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.

[spencerkm1]

I'm on the latest beta build v170.3.5866 and still syncing to an external drive. Has this been resolved?

Edit: on an M2 Mac.

[fjazzfjazz]

"An update to macOS and how Apple's File Provider API works will soon force apps like Dropbox to end support for external drives."

If this is true, this will be the end of Drobox for all professional users. 

@dropbox what's the deal here?

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/02/15/dropbox-losing-external-drive-functionality-due-to-apple-...

[Mark]

I'm not sure it'll be the end - until very recently external drives werent supported. Plus, they come with HUGE risks of data loss. For example if the drive disconnects or Dropbox doesnt open quick enough then it can be seen as a complete deletion of all files. 

I think the bigger issue is around online and offline folders. BUT the irk with that needs directing at Apple.

[ArthurPix]

This is a bombshell for the entire Mac community. As everyone knows, Apple charges a fortune for extra terabytes of SSD storage on its Mac Studio, Mac Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro computers, and it's impossible to increase internal disk capacity after you purchase your computer. Up until now, however, it's been possible to augment a skimpy internal drive with very fast and cheap external SSDs.

In fact, I have been pricing out a new Mac Mini M2 with 512 Gigs on an internal drive, supported by 4T of external storage, on a wicked fast Samsung SSD inside a very inexpensive external, enclosure. This is a bargain, given that Dropbox and other apps can be placed on the external drive.

Now, however, it seems that either Apple or Dropbox — or both companies working in tandem to skr3w us consumers--are making this impossible. Soon we'lll all be victims of Apple's greed and monopolistic power to squeeze us for every dollar they can extract.

My only response can be to stop using Dropbox and find an alternative. Microsoft OneDrive has already deprecated use of external drive. And, given that it irreparably corrupts PDF files, I can no longer recommend it to anyone.

I now must throw myself on the mercy of the Dropbox community. Is it really true that MacOS will soon make it impossible to use a cloud service on an external drive. If so, what can we do t work around this? If not, which of the many alternate cloud services are the most reliable and serviceable? HELP?

[jmeredi2]

@ArthurPix

It is true and there still does not seem to be a workaround. Dropbox seems to be leaving us in the dark.

The most viable alternative that I’ve found seems to be Sync.com, which still works on an external drive, but isn’t as robust as DropBox and has a 40Mbps upload speed limit - which, if you have a gigabit connection and need to upload large amounts of data, is pretty slow.

[TheMainOne]

No, not really. It's just that dropbox doesn't want to do what it takes to make it work. 

Sync.com is a fantastic alternative. They are a little bit slower, but they just sped up their service as well. So it's still a bit slower but much better. I don't know what the actual numbers are but I would absolutely try it. 

Here's what I really like about them… They are private. They cannot see what you are uploading under any condition. And that's unlike dropbox that says openly they will share your stuff with anybody they want to. Drop boxes terms of service are horrific it should be illegal. 

In addition, dropbox is a filthy woke corporation. They believe it's OK to discriminate. Just in reverse. They have a white manager who has openly said she would rather overlook even qualified candidates to hire black people. I have never been quite so disgusted in my entire life and told them so. They could care less. I demanded somebody get back to me about how they have corrected the situation and what actions were taken. I could hear crickets. 

Being a person of a mixed family, all of us are disgusted by that. We all want a fair chance. That's all we want. Not a "more fair" chance than the next person. Nobody has to give any of us a break because of our color. That is disgusting on its face.

Sync.com has another thing that I just love. There are two of us and so we bought their business pro account. But are you sitting down? I think we pay $30 a month for the both of us in total. And for that, we have 100% unlimited space. Yes you read that right. So it is a bit slower, but not too bad, completely, 100% private, and now faster. So many improvements have just been made it's just amazing. Sync.com cares, and they listen. Two things the dropbox does not.

I was paying dropbox several hundred dollars a year and that was just for my account. I have now canceled my account and have gone to the free level as have several other people that I'm friends with and two other people in our company. I wonder how much this is really costing them? Yes we're just a few and very little. But it is not just us that is finding better places. 

Dropbox marches on to the tune of their own "woke drummer". They have never given an appropriate answer. They have never even attempted to do what it takes to solve this. And we know that if other companies can solve it, they can do. Yes, yes Apple is suggesting that the main drive used. That's convenient for Apple as it causes all of us to buy a bigger drives. However, that is not the answer. Many of us have way too big of stuff that needs to be stored and accessed and the main drive even at 8 TB would not be big enough. 

I'm very happy with sync.com. No, they are not paying me to say anything. I'm hoping this is somewhat like salt in the wound. Dropbox screwed me for a long time, refused to respond to my concerns, trade like crazy to keep me from downgrading my account. They can sign you up all right with a click of a button but to get away from them they can't help you. You have to trudge through their menus figure out how to get out and then click the buttons yourself. Ridiculous. They claim it's for privacy reasons. Funny that they don't respect her privacy in any other way. 

