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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!
Duncan Macintyre's avatar
Duncan Macintyre
Helpful | Level 6

Hey Richard Schletty

 

Thanks for the information on the workaround.

 

Apologies if my question has already been asked and answered, but is this really just a temporary solution? Eventually, we'll need to upgrade Dropbox to maintain current functionality, right? Or are you planning on sticking with the current version?

(Like many in this thread, I'm in video, and the use of external file storage is mission-critical.)

 

Duncan Macintyre

Richard Schletty's avatar
Richard Schletty
Collaborator | Level 8
2 years ago

My procedure (posted above) worked for me because I had unwittingly upgraded to "Dropbox for macOS on File Provider" several months ago – before Dropbox finally stopped prompting certain Dropbox users to upgrade. The advice I gave is a way to "downgrade" and allow storage on an external drive.

 

If you visit the link I gave in my above post, you will see an explanation from Dropbox:

 

https://help.dropbox.com/installs/dropbox-for-macos-support

 

Notes:

  • We’re working directly with a small subset of macOS users with complex configurations to ensure their migration is as seamless as possible. 
  • Some macOS users with complex configurations—like those storing their Dropbox folder on an external drive—won’t be migrated at this time. These users will continue on their existing Dropbox experience.

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