We're making changes to the Community, so you may have received some notifications - thanks for your patience and welcome back. Learn more here.
Forum Discussion
Shared Link / "scl" to "s"
Hello. My question concerns my recent issue with file sharing. Usually, my links were generated in this way: 'https://www.dropbox.com/s/'. However, lately, every file is being generated in this way: ...
Direct Download on new link architecture is Solved
What is the DL parameter?
- Default link. This will render the content in the Dropbox file viewer.
- Downloads the content of the link (if the user has access to the content based on link settings). This query parameter takes precedence even if raw=1 is also added.
- Directly renders the content in the browser (if the link has a public audience and no other restrictions). Note that this link has an HTTP 302 redirect, so the application or browser must be able to follow the redirect.
What are the dl.dropbox... modifications?
These are link transformations from the early days of Dropbox. While we don't "officially" list these anymore in our Help Center, we are continuing to support them for now.- Replacing www with dl works exactly like a ?raw=1 link: this will directly render content for public links in the browser. It requires following an HTTP 302 redirect.
- Works like a ?raw=1 link, but the application or browser will not need to follow an HTTP 302 redirect to access the content.
I've also changed the default permission for newly created links to 'view', but they are still generated with scl. So no fix as of yet..
Hm.. 🤔 It's not the first time something new to be on go and different behavior to be observed on different accounts (showing different imperfections until the things get stick together). In my account it works:
Entire setup is as I described before and regular link (can read) brings up.
Seems for some accounts it's still a mess (oh.. sorry 😁- I mean new feature roll out; a new feature that all Dropboxers are not informed yet about). 🤷 That's it, unfortunately.
Let's hope this will finish soon. Good luck to all.
- Rich
Super User II
Ufodynasty wrote:
My understanding is that the change thus far only applies to some accounts ...
That's typical for Dropbox. When a feature is added or a function changed, they often roll it out slowly over time. They rarely push a change out to everyone all at once.
My understanding is that the change thus far only applies to some accounts (maybe based on account age?). Following your instructions on an account I've had for 6+ years still creates a /s/ link while a newer account I made specifically for uploading files and sharing links last year generated /s/ links until a week ago when it started generating /scl/fi links. I've created new files for every possible combination of sharing settings and all of them still create the /scl/fi links. I saw the support thread that people are referring to with sharing/editing settings, but I think it's just completely incorrect.
Adding my own note here:
- The rlkey bit makes links way longer than they used to be, which is a pain.
- Deleting that bit prompts a login, so not an option.
- Can no longer change www to dl to create a direct link, which is a major issue.
These are both issues that make the platform effectively useless for my purposes. I could maybe deal with Dropbox forcing people to view all files through their viewer, but the already massive links becoming 50% longer is an absolute game-breaker for me.
- The rlkey bit makes links way longer than they used to be, which is a pain.
- Not very good news from Support:
We are currently changing the way users create shared links. All new links now have the /scl/ token instead of /s/. We have never supported modifying links the way you are doing it (using dl.dropboxusercontent.com), and at the moment this functionality won't work on the new /scl/ links. Our engineers haven't committed to supporting this in the future, but things may change. I noticed the date of your .png file was a couple of years ago. My old files on Dropbox still produce proper copy links. The problem only occurs on files recently created. Could you try putting a new .png file into dropbox and then choose copy link and see if you get an "scl" type link.
stiletto2 wrote:I noticed the date of your .png file was a couple of years ago. ...
Yes, but that file has never been shared before. That was the idea...
stiletto2 wrote:... My old files on Dropbox still produce proper copy links. The problem only occurs on files recently created. ...
Hm... I haven't noticed such behavior. 🤔
stiletto2 wrote:... Could you try putting a new .png file into dropbox and then choose copy link and see if you get an "scl" type link.
Yes, of course. I just (few minutes ago) selected arbitrary image from here and put it in my Dropbox. The result follows:
Exactly the same here but my son's computer is still creating the old file format /s/
- Hey mods,
Are you seeing this?
Any response or update yet?
