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.

[psalcal]

"I would love to continue to bring attention to the masses of the reality of what this company has done.".  Evangelism.  
By posting here, you are inviting others to respond whether you have specifically asked them to or not.  Don't be surprised.   Own it.

SJW, it sure seems to me. 

[psalcal]

@TheMainOne so glad to see you among the great class of SJW's, welcome.  I'll send you the welcome packet, expect it soon.  

If you think that posting on a dropbox site is going to lead to some great awakening of the masses, well.. as the kids say... you do you, my friend. 

[TheMainOne]

@psalcal

thank you so much for your unsolicited advice. You speak like a true SJW so I’m very happy.

Again, I really appreciate you keeping the conversation going. I don’t really have any expectations other than her and a lot of people will likely read this and that’s all I really care about.

So again, I really thank you for keeping this going. You’re doing the world a good service. And you’re showing yourself to be a good advisor to SGW’s of what you surely must be the leader.

as you well know my friend, I have two things against drop your box.

1. The incredible lack of customer service when it comes to simply keeping us notified of the issues at hand. Simple things, like telling us before we have to come screaming that everything is going to change and pretty much make the service unusable for a good percentage of us.

2. The way the company has managed to themselves in typical absurd wok fashion. And here I have made my point numerous times but thank you to Psacal the conversation continues.

The second point is a real issue. I think everybody would like to be given a chance to be hired based on their qualifications not based on their color.

The dropbox has a white manager who has stated publicly that she would prefer hiring a person of color even if they don’t have the qualifications of a white person.

This is disgusting. At least anybody with any sense of dignity personally. our family is of mixed heritage and mixed colors. all of us would prefer to be hired on our merits then because of our color.

Thanks again @psalcal for your generous support of this topic. I love it that you keep the conversation going and would ask that you please continue as I can’t wait to install what has happened and even greater lengths.

[psalcal]

I absolutely am a SJW! We both are now. Welcome to the club! Together we use the Dropbox forums to change the world!!!!!

[TheMainOne]

@psalcal

That’s excellent to hear. I’m sure with you as my SJW guide we will have tremendous success. 🤣

One problem with the “Woke mindset“ that I’m sure you’re aware of is the issue that drop your box has with simply not bothering to inform us. The woke mindset simply believes that we’re kind of lesser people and we don’t really deserve to be told or taken into account.

we see this on exhibit here with them not bothering to tell us in advance about their service screwing everybody over. And we further see this with them saying that this issue has been resolved.

I will hold off on expanding further on the other issue near and dear to my heart simply because I will use another post for that so we can hopefully include more people to see things.

Thank you for your support. 😂

[psalcal]

Let’s see how many minds you have changed so far. Hmm. Anyone? Bueller?

[Michael C.121]

PLEASE keep doing that thing where you add that hilarious play on words parody of the Dropbox name. And please do it ad nauseam in EVERY meaningless post.  I want to see how many times it takes for that to stop being hilarious. But so far, amazing job, because it appears to be the gift that keeps on giving. 

[TheMainOne]

@psalcal 

I had to look up the reference to that. At least it's interesting to know the kind of movies do you watch. I don't use my time that way but you do you, like you said. 

And I don't suspect I've changed even one mind. That's not my intention my intention is to preach to the choir. To raise awareness. I don't really intend to change minds. But it was a nice attempted mind read. Keep going. I love that we can keep calling attention to the woke nonsense that this company portrays. 

[TheMainOne]

@Michael C.121 

Hey Michael, I agree with you. It is rather silly. But it is much like I find what they do. Woke, silly, meaningless. 

I guess it's better to poke fun at them that it is to just sit and cry over the fact that my once beloved service has degraded into nothingness. It is what I expect of woke companies of course. 

I do appreciate you chiming in as I love keeping this going.

Let's be clear, being out in front of this problem and alerting all of their customers and doing their best to get ahead of things and fix them would have been so much better. Not marking this thread as solved would've been better still. It's disingenuous at best to mark this thread solved. 

But hey, I do appreciate you keeping this alive. Thank you so much. I hope more join in and we can really raise awareness for what they did and maybe even dig into the reasons behind it. Of course for me, the main reason would be their woke practices. But I can't say for sure. 

I'd absolutely love to give them the benefit of the doubt. But it's been how long now? They still are marking this thread solved. They still aren't giving any real updates. They still don't seem to even address my issues. They don't seem to give us any kind of reasonable update. 

Frankly, I'd really rather be a paying customer. I hate that I had to find someplace else. But when they were not forthcoming with actual information about the issue and just kept kicking the can down the road, then I decided I would do my best to call attention to it. So far, I'm pleased with the results. 

So I continue to do what I do. Makes sense to me. And I don't really care if anybody else agrees or not. I'm not really trying to change any minds. I'm just trying to continue to raise awareness. So thank you for helping. 

[Michael C.121]

Two conflated issues here:

1. The external drive support - Dropbox management aren't idiots. They realise this is a deal-breaker issue for a large part of their clientele. When they say they are working on it, I absolutely believe they are because if it's not sorted, I, like many others will drop them for another service or perhaps just use Synology Drive on my own NAS.

2. Your other concern and the constant overuse of the term 'woke' as a pejoritve - please make a new thread for that to avoid confusion. It will make your point more strongly. Then the 50 or so people you think will make a difference in this thread can choose to go over there and help you in your battle.  (Which, in my opinion, if you really want to be heard on a social issue, hijacking a technical topic deep in the forums is not the way to go about it).