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Jon C.10's avatar
Jon C.10
Collaborator | Level 8
3 years ago
Solved

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-...
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  • BenDBX's avatar
    BenDBX
    2 years ago
    Hi 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's avatar
rockdirector
Helpful | Level 5
2 years ago

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. 

shinbeth's avatar
shinbeth
Experienced | Level 13
2 years ago

"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."

 

"Modern MacOS is designed to be booted off a fast, reliable SSD, and a jiggling cable is a huge fail point, end of story."

 

This, exactly brother! As a freelance working with high-end clients in music production, HD movie production etc... I have no time to waste on external hard drives! Even Sandisk aren't even close to M1/M2/M3 Mac's internal SSD speeds of ~3400 MB/s write and ~3000 read. And the cables are also not an option for me. I want everything on my Mac locally for SPEED and CONVENIENCE purpose of having EVERYTHING at disposable ON A SINGLE DISK.

 

Totally happy with my current M1 8TB Mac and will upgrade to M4 when they're out (and probably 16TB SSD on MBPs in a near future). The only thing that is letting me down currently is Dropbox, since it only offers 3TB to Professionals (+1TB only extra). I'm short of 4TB. Shame on you Dropbox for not offering such a simple feature as adding +4/X TB extra and take our money... ridiculous!!

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