Ending support of public folder

This is terrible. 7 years of links. True I was a free user, but with 11gb earned that is quite a few people that created accounts from me and who know how many people they invited. By the way, the "d=0" changed to "d=1" works. Just tried it. I guess I'll do that for the short term.

For what ? d=0? d=1 ? Right now all my links work.. I want it to stay that way. 

if it ain't broken, don't break it.

-bowerbird

I agree with everything that has been said here. Dropbox pulling something that causes a MASSIVE problem for the majority of its users is despicable. 

I'm unsure of what good it will do, but I'm adding my disappointment, bewilderment, and disgust to the many people who are frustrated with this frankly counterintuitive change to dropbox. 

Dear Dropbox,

I got my free account in 2008 and upgraded to Pro less than two years later, and have been happily paying for an excellent service since. Unless you reconsider killing the public folder, that will soon change.

In 2008 the plan was to migrate all old files off my personal web server, saving money and hassle in the process. However, I soon found I had to keep my old domain active and maintained because I'd been linking to the files everywhere, and as everyone else have pointed out, old links can't be changed. These links still have enough value today that I keep maintaining my web server, even if I stopped adding new files there 8 years ago.

If you won't go back on your promise to break all links to my public Dropbox files, making all kinds of problems for me, there won't be any kiss or make up using sweet talk or discounts. Along with most people on the planet I already have an android device and an account with Google, so all it takes to start migrating is firing up Chrome and typing drive.google.com.

So, Dropbox, while you consider your options, picture me sitting here dealing with the fallout and tearing out what little hair I have left. What do you think the chances are I'll be cursing you silently and taking the blame for those broken links myself?

You have until renewal day, then I'm gone for good.

--

Hopeful regards,

Lars K

I agree with everyone else. I have a ton of photos in my public folder that are linked to all across the web, mostly in photo forums. I HATE when I see dead links all over the place, and now, I'm going to be one of those people.

Please keep the existing functionality of the Public folder. Please!

Vast majority of comments here seem to be along the lines of "i have posted links to images/videos on forums and now they will break."

So, basically Dropbox does not want to be everybodies CDN anymore.

One of the most frustrating issues with this change will be the complete and utter inability to modify any links already sent out by email and in newsletters to customers in the past. There won't be any way to create a 301 redirect of any kind, even if we do go with an alternative storage service with public access.

Having said that, we will be moving our files to a publically accessible Amazon S3 bucket. On top of that, to avoid future pitfalls of this kind, we will set up a unique CNAME record in our DNS to point to the S3 bucket. If you are planning something similar, you will most likely have to create the CNAME record anyhow unless you want your images and other media to be rejected by adblockers for not residing on the same domain. This step would also allow us to add a simple "middleware" script to quickly serve correct files by repointing them to correct location on the fly, in case Amazon decides to follow the same idiocratic steps to cancel publicly accessible folders. Or just repoint the same CNAME to a new service provider location, move the file structures intact, and Presto! All links should remain functional for the end users.

Just too bad we didn't follow these footsteps here. Dropbox management, if any of you read these comments, just for the record we are all extremely unimpressed with your decision. And now, I am going to go and pull that big knife out of my back you stabbed us with.

Peace out.

I'm also very disappointed about this change. Even there is time left almost a year, it gonna cause problems. Like many others, I have shared thousands of Dropbox links to customers and friends, and 2017 all of those will stop working.

I have also used the public folder when I have needed to transfer some file quickly to an unknown computer. In few seconds you can download the file you need with web browser without manually copying any sharing link, because the URL to shared folder will always be the same, so it can be remembered by hearth or linked for example via tinyurl.

Just wondering, that is there a technical problem with the public folder, or why it's going to be suspended. Most probably I need to change to use another service after the currect subscription to dropbox ends :(