Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

Pysio13's avatar
Pysio13
Helpful | Level 6
3 years ago
Solved

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: 'https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/'. Do you know a way to restore the old way of generating links? I just need old way of links, because game can't read new links

    Greet 😛

Preview
Share
shared links
  • JasonSilverDBX's avatar
    JasonSilverDBX
    3 years ago
    Thank you BenDBX  for splitting off a new thread specific to the 3rd party integrations issue, and especially for doing it in a way that migrates all the relevant posts to date!  To properly wrap up this thread, below is a summary.


    Why the new "/scl" link format?

     

    Dropbox is moving to an updated shared link architecture where links are based on the content being shared rather than on the user doing the sharing.  This new content-based link architecture is already in place for edit access links to folders and newly created links to files, and can be identified by the presence of an ‘rlkey’ parameter in the URL.  (They also begin with "/scl" instead of the previous architecture's  "/s".)  It is the rlkey parameter which grants access to the content.  That is why removing that parameter results in visitors having to sign in and request access.  I talk more about this transition in this forum thread.
     
    Over the next few months, we’ll round out the shared link portfolio by bringing this new architecture to newly created view-only access folder links, or view folder links for short.

    Direct Download on new link architecture is Solved

     
    Regarding this thread on “direct / forced” download not working on new links, this should be solved since a fix was implemented 2 weeks ago.  That is, all new links should now function the same as legacy links for these purposes.  This can be accomplished in two ways.  
    1. modifying the dl parameter in the URL
    2. modifying using dl.dropbox.com or dl.dropboxusercontent.com.  

     

    👉 In both cases you must retain the rlkey parameter for the URL to grant your recipients permission rights to access your file.

     

    What is the DL parameter?

     

    Anything following the ? in a URL are query parameters.  It’s worth reemphasizing that dl parameter in new links did not break and will continue to function identically to those in legacy links.  Manually changing the dl parameter does the following:

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0

    • Default link. This will render the content in the Dropbox file viewer.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=1

    • 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.

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&raw=1

    • 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.  
     
    https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0
    • 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.
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/<token>/path.jpg?rlkey=<token>&dl=0
    • Works like a ?raw=1 link, but the application or browser will not need to follow an HTTP 302 redirect to access the content.
     

211 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
Show More
  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 years ago

    Hey everyone, thanks for your collaboration, and also bringing this to our attention! 

     

    Our Team is aware of this, and will provide a further update, and some insights on this soon. 

     

    Hang tight, thank you again! 

  • rhonda geralde's avatar
    rhonda geralde
    Helpful | Level 5
    3 years ago

    I can't see the entire path link name that you copied in for me, so I can't tell how to change other files. What exactly did you do to the file name I put into the message. Please spell it out more.

  • aaronpanganiban21's avatar
    aaronpanganiban21
    Helpful | Level 7
    3 years ago
    I’m getting ready to post new content soon. How do you change the link?
  • holyroller22's avatar
    holyroller22
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago
    So I have found a workaround. If you have the Dropbox app on your phone and you go to the file that you are trying to create the link, it actually creates the S/link instead of the SCL link. What you have to do is go into your file, click the three dots next to the content in the file, whether it be an MP3 file or a video file, click share, and then click copy link from inside the mobile app, this creates a file link with the S/instead of SCL/.
  • Здравко's avatar
    Здравко
    Legendary | Level 20
    3 years ago

    Hi pavanpvl,

    If you're interested in scripting, take a look here for a shell script example. There you can see how a link can be 'translated' to download one as well as how a folder link can be iterated.

    Hope this helps.

  • shonuff74's avatar
    shonuff74
    Helpful | Level 5
    3 years ago

    what does mean?????? Available? Why? To whom? How can I return to the other link format?

  • shonuff74's avatar
    shonuff74
    Helpful | Level 5
    3 years ago

    Did anyone ever find a fix to this since tech support seems oblivious to the issue?

  • JasonSilverDBX's avatar
    JasonSilverDBX
    Icon for Dropbox Product Manager rankDropbox Product Manager
    3 years ago

    Hi everyone,

     

    I am one of the Product Managers for our sharing functionality here at Dropbox.  I have read through every one of the posts in this thread and can understand your frustration.  Many of you are long time Dropbox users that depend on us to keep your content secure, and critically, to also make it easy to share. 

     

    While we took quick action to deliver a fix to allow direct download from shared links (see posts here and here), it seems it did not completely solve the problem.  Some users on this thread have reported success, while others have not.

     

    We very much hear you!  I do not have a solution to post here for you all tonight, but we are taking careful look at the use cases you’ve shared to provide an answer soon.  I will aim to post another update here by end of this week before the holidays in the US.  Please do continue to provide details or any additional failures you’re seeing as it is a huge help!

     

    Jason Silver

    Dropbox Sharing Product Manager

About View, download, and export

Node avatar for View, download, and export
Need support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account? Find help from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!