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Dropbox removing external disk support for Mac users
In case anyone's unaware... if you're a Mac user storing your Dropbox on an external drive, you'll shortly lose that ability.
https://talk.tidbits.com/t/dropbox-drops-support-for-storing-files-...
TRO_Berlin I don't know if you can run a server like that with the "new" Dropbox. There is so little information provided by Dropbox that you really are just flipping a coin and see which side comes up with the information do we have.
What we do know is that as of right now the new Dropbox will require each machine to move the location of their Dropbox to an internal drive. That means that if you run a server then that server will need to have physical hard drives. If each member of your team then requires access to 4-5TB each locally then that server will need all the files downloaded. That in turn leaves you with a dilemma, why have Dropbox? You may as well have a local server with physical hard drives with all the data on it and then everyone connect to those hard drives. Yes there's a performance issue because of the network but then that becomes an internal IT issue etc etc.
I don't think Dropbox have thought this through but most of us have kind of agreed they have turned this whole situation in to pile of dog****. each of us have had to look at our own situation individually and work out what is best for us. Me, I'm moving everything off from Dropbox and am moving it to SYNC dot COM.
Other issues come in to play like speed of upload and download, accessibility, durability etc etc. That is an individual choice and something you will have to work out I'm afraid. I personally don't mind SYNC dot COM. It's slower than Dropbox on the upload and download and I am still uploading all the data and so far have only managed to get about 3TB of data up out of about 9TB overall that I will need on there. This has taken several weeks so it is from my side very very slow.
Good luck.
The Idea of a 10gbit local Server (linux based, running a proper normal version of Dropbox with the ability to sync to wherever you want) is like this:
The Server has a huge RAID Storage attached
It runs the Dropbox Software so our files are synced to Dropbox
This enables us to do HomeOffice from a MacBook with SmartSync
In our Studios we work via 10gbit Ethernet on the RAID Storage, which gets synced to Dropbox by the Linux client.
So no Dropbox on our Workstation Macs at all, only the 10gbit Connection.
We have the Dropbox Sync still working like this, the only thing we loose is all of the right-click menu stuff like sharing links, but you can do this from the web...
That's the idea if we never get a real solution by Dropbox for external Drives...
TRO_Berlin Jon C.10 Ben S.31 UKD Hereâs a great article by the truly legendary Adam Engst in TIDBITS, detailing possible solutions:
https://tidbits.com/2023/03/10/apples-file-provider-forces-mac-cloud-storage-changes/
I recommend everyone read it, even though some solutions, e.g. Maestro no longer work on my own machine. BTW, Iâve been following the Synology-related solutions with great interest, as it may well come to this in a new age of Apple carelessness.
- ArthurPix thatâs an interesting article and also mentions the uproar faced by users and that weâre not the only cloud users forum that is in disarray.
It does seem that reading that that Apple is deliberately doing this to make people upgrade their storage with them at their extortionate prices. This doesnât sit well with me and whilst I usually pay more because I run a laptop as I need mobility, Apples prices and connected items (chip, memory, GPU etc etc) is making it harder for users.
Combine that with most cloud storage companies inability to find a workaround, my gut feeling is even if Dropbox et al find a solution that Apple is just gonna close that door by changing something else. That being said, Microsoft have sorted this, Sync DOT com have sorted this too so Dropbox also shouldâve sorted it too, especially with their resources. Weird that Google havenât managed to or maybe they donât care. Probably donât care actually, especially how they just make money hand over fist.
Anyway, I digress. Just 3 more weeks and I will be done. I will not have to worry about any of this and I will be free of all these issues. I just pray that Apple doesnât break sync DOT coms app. Thank you ArthurPix great article.
Seeing as I always use a separate partition for the system vs work, I may try migrating the Users folder to the work partition. That way the Dropbox/FileProvider defaults should work in a way thatâs Apple sanctioned (in theory).
ArthurPix Do you have experience with moving the Users folder to another partition - any pros/cons/suggestions?
Cheers, Ben
UKD Well, Sync has "solved" it by allowing users to use an old version of their app. "Sync is currently supporting an older version of our app. This app does not include the Sync Cloudfiles/ Dropbox SmartSync feature, but still allows you to change the Sync folder location to external drives."
Dropbox on the other hand states: "You can install the standard Dropbox desktop app on a new device and after the installation, you can choose to avoid the upgrade to the new version for macOS. Our team is working on a solution currently, but there is still no official statement or a time frame for a fix."
This I got from support chats with Sync and DB respectively.jakobsjobom that's interesting because I know the Cloudsync feature is in beta at the moment because I'm using it. In fact all my staff are using it and the MacOS users they're using an external drive. The windows guys, also are on the beta app bu they're not affected by the Apple API.
Whilst we are limited in the features when right clicking a file and finder integration, like you get in Dropbox, I find we don't need more than what we get. Create a Link, Set cloud only and Set local. There's 1 other which is to Sync to vault but I have my own vault with my NAS's so I don't use that feature.
It'll be interesting to see what happens over the coming months but all this change is causing me certainly a lot of issues with regards to hardware upgrades. 3 of my guys are on 5 year old 27" iMacs so they need upgrading this year but without having a very clear decisive outcome from anyone as to what the future path is what do I get? 1TB drives or re-mortgage my house and go for 4TB drives?
UKD Actually Sync doesnât appear to have it sorted any better than Dropbox. In fact their solution is identical to Dropbox from what I gather - let customers use the old app until a real solution presents itself OR Apple finally deprecates kernel extensions and Sync forces everyone onto the new system. This is exactly what Dropbox is doing.
The oneDrive approach (storing only reference files in the CloudStorage folder, while the underlying ârealâ data is linked in from a cache folder located anywhere you like) is probably what most of these companies will adopt, although it seems inefficient and your data will be stored in a format that is entirely reliant on their software to make sense of, so youâre locked in to their scheme. I personally wonât adopt any solution that turns my files into jibberish like this.
beenyweenies oh well, it is what it is. If push comes to shove I'll drop the external cloud completely and rely on my own NAS. I have a clone of all the files on there as a localised physical backup and I can expand it to about 75TB without the expansion drive, which I think will give me an extra 75TB on top of that.
This isn't the perfect solution but that's my final fallback if none of these companies can figure out a decent solution.
Anyway... I am now off Dropbox. All my files have been moved and all I now need to do is start removing the files from Dropbox. Then it's Au Revior, Adios, Ciao and no more drivel and bollocks stories from Dropbox. I'm just cancelling my personal account too.
Out of curiosity, anyone heard from Dropbox about the final stable release of their software? Just in to July and I'm pretty sure they said they would have it all resolved by May. Might be mistaken but I'm sure it was May.
My client currently runs this way, but ultimately it's still really slow 10GB and very expensive to upgrade all the Macs to a higher bandwidth. Local storage (externally) is much faster. Plus NAS is giving issues for many adobe programs etc. files disappearing and adobe not really supporting this solution either.
BenDBXCommunity Manager
- Thank god!!!
- Is it possible for me to read/learn the gist of how you pulled that off? Maybe keeping a super low res version in appleâs user/Library/CloudStorage and copying the high res version via your servers to my ext drive?
