Storage Space
Looking for help with managing the storage space in your Dropbox account? Talk to the Dropbox Community and get advice from members.
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://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.
Hey @jmeredi2
Dropbox dropped this comment in this support thread on 17 February.
Here's a screenshot I took of it.
Best,
TDK :bat:
Hey everyone. I just had a chat with dropbox tech support. They are reporting they have ZERO plans to support external drives going forward on the Mac. None. There is NO path forward for us, according to tech support. That is their official position.
May I suggest we use this thread to discuss alternative options?
EDIT: Bad move Dropbox to move this into a thread, to bury it. UGH. Very bad move.
What I know now:
Google Drive DOES currently have a way of using external drives. It involves running a script in Terminal, but I'm using it for work and it DOES work. I don't love Google Drive though for my own personal use, it's always been less reliable than Dropbox and slower.
iCloud Drive: probably doesn't support external drives, AND it is not set up for similar use. It doesn't appear to always download and keep a directory "fresh" and complete when it's changed by others.
Box.com: Confirmed no support for external drives.
iSync: I have a question in to them.
Are there any other cloud services I should be considering? Thank you...
Anyone have experience with sync.com doing audio and video work?
Found a temporary workaround.
After completely uninstalling dropbox and all associated files (I used the uninstaller on cleanmymacX), I was able to download and install the following version of dropbox.
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-desktop-client-builds/Stable-Build-167-4-4719/td-p/658295
This version still allows (So far) use of external hard disks.
I'm on an intel mac mini, running Monterey, so ymmv on Silicon macs. (My M1 Macbook had not auto upgraded and broken dropbox.. yet)
Good luck!
Currently looking into sync.com, lacks contextual menus, but does allow for installation to external drive. Google drive is not great and iCloud is buggy and Ive lost data using it.
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