Ending support of public folder

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Alastair L. wrote:
I found this Dropbox alternative comparison site, they want your email for the tabulated comparison data but its all there for free in the long analysis.

https://www.cloudwards.net/top-10-secure-dropbox-alternatives/

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Or, if you don't want to provide your email address:  https://www.cloudwards.net/comparison/

And if you check this comparison you will notice pCloud is the in the top position!
Check the review - https://www.cloudwards.net/review/pcloud/

And as far as I know - only they provide Public Folder functionality, same as it was in good old Dropbox...

With the loss of the Public folder's benefits (I pay for Dropbox Pro!) I have a major problem. I use the Public oder to upload score sheets from car shows I run. I then publish links to these score sheets on my web site for attendees to see their's and other's sheets. Obviously I can't name hundreds of people to each individual file for sharing so how dos I set a folder and it's contents so that a simple link to any file will allow anyone to see it, in other words like it was the Public folder.

Now to be clear as this was posted in another forum and the answer given was incorrect then marked solved and closed. I do not want to make a fiolder public so that people need to go to the foilder and choose a file, I need to make all the files "public" so that a link I create in a table will bring the user to the individual file which is an image actually. To show you how it works here is a link to a table that uses the public folder which is about to expire: http://nyautofest.com/NYAF/rulesresultsscores/show-results-and-score/springwestbury.html Toy will notice in the right coplumn a link called SCORE SHEET, that is the file that anypone can see. Once the public folder is dead these will no longer work. I have transfered all over to my server to acomplish the same goal but I don't want to do this, I prefer to keep using Dropbox (or equivalent) as it's easier to just dump new files into the folder. I did payt for this ability after all!

This loss of the public folder is a very bad thing by the way, why not just prevent people from using it to host web sites and leave the rest alone?

You can still get this to work because those Score Sheet links can point to any file in your dropbox, public folder or not. The new, improved (not IMO) dropbox allows you to link files from anyhere not just the public folder.

My public folder no longer works (not a pro user) nonetheless, I do not like the idea of sharing links from all over my dropbox. I like to have them all in one place so that they are easier to keep track of, so I created a folder called (as you would expect) "Links". Everything I share is in that folder, and further within folders inside that folder so that I can keep track of where I shared them e.g. all the images I have posted on XYZ Blog are in dropbox/links/xyxforum

I think you'll find that you can leave the Score Sheets in the Public Folder (which will become just an ordinary folder in dropbox),  and simply  change the links in your html master sheet to the new type of link url

e.g. the top link on your page is currently

.....dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18728859/ScoreSheets/2017/Spring125.png

it will have to be changed to something like

.....dropbox.com/s/owcjw6pgdp6sybb/Spring125.png?dl=0

I presume you now have the capability to link from anywhere in your dropbox (they were phasing that in befiore doing away with the Public Folder) Just do a test... try copying a score sheet image from your Public Folder into another folder (outside of the Public Folder) , create a link and paste the url into your html master sheet. (you may have to change the "dl=0" into "dl=1" or "raw=1" to get the client mouse click behaviour you want)

If you don't have that capability yet, I would be happy enough to drop that Spring125.png image into my dropbox and give you a link so you can see what it looks like and test it on your html master sheet.

Leo, I was in the same boat man!

I can't understand why there is no exception for current files/folders - so they can continue to work, so there won't be huge broken files and images around the web...but the decision was made and we have no choice.

Personaly, I've tested pCloud Public folder functionality, it's a ironic competitor implemented Dropbox abandoned feature, which was one of the best unique things... Take a look and try it.

It's now 1st September, 10:15 am here in the UK. As a Pro user, when exactly should I expect my old Public folder links to expire please?

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Well, that's it. My Pro subscription expired right on time. By far the most pathetic, ill-conceived decision Dropbox has ever made, to invalidate public folder links and replace it with an inferior feature. I will not be renewing.