Really, I just want to make sure this thread keeps going. Let's make sure everyone knows how ridiculous the situation really is. Maybe some Wolk engineer in dropbox will actually read it. I'm sure they won't care, but I wish for them the same future that Twitter employees had. 

Next time when I instruct you to respond, I expect you to do so. I was a paying customer and I still would be. You failed me. You failed the common decency test as well. But you failed to follow my instructions and at least give me an update. You failed all of us in your ridiculous privacy policy. And now you show us how little you care by not even giving a real response to our questions and marking it as solved. I really do hope that each and every employee of this silly company get treated the exact same way they are treating others. 

[TheMainOne]

@ArthurPix  yes, it is a bit slow. But it's also fantastic. And they have just a few days ago sped it up. It's still not real fast but it's better. At least a listen, that's more than I can say for drop your box. 

We pay $30 between two of us for a business pro account and have UNLIMITED STORAGE. That more than fits our needs and the speed is good enough. 

They also are private. Again, drop your box is ridiculous. They openly state they will give your content to anyone and they will even read it or listen to it or whatever they want to do. I could not be more happy than to be away from them. 

Just to be clear, I have dropped all of our paying accounts with dropbox. I am now on a free account. Two other people at our business no longer pay dropbox anything and have moved to sync.com. And there are numerous other friends of mine that are now no longer involved. 

I really dislike politics altogether. But one thing I'm not is "woke". And here is a major corporation like Drop your box throwing in our faces, racist nonsense. It is more than I can take. I instructed them to immediately give me a response as to what they are doing to prevent this in the company further and give everybody a fair chance. They just blew me off. I wrote numerous times demanding a response. So I voted with my wallet. 

My hope is that they go in the way of the dodo bird. Just like the Twitter employees. 

In the meantime, sync.com is more than sufficient for 95% of us. There are definitely some use cases that will require more speed. However, they will now have an enormous problem with dropbox due to the space issues of having to have this on their primary drives. This is a complete non-starter for a great many businesses. 

[TheMainOne]

@psalcal Glad to see you liked my "woke" reference. And yes, really. I can't stand woke anything. Well let me put it differently, I really don't like to get involved with political or even quasi-political anything. But having "woke" thrown in my face is more than I can take. It's like a "Karen", bitching at me. I won't take that either. 

Dropbox has a white manager that has publicly come out and said that she will overlook white people in favor of hiring black people just because of their color. Coming from a mixed family as I do, none of us, of either color, want to be treated that way. We just want to be treated fairly. That's all any of us want. And I believe that's true for most people. Yes, some people just have their hand out. But most just want to be treated fair… to have a fair chance. 

I wrote repeatedly to this filthy company asking them if they support this kind of behavior. Nobody would answer me. Finally I demanded that they answer and tell me what corrective actions have been taken to be sure that everybody gets a fair chance. I could hear crickets once again. Not one single responsive answer. 

Anyway, sync.com has more than met our needs. It is a bit slower that's for sure. But just a couple of days ago they sped up their service. They are listening. In addition two of us from the same company purchased a pro plan from sync.com for a total of about $30 a month. And that gives us unlimited space. Yes, you read that right… Unlimited space. 

Not only that, but sync.com is genuinely private. They can't look at what you put up. It is fully encoded. This is something that is far from the "woke BS" that drop your box practices. Drop your box has terms of service that openly and clearly stated that they will do whatever they want with your contact including read it, give it to anyone else they want to or do anything they want with it. It is disgusting. 

Drop your box, dropped their game when they decided to go woke and throw it in all of our faces. They dropped their game when they decided to sell out our privacy. And they dropped their game even worse when they bend over to what Apple says and just leave their clients high and dry. Putting all of my data on my primary drive is a 100% no go. And I know that this is true for many, many other companies and people. 

But one thing is for sure, when one door closes, another opens. Drop your box has proven that they are not deserving of our money. I have gone to a free account and no longer pay them. Same with numerous others that I know and some even from within our own company. 

Let's say you were a content creator and had 10 or 12 TB of data you'd like to have backed up. Good luck finding a primary hard drive especially an SSD that would do that. This is a non-starter on its face. Ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous. Yes, not everybody has that much data. But a lot of us do. And even 2 or 3 TB is more than I want on my primary hard drive.

Well for the majority of us, the next-door has opened. A competitor has stepped up to fill the gap and is doing so, wonderfully.

[psalcal]

Dude stop with the “woke”‘political crap. OMG you are just too much. The whole idea of “woke” is so completely out of context and frankly ignorant. Stop making every **bleep** thing political.

Nobody gives a flying crap about your politics. NOBODY CARES.

[jmeredi2]

Sync.con still claiming 40Mbps max with no plans to upgrade speed. So for users uploading terabytes of data daily, this is almost as bad as Dropbox not allowing for external drives.