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.

[Ru 1971]

Is it possible to point Sync.com at the current external Dropbox folder, so it exists in both until dropbox is switched off, or is that just asking for trouble? I don't want to have to duplicate the (just under) 3Tb I data I have stored in my 'master' dropbox folder, ifI don't have to, as I switch to Sync.com.

[ArthurPix]

@Ru 1971 OH NO, YOU DO NOT want to have two services pointed at the same folder. Unless they have safeguards built in, this would be like the hall of mirrors with both services back at each other and eventually choke, possibly mangling your data—or, if you’re a guitarist, think about ear-shredding feedback. 

What you CAN do is copy your Dropbox folder onto Sync, which is what I did, so that I’d have a backup in case of unforeseen disaster. Happily, I didn’t need it, and now can safely delete my Dropbox contents. I’ll have to check when my subscription comes up for renewal, so I can downgrade it.

[UKD]

Totally concur with that. You are setting yourself up for total data loss, so avoid at all costs.

[camner]

I am a small user in comparison to most of you on this thread (only 1.4 TB), but I moved to Sync.com and I haven't looked back. It may not be quite as full featured as dropbox, but it was easy to set up and has worked flawlessly from the beginning. I'm glad, for the sake of the really large users, that dropbox is going to try to fix this, but I don't intend to move back no matter what dropbox does.  I have a couple of reasons for this. First, the way dropbox handled this whole affair just reeks, and they've lost my trust. Second of all, from what I've read, the workarounds that others have implemented (OneDrive, for example) seem to be more than a little bit of a kludge, and I don't need that.

[UKD]

@camner when did you leave? Only asking out of curiosity. And I think you’ll find there’s quite a few of us who agree with you about this whole debacle.

And I agree that sync is less featured but I kinda feel that’s the point. Simple, streamlined and does exactly what it says on the tin. No frills, no fuss and no ‘features’ that users use, not that I know of anyway.

That’s a thought. How many people use Paper, Sign or Capture or any of the other ‘features’?

I only use Send. I find that excellent in fact. I think they did a good job on that but I don’t use the rest. In fact I only just installed capture for a call I have to record next week, and if it wasn’t for that I would never have used it.

[ArthurPix]

@UKD @Ru 1971 @shinbeth @camner So… today I canceled my Dropbox auto renewal.

I’m already paid up through mid-November 2023, so this doesn’t mean I’m dropping 😎 off the map — at least not for the next six months — but I’ve moved all supported folders to my new service, and am now no longer fearful of having my online storage pulled off my external drive.  

I MIGHT come back if Dropbox commits to external drive support. But honestly, I can’t see much advantage to doing so. Here are my priorities:

SPEED. My new service is approximately as fast as Dropbox or, anyhow, as fast as I need.

SECURITY. My new service has REAL end-to-end, TNO (trust no one) encryption, meaning their engineers couldn’t hand anyone else the keys even if they wanted to.

2-FACTOR. It supports 2-factor authentication via Google, MS or Authy.

SHARING. It offers free accounts up to 5 GB, which is big enough for pretty much anyone outside the service with whom I want to share data.

S-P-A-C-E. For the same price I’m paying Dropbox for 3 Terabytes of storage, I now get 6 Tb.

Again, I haven’t totally pulled the plug on Dropbox. I’m still paid up for the next six months, and will periodically bring my Dropbox up to date just so that I have a safety net. However, I doubt I’ll need it.

I’ve already switched over my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro, and will switch my desktop Mac Studio in another week. 

Water’s fine!

And, of course, I’m staying here in the Dropbox community to help out anyone who asks!

[jmeredi2]

@ArthurPix 

I am testing out Sync now as well and it seems to work great, except for the speed. Uploading and downloading is capped at 40Mbps, which is especially slow for downloading. It still seems to be the best alternative, but I hope they will increase the speed cap in the future, since it's very slow for everyday use with large files. 

[Bookpast]

I'm also testing out Sync right now on one of my machines and plan to move my entire system over in the next few days.

Never thought I'd be saying goodbye to Dropbox, especially after nearly 14 years of trusted service both for business and personal use. But this disaster has opened my eyes to the competition.

I want end to end encryption without my files being analyzed by third parties. I want simplicity without the clutter of features I don't use. And most of all, I need to be able to store my own files locally wherever I deem necessary.

The assistance from everyone here in this community has been enormously helpful. Thank you. Seriously. 👍

[UKD]

Vive la revolution!!

[ArthurPix]

@jmeredi2 zI certainly understand your concern about the speed. I fear that true end to end encryption may exact a price in file mirroring. For me it’s more than worth it, because my main use case is sharing data among my own 5 different, equally used, devices, which doesn’t require lightning speed. Every few days, I may also need to share data with coworkers, which also can take place at a more leisurely pace. But my main concern is that I want everyone in my business to be able to share data while backing it up offline, WITHOUT paying thousands of dollars for offline storage. And this can only happen when my storage service allows for offline storage on external devices. Unfortunately, Apple sells internal storage at $400/terabyte, while Samsung (for example) will sell you an SSD for about $130/2 Terabytes plus the nominal cost of an enclosure. When I buy my partner an M2 Mac Mini Pro with 512GB internal SSD, I want her to be able to add 6T of storage for $400 instead of $2400!