Disaster: Dropbox removing external disk support for Mac users :(

[Jon C.10]

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-an-external-drive-and-onedrive...

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.

[KyleKoch]

@jmeredi2 I tested sync.com and while it is ⅔ of the cost for unlimited and has point-to-point encryption (which is far superior than what DB offers), it is much slower for up/down xfer. I suspect its partly because of the encryption key, but that's only a guess. They capped out at 40Mbps I think. Possibly much less. Might have been as low as 4Mbps. Can't remember exactly what the limit was but it would have taken over a year to upload our assets vs 2 months for DB.

Their security protocol is great tho. Government's have confirmed its okay to use at this time. DB is not an approved supplier tho. 

We have 2.5Gb internet here so it wasn't an issue with our local connection.

[KyleKoch]

@shinbeth that 'backup a drive' function is great, but it's not as flexible as the main tool.  From what I understand, it doesn't allow control over folders and files the same way. Maybe I'm mistaken, but to restore the data locally, I think you would have to download the full drive? That's what the DB rep told me during our testing phase.

You can backup a drive, make changes to that drive, and sync for safety, but if you need to clear local drive space up, I don't believe that tool is a viable workflow solution. Also, there was some limits on size of drive and number of files in some documentation I read. 

I see it as a smart way to backup camera cards, but I'd use the main DB tool for the actual post-production process between multiple users (clients, editors, director, sound-designer, VFX, etc).

Happy you see the value of External Drive workflow. It really is powerful. 

[shinbeth]

@KyleKoch thanks for the extra info that's really useful.

Yes indeed it's not exactly the same and as flexible as main local 'Dropbox' indeed so I keep it more for extra 'lighter' data (videos, archives...) I wish to backup on my hard drive until Apple releases a local 16TB drive option which will allow me to transfer everything on the main local Dropbox. The same way I intended to do it with Google Drive or another cloud, but since I was never convinced by Dropbox alternatives, this way I can keep everything under Dropbox roof, even though for now it's not perfect, I feel safer not to lose any data if something happened to my extra hard drive.

For the main data for sure I keep everything on main local SSD because like you guys in the field of music/video production I know what you mean, those files are too big and when editing in heavy softwares my experience with external hard drives is that it's never as fast as and reliable as Apple's local SSD. And yes especially for clients you want to keep everything safe and without hurdle indeed.

So yeah nice to have this feature and at least I don't have to pay extra with another cloud service, and use a multi cloud mounter too, for the time being.

[KyleKoch]

@shinbeth the architecture of the machines I build tend to have a fast SSD for OS, fast SSD for cache, fast Media Raid or SSD (sometimes a dedicated Read and a dedicated Write). Having the multiple data channels via the mainboard can make a difference in stability and speed for Editing Software. More crashes occur when everything is driving from a single SSD (especially if it is the OS and Programs drive).  When it gets even more intense is with multi-cam work where you have several streams of video simultaneously.  To be honest, I can't imagine paying the apple tax on a 16TB SSD internally; not when equivalent nvmeSSD raids can deliver the same speeds or higher for a fraction of the cost.

[shinbeth]

@KyleKoch 

That's a very good point indeed, what setup would you recommend for me to have like say more or less 16TB SSD nvmeSSD Raid equivalent (rack + drives - which models and brands)? Is there pre-built solutions on the market or do I need to mount everything myself? And how to operate the sync with Dropbox, is it through a software located on the main computer? Can it be controlled at distance too btw?

[KyleKoch]

@shinbeth

That’s big question and not one that’s easily answered. The workflow, assets (2K, 4K, 8K, and codecs), effects used, camera asset management, turnaround, delivery specs etc., would dictate anything I would build. The studios now are tsing Teradici remote access where the assets are not local, but streamed from a secure server.

For local media builds, the variables change as new tech is released.

[DissatisfiedUser99]

So I have 2T of storage on Dropbox and only 200G on the iCloud Drive.  Moving all my Dropbox data to the iCloud Drive will exceed the 200G capacity.  Then I guess I get to buy more storage from Apple.  Thanks a lot Apple.  A bigger problem is that this Apple change may bankrupt Dropbox and then I will have no offsite storage at all.  I have an old Windows 10 computer and I might be able to put all the Dropbox files on it and share them on my network.  Don't know if this will work but I will try.  I have used Dropbox over a decade and love it.  I never have to worry if I am working on the most current version of a file on multiple computers.

[Bluebicycle]

@shinbeth @KyleKoch yes, can I just echo comments, in the desperate hope that DB are monitoring the thread and will manage our expectations on this proportionally.

We are part of huge enterprise team subscription- many petabytes, perhaps our part of that operation has 100TB. Although not specifically designed for the task, we work entirely out of Dropbox Sync, to identical named external volumes, for video editing and collaboration. We simply sync the folder we need for the week and maintain a number of other folders for generic assets. Dropbox is our Asset Manager!

It's not about drive speed, it's not about capacity per se, it's about headroom. We need at least 10TB of overhead, to effectively selectively sync and bring offline (stupid word they should have left it as "local") media assets.

When done we simply let it go. Space is effectively infinite in the Cloud, although we do archive and manage it periodically. It's a profoundly efficient workflow, that will eventually overtake on-site location monolithic media servers, for content production.

One issue is that the local caches do not empty, for up to 3 days after making files "online" only. There is a procedure for deleting this, to clear space, it's a safeguard for when files may not have been uploaded, but works against our workflow. I'd like an undo feature plus a way of space being immediately released. Even more reason for extra storage headroom. You do not want to accidentally unhitch the wrong material, because you are running out of local storage!

There's a lot of binary and uninformed traffic on this thread, about Dropbox generally, and red herrings about speed, that are either irrelevant, or just not true. It works, it's efficient, the LAN share feature is astonishing, for locally sharing assets, without recourse to the cloud. The whole thing gives us distributed resilience across a number of Macs, with access anywhere in the world. That is big deal.

We have to be able to continue to sync to external volumes. Apple have depreciated an API, this is what they do, they have their reasons and unfortunately it's on Dropbox to work out a solution, to maintain the service. Otherwise it becomes useless for us.

I'll just add that, if you have a decent cabled internet and sync only a small number of folders in Preferences and then selectively sync beyond, the operation is flawless. Dropbox is very good indeed.

[psalcal]

@Bluebicycle thank you very much for adding your thoughts.  

I'm still INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATED this thread is STILL MARKED as "SOLVED."  

It is not solved.  

IT IS NOT SOLVED.  

IT IS NOT SOLVED.  

Kicking the can down the road, aka "we won't upgrade you now but we are not officially saying we will support external drives" is NOT A SOLVE.  

@dropbox please please do not mark this as solved.  

[jmeredi2]

@psalcal

I was also unable to find anyone at Dropbox who could verify that they’d be waiting to upgrade users who are currently using an external drive. All I’ve heard from DB support is that all users will be upgraded in the next few months. So definitely NOT SOLVED.