Respectfully request so called "super users" do not to reply to this post. I don't want to hear your "justifications" and "workarounds" just you can appease Dropbox management for e-cookies. Every shared link I have on the internet no longer works, and all for what? All for nothing. 

Thanks Mark. They duly expired yesterday afternoon, presumably soon after 00:00 SF time.

(BTW, I replied yesterday but I don't see it here.)

Matthew, I can feel your frustration man!

Just let you know, ironicaly Dropbox competitors (pCloud) started to offer same functionality (Public Folder), if you are interested, just check for yourself.

Take care,

So far I'm liking the Public Folder on pCloud. Direct links, images, and I can even run HTML from it like the good old days. You get a 7 day free trial with the free 10Gb version. Worth a paid sunscription I think.

Here is a company that has capitalized on the mistake made by Dropbox. A good lesson perhaps.

  As a professional software developer of 30 years experience, I can't believe that Dropbox has axed a simple elegant soution that did what users wanted and replaced it with a clumsy, confusing system that doesn't do what the user wanted (and does some things they positively don't want) .  I am  a Plus user, unfortunately just renewed.

I liked the fact that with the old Public folder I could send a bare naked file for a friend to save to their computer in it's native form.

Now the user gets a file downloaded in a browser with Microsoft Word Online, invitations to share and comment and a whole lot of stuff I don't want happening, including them being able to see messages sent to me by other people who are nothing to do with the recipient.   Yes, I know I can block comments but why should I have to.  And does anyone know how to block Word Online from injecting itself into the process - none of the web based suggestions work for me.

All in all, this is a major disaster.  I will try to work around it and see if I can somehow come to terms with it but I have already checked out the comparison chart shown earlier and will switch soon if I can't get a useful result.  here endeth the rant :unamused:

I want you people who dont like what happened to stop complaqining about it.

AND BLOODY WELL LEAVE!

Dont get me wrong your all good guys, I saw the writing on the wall for dropbox long ago, they are an inept bunch of gaslighters.

They have commited error upon error since near after starting.

I took our companys DfB account and crushed it out to a Pro when they started being idiots to comercial customers.

I saw it then, that they didnt really have a long term goal, I expected it was to sell it off to Microsoft, but didnt make it.

What will eventually kill dropbox? Someone will toss them under the bus...... THEMSELFS!  

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Matthew T.27 wrote:

Well, that's it. My Pro subscription expired right on time. By far the most pathetic, ill-conceived decision Dropbox has ever made, to invalidate public folder links and replace it with an inferior feature. I will not be renewing.

 

Respectfully request so called "super users" do not to reply to this post. I don't want to hear your "justifications" and "workarounds" just you can appease Dropbox management for e-cookies. Every shared link I have on the internet no longer works, and all for what? All for nothing. 

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Couldn't agree more - this has basically sabotaged my website. Every single link is now broken. I really can't be bothered to change them all to a shared link that doesn't seem to have the same functionality.

I just canceled my premium account.

 I suggest you do the same and put in the reasons for canceling the deletion of the Public Folder.

you need to know pcloud is backing up the dropbox entire account and just opened the function PUBLIC FOLDER.

I'm moving my > 400Go to GoogleDrive it is VERY slow (few weeks) because there is lot's of files but it's Google ... Then I will stop my Dropbox paid account.

With the end of the public folder it breaks a free opensource marketeplace on a little project I setup and people using it are not happy because part of the service is down ... 

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wegan wrote:

  As a professional software developer of 30 years experience, I can't believe that Dropbox has axed a simple elegant soution that did what users wanted and replaced it with a clumsy, confusing system that doesn't do what the user wanted (and does some things they positively don't want) .  I am  a Plus user, unfortunately just renewed.

 

I liked the fact that with the old Public folder I could send a bare naked file for a friend to save to their computer in it's native form.

