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Forum Discussion
Jon C.10
3 years agoCollaborator | Level 8
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-...
- 2 years agoHi Everybody,We’re excited to share that external drive support for Dropbox for macOS on File Provider is now available for testing as a beta feature. This is available to some users today and will be available to additional users on a rolling basis. In order to be eligible to test this feature, please follow the instructions in this Help Center article.Keep in mind that participation in beta programs is subject to the certain terms and conditions. There are certain additional participation requirements:
- This beta is only available to US-based users
- You must be on macOS 15 beta
- You must have an external drive that is APFS formatted and encrypted
Please let me know if you have any further questions!
rockdirector
2 years agoHelpful | Level 5
You can install the entire Mac OS on an external SSD drive. Why not do that and then run apps, like Dropbox, off of it too?
Why not start with that even the best external Thunderbolt drives are significantly slower than SOC SSD throughputs? My M1 Max's real world internal SSD speeds are ~3400 MB/s write and ~3000 read. A fairly pricey TB4 Sandisk G-Drive SSD manages ~2400 MB/s read/write. Change that to a USB-C Sandisk "Extreme" or Lexar "Professional" SL-600 drive and I get throughputs of ~1000 write and ~750 read maximum. Modern MacOS is designed to be booted off a fast, reliable SSD, and a jiggling cable is a huge fail point, end of story.
crimsonnoise
2 years agoHelpful | Level 5
Running all projects off the boot drive is not desirable for us. Our Sonnet 4x4 PCIe cards with nvme drives give over 3'000 MB/s (JBOD) and 11'700 MB/s (RAID) speeds, but are seen as external. No 'jiggling cable'.
I am hoping Dropbox will find a solution asap. The current situation paralyses our updates and upgrades.
- shinbeth2 years agoExperienced | Level 13
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- crimsonnoise2 years agoHelpful | Level 5
"Well good for you but that should not prevent Dropbox from offering larger individual Pro plans."
I have nothing against larger individual Pro plans.
I am saying we want to continue using Dropbox on external drives. (You don't have to). The boot drive is busy with application and system files.
Using NVMe m.2 drives on PCIe is equal or faster than the boot drive. See my post above. No cables.
- shinbeth2 years agoExperienced | Level 13
I agree with you on that. Hope Dropbox will fix that too! (even if I don't use it, I see your point)
- shinbeth2 years agoExperienced | Level 13
While some may prefer not to use the boot drive for all projects, this shouldn't limit Dropbox from offering more substantial individual Pro plans. The demand for larger storage solutions is evident, and the market has room to accommodate various needs. Considering the trend of decreasing prices and expanding storage capacities, many users likely appreciate the simplicity of managing a single 8TB or 16TB local drive. This approach often surpasses the complexity and setup challenges associated with external drives or specialized hardware like the Sonnet 4x4 PCIe card, or NAS etc. especially for those who are less tech-savvy (99% of the market).
Moreover, a decisive advantage is that on my Mac, I can seamlessly use Time Machine for comprehensive and real-time backups, in addition to Dropbox. This setup makes my system not only straightforward but also exceptionally secure at all times. I don't want to deviate from that setup which would add unneeded to something simple and straightforward: a Mac and Dropbox.
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