompt their software to use the non-beta version that allows for external drives.

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