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Dropbox silently moved my Dropbox folder and enrolled me in a beta program without asking!
I just spent 30 minutes trying to diagnose a weird issue where changes on my computer stopped syncing to phone, and I am now extremely annoyed to discover that: Dropbox has silently enrolled me ...
Hi Hannah,
It doesn't make any difference whether it's a "feature" or "change in usability", the point is it's a breaking change in behaviour, and I should have been notified. And my data should not have been forked into 2 separate copies as a result of this change being silently rolled out.
I have no doubt the change is needed in the long-term, I'm not complaining about that. The issue is with the rollout.
In Preferences > Sync tab, it says:
Dropbox folder location
This version of macOS requires Dropbox folders to be stored here:
/Users/<username>/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox
That is not what it said before - last time I looked here it said the location was "/Users/<username>/studio/Dropbox".
The sync status says "Your files are up to date". When I changed my email address 11 days ago and signed out and signed back in to the Dropbox app, it only took about 5 minutes to re-sync about 500 GB of data. On that basis I assumed everything was fine, and continued working as normal.
The issue is that my original Dropbox folder is still in the original location:
/Users/<username>/studio/Dropbox
And this folder contains a complete separate copy of my data. I know it's a separate copy because all the changes I made in macOS over the last 11(?) days only exist in this folder, and they don't exist in the new Dropbox folder (or in the Dropbox cloud). Those changes have not synced to Dropbox, even though the app says my sync status is up to date. It appears that my original Dropbox folder has now become a local-only macOS folder, without me knowing it.
By contrast, the new Dropbox folder under "/Users/<username>/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox" contains all the changes made in the last 11(?) days on my OTHER devices, which have synced via the Dropbox cloud into this folder on my Mac.
I didn't realize until today that I now have 2 Dropbox folders. And each one now has a different set of changes that I made over the last 11(?) days.
So just to be clear, there are 2 Dropbox folders, each containing an independent copy of my data:
- /Users/<username>/studio/Dropbox - this copy includes all the changes made in the last 11 days on my Mac. This has now become a local-only folder which is NOT syncing.
- /Users/<username>/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox - this copy includes all the changes made on my OTHER devices during this time, which been syncing via the Dropbox cloud back to my Mac in this folder
Please advise on next steps - thanks.
EDIT: Updated this post to reflect the fact that my original Dropbox folder location is in fact /Users/<username>/studio/Dropbox/, and not /Users/<username>/Dropbox as originally stated.
Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorI understand where you're coming from, jmsgwd, and rest assured that your comments have been passed along to our team.
Have you restarted the computer or the Dropbox app at all, after you noticed the two Dropbox folders, to see if it helps?
Thanks Hannah. I really appreciate your assistance and the fact that you passed these comments on to your team.
I checked to see when the last reboot occurred, and it was 41 days ago - so I just did another reboot. Following this, nothing has changed as far as I can tell. I still have two Dropbox folders with the same behaviour described above.
I also noticed a small error in my earlier posts. The actual location of my original Dropbox folder is in fact /Users/<username>/studio/Dropbox/, and not /Users/<username>/Dropbox as originally stated. This shouldn't make any difference, but anyway I have edited my earlier posts to reflect this.
- Nancy
Hi again, jmsgwd! I’m afraid that, in this case, the only option is to manually merge everything and move/copy the updated files from the old Dropbox folder to the new one under Locations. This way, your files should sync to our servers and your web account/linked devices.
Nancy I appreciate your response but this is not enough. I've been a Dropbox user since 2012 and a paying Dropbox Pro customer since 2017. Offering a solution is great, but I need answers.
Specifically I'd like to understand the following:
- What was supposed to happen? Surely the engineers who designed this change must have a plan in mind for how it would be rolled out in a non-disruptive manner. How was the change intended to be deployed seamlessly, without forking users' data into two separate copies? What was the planned approach? How was this meant to work?
- What went wrong? So many things went wrong. Failure to notify me that this change was coming. Failure to obtain my consent before enrolling me into a new beta program. Failure to inform me that the sync model had changed. Failure to inform me that my Dropbox folder had moved. Failure to maintain a single source of truth and have a single copy of my data on macOS. How could this change have so many failures on so many levels?
- What are you doing to make sure it won't happen again? What are the lessons learned at Dropbox to make sure this kind of disruption won't happen again in future?
I'd like this issue to be escalated to your engineering leadership. I'd like to have answers to the above questions. I am so unhappy about this.
When it comes to fixing the issue, your suggestion makes sense but it raises further questions:
- If I merge my changes into the "new" Dropbox folder, will I still be enabled in a "Beta" program? I never consented to be in a Beta program. I want to use use fully-tested production-ready software ONLY.
- Why do all the files in the new Dropbox location have cloud icons beside them? It looks like they're not downloaded locally. I just tried turning off Wi-Fi to see if these files open, and they don't. So these files are currently only in the cloud. They're downloaded dynamically on-demand.
This is a seriously breaking change! If I switch to the new Dropbox folder, this will mean:
- My Time Machine backups will no longer contain my data, since all the local files are now empty cloud icons
- My ad-hoc local drive backups using SuperDuper will no longer contain my data, since all the local files are now empty cloud icons
- My continuous/versioned cloud backups using Arq Backup no longer contain my data, since all the local files are now empty cloud icons
It's crucial to understand that I have multiple levels of backup in place to ensure my data is adequately protected - and ALL these backup solutions assume that my data exists locally on my computer. I'm only using Dropbox for one purpose: to sync my data between devices. But ALL my data must continue to exist locally.
If Dropbox now decides to replace my files with empty cloud icons that only download dynamically/on-demand, then my entire data backup regime stops working! Everything becomes broken! This is not a solution. My data exists locally on my machine and everything starts from there. The sync service (Dropbox) only exists to sync my data between devices.
If you can no longer guarantee that my data stays on my device, then I can no longer be a Dropbox user. I need my data to exist on my device in order for all the other backup processes (Time Machine, ad-hoc local drive backups, Arq cloud backups) to continue working.
I'll stop there but I really need someone to THINK THIS THROUGH and understand the impact of these changes and give me a real solution that actually works!