Now the user gets a file downloaded in a browser with Microsoft Word Online, invitations to share and comment and a whole lot of stuff I don't want happening, including them being able to see messages sent to me by other people who are nothing to do with the recipient.   Yes, I know I can block comments but why should I have to.  And does anyone know how to block Word Online from injecting itself into the process - none of the web based suggestions work for me.

All in all, this is a major disaster.  I will try to work around it and see if I can somehow come to terms with it but I have already checked out the comparison chart shown earlier and will switch soon if I can't get a useful result.  here endeth the rant :unamused:

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If you don't want the online DropBox/MS Office Online stuff, then at the end of each shared link there is a ?dl=0 link. Just change those to ?dl=1 (from zero to one). If it's not at the very end then just add it in yourself - it will just prompt for download in its native form.

"If you don't want the online DropBox/MS Office Online stuff, then at the end of each shared link there is a ?dl=0 link. Just change those to ?dl=1 (from zero to one). If it's not at the very end then just add it in yourself - it will just prompt for download in its native form."

Useful to know, I'll keep it in mind.  However, I still have a problem with "Shared links" insofar as, instead of offering a simple download feature, they seem to involve the recipient in some form of collaborative relationship with the provider, including access to other irrelevant (and private) material.  Perhaps your suggested tweak gets round that too, but at present I'm too lazy to experiment with it, as I've found my own solution - just put the file on one of my websites and give the link to it.  Remaining question is whether the residual functionality of Dropbox (minus Public Folder) is worth the money I pay.  I'm inclined to punish them for their stupidity but who knows what I'll think in a year's time - inertia is a powerful force!

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wegan wrote:
they seem to involve the recipient in some form of collaborative relationship with the provider, including access to other irrelevant (and private) material.

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A share link only provides access to the file or folder being linked to. A link will not provide access to any other data in your account.

If you are testing a share link yourself and seeing your other files, it's because you're logged in to your account and Dropbox knows it's you. Log out of your account, or test the link in another browser or private session where you're not logged in, and you'll only see what the recipients will see; the specific item that you linked to.

I'm talking specifically about what the recipient sees on their computer, not me on mine; it included third party material not relevant to the recipient

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wegan wrote:

I'm talking specifically about what the recipient sees on their computer, not me on mine; it included third party material not relevant to the recipient

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You can easily try that on your computer by using Private Browser mode on Firefox, or Incognito Mode on Chrome.

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k3nny5 wrote:

If you don't want the online DropBox/MS Office Online stuff, then at the end of each shared link there is a ?dl=0 link. Just change those to ?dl=1 (from zero to one). If it's not at the very end then just add it in yourself - it will just prompt for download in its native form.

I should clarify what I posted above as my reply - native form in my mind is the browser's download/save prompt. You'll most likely not even see any third-party (or even any DropBox) materials if you modify/append ?dl=1 to the end of each shared link.   Or for embedding images...

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Rich wrote:

 Or change it from ?dl=0 to ?raw=1 if you want to embed an image (or other file type) on a web page, forum, social post, etc.

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I'm a Pro user and, like thousands of others, I'm greatly disappointed that my smooth workflow has been severely disrupted following discontinuance of the Public folder.

Is there still a reliable way for me to achieve this for all NEW links I post to my various forums and newsgroups? I confess that I'm still confused about exactly how to do this. Could someone spell it out in detail please?

Starting with the distinction between the two different context menu items I see when I right click a DB file on my desktop PC. I am currently using Copy Dropbox link. But does that mean that someone clicking that link in a forum thread discussion would be unable to view or download it if they did not have a Dropbox account?

If so, how can I achieve simple sharing, as obviously I am unable to specify individuals in such a general environment, which the alternative Share link seems to need!

BTW, I'm unable to send an email to Support. The boxes for Device, etc, do not accept any choices - and are irrelevant anyway.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

DwarfWoot : no there isnt, they wrecked that for ya! 

But dont worry its ALL SO MUCH BETTER NOW.

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