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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!
Serpico's avatar
Serpico
Helpful | Level 5
Thanks for the suggestion. But speed is critical for me, and sync is wayyyy to slow. I work with several 2gb and 3gb .psb files at the time. My workflow is crippled. 😞
ben_k's avatar
ben_k
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

Here is a solution that is currently working for me:

 

I don't use the built-in 256GB hard drive on my MacMini at all!

 

Instead, I run everything off a 2TB external SSD in a Thunderbolt enclosure.

I used a utility app called SuperDuper! to copy the entire Mac HD to the external drive, then set that drive as the default startup disk.

 

Dropbox lives in the "/Users/Me/LibraryHome/CloudStorage" folder like Apple wants it to, and my 500GB+ of synced files work just fine.

 

I don't notice any slowdown compared with running off the integrated SSD. Thunderbolt is pretty fast. Your milage may vary.

 

  • ArthurPix's avatar
    ArthurPix
    Collaborator | Level 10
    2 years ago

    ben_k More power to ya, Ben. This is certainly still a workable option. I personally don’t want the risks  associated with this route—but for sure, more Dropbox users need to know about this, so I hope you get lots of views. Arthur

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

      ArthurPix ,  Serpico What do you see as the biggest risks?

      I should say, the isn't my preferred way of working. No problems so far with my Intel processor, but I plan to upgrade to a M2 (or M3?) Mini in a few months  and don't know if this will integrate as well.

      (but there's no way I'm paying $800 extra for the big hard drive 🙄)

       

       

      • ArthurPix's avatar
        ArthurPix
        Collaborator | Level 10
        2 years ago

        ben_k @Oh if the external drive disconnects on a power failure. We get lots of them, but yes, I have my external drives on the same UPS as my Mac Studio and Monitor. So I’m reflexively wary of entrusting my Mac to my external SSD (which is an OWC RAID 0 4TB), and contains my Sync drive).

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