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Dropbox folder no longer appears when file sharing on macOS
Since Dropbox migrating files over to it’s new location, the Dropbox folder is no longer visible when viewing the contents of my computer via file sharing from other computers.
Is the option to access the Dropbox folder via file sharing no longer available?
6 Replies
- Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey there allidav - thanks for posting on our Community!
Could you please clarify your device's OS version and the version and status of the Dropbox desktop app as shown in your menu bar?
When you say the new location, are you referring to the File Provider version of the app?
Also, could you share some additional information about the file sharing from other computers you mentioned, as I'm not quite sure I understand?
Thanks!
- I have 3 iMac desktops at my home, and via the file sharing feature of the MacOS, I’m able to view and manage the contents of each of the 3 computers from any computer.
On one computer I have Dropbox installed, and previously I could see this folder from my other computers, but it’s no longer visible.
I suppose I could install Dropbox on all 3 computers instead, though it was working quite well previously.
Thank you. This is correct, this folder is not visible through file sharing. So it can only be accessed from the computer on which Dropbox is installed. Previously I could copy files via file sharing from other computers to the Dropbox "folder" on the computer which I had Dropbox installed, but now that's no longer possible. It's not a main issue since I can also install Dropbox on all three computers and just let Dropbox sync the files.
Why have all these apps cloud storage moved their location to ~/Library/CloudStorage?
- Rich
Super User II
allidav wrote:
Why have all these apps cloud storage moved their location to ~/Library/CloudStorage?
Previously, cloud storage providers used kernel extensions on macOS, but Apple has stated that they'll be deprecating that in favor of the File Provider API, which forces the use of the CloudStorage location.
The old method worked great because I could dedicate one computer with a large disk as my primary storage location for all my photos that also synced with Dropbox. The other computers then simply used Mac OS file sharing for quick access to the photos when needed.
By having to install Dropbox on each computer, each computer now has to also store the 1.5TB of my photos and unnecessarily use up disk space I was devoting to other projects. Hopefully someone will come up with a workaround.
