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rjwb's avatar
rjwb
Helpful | Level 7
7 years ago

Dropbox files no longer inherit folder permissions

Within my Dropbox folder, I have sub-folders with different Windows ACL permissions. Up until recently, whenever Dropbox synced a file it inherited its folder permissions perfectly. Now it no longe...
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XLI's avatar
XLI
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago

Hi,

I have been doing some playing around with this.

- When dropbox downloads a file it downloads it initially to a directory in the hidden system folder \Dropbox\.dropbox.cache

- once it is downloaded it performs a MOVE to the actual destination folder.

- When you a MOVE (not copy) a file within the same volume on an NTFS Filesystem, it will retain its permissions rather than inherit the permissions of the destination folder.

So if you set MODIFY permissions for "Users" (Or domain users if on a domain) on the folder \Dropbox\.dropbox.cache then when the file is moved to the true destination folder it will retain the MODIFY rights, and other users on that same machine (Or Domain) will be able to modify/delete the file.

But (I hear you say) what about my permissions stopping people accessing folders that they should not be able to access? Well... these still work. The permissions you have set on the folder will still remain, so you can exclude some users from some folders. The files within that folder however will be modifiable by all, but that does not really matter as other users can't get to them any way.

Clear as mud?

Andy

ATCO's avatar
ATCO
Helpful | Level 5
6 years ago

Fantastic!! This solved my issues. Now it keeps my file permissions :-)

  • Brian1's avatar
    Brian1
    Collaborator | Level 10
    6 years ago

    Glad I finally found the "master" thread on this dingbat feature, which is not only poorly conceived but not communicated, a deadly combination.

    Incidentally, the issue also happens if you create the file on the web, once it syncs down. You don't even need two machines to reproduce the problem.

    I'll submit the complaint, implement the workaround, and hope for the best with a future release.

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