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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://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
Just confirmed this with DB support (see below). Gutted - been with Dropbox for years and our entire video team flow is based around it 😕
>Hi there, I read today that you are scrapping the ability to store the Dropbox folder on external disks, on OSX. I'd like to ask more about this please.
> Hello Jon, and thank you for contacting Dropbox Support. My name is Joseph, and I will be more than happy to look into your request, right away.
That is correct Jon, as part of the Dropbox for macOS update, the Dropbox folder must be located in ~/Library/CloudStorage.
>This is a showstopper for us, and will mean we have to move to another service. We have a large distributed team using DB for video work, no way it'll fit within internal drives.
Is there a workaround?
> I totally understand and I apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, there is no workaround on this as changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.
>This change doesn't seem to have hit us yet - we're running a variety of machines inc Ventura
What will trigger its enforcement? Can we stay on an earlier OS or Dropbox version?
>The updates happening automatically every time the Dropbox app is restarting, for example if your device never restarts it should maintain the older version but we can't guarantee full functionality on older versions of the application.
>So what will happen - if we have a Dropbox folder on an 8TB drive and a tiny internal drive - will it try to clone stuff across and eat up the space? What's the mechanism?
>That's right, it will try to move the content on your internal drive until it has no space and gives you an error.
>Is Smartsync still supported? I.e. will it move stuff to being online only if it won't fit?
>It is, however it is now known as online-only.
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ms25 Honestly I would not believe or trust anything that comes out of Dropbox's mouth these days sadly. If I'm not mistaken the new and finished version of the new Dropbox was supposed to be out in April. Where are we now? June! This was also supposed to have been completed last November. Where are we now? June the following year.
Dropbox has considered this thread as "closed" but yet for some reason it's on 54 pages now is it? They seem to drop in very now and again to dispel something and then state that they're "working on it" and that it's in beta and nearly finished. We'll be getting this in April. Where are we again? Oh yeah, JUNE.
So this is my advice to anyone who has large amounts of data on an external drive and a small internal drive. Avoid Dropbox. Find someone else who will listen to you, help you and whose businesses practices enhance your business needs. This USED TO BE Dropbox but now they're just your usual money grabbing behemoth who don't listen to their customers, don't communicate with their customers and actually look down on their customers. I mean HOW DARE WE COMPLAIN about a product that is no longer fit for purpose. I mean we only PAID money for it.
Personally I am still in the process of moving my files. Sync DOT com is slower but comes with encryption and whilst I have seen that they have provided an update I am actually running on their beta because that has the SyncCloud feature that we have with Dropbox and need. I don't know if they've updated their beta as yet or if the latest build has that feature available as a full blooded feature now.
So the no. 1 rule is PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS. Don't get caught off guard and do whatever you need to do. There are plenty of options out there and you just need to find one that fits your needs. Maybe even move it all on to a NAS and run that as your own cloud.
A big issue for me is that most of my clients are Dropbox users with huge, unlimited accounts. They share folders which I add to my Dropbox to be synced locally. Sometimes those folders are huge. So it isn't just up to me to change services on my own machines... I'd need to convince some rather large corporations to do so as well.
- You might be right, although that doesn’t explain why Dropbox can make this work now for some users. Apple aren’t blameless obviously, but I’m in too deep with them now. This has all been a frustrating realisation today, but at least I can afford to fix it myself. I’m sure Dropbox will lose customers over this though.
psalcal I'm willing to bet that sync dot com is simply using the old kernel extensions, which Apple will make obsolete at some unknown time (They announced the depreciation a while back.) Either that, or they're achieving the functionality in some way that doesn't offer similar integration with the OS compared to what Dropbox users enjoy. This is my take at least. I've read elsewhere in these comments that sync dot com is dreadfully slow anyway... so it's difficult to see what they're doing as a solution for users who need to keep terabytes of data synced and offline. I think the bottom line is that Apple needs to get their act together with their API.
Why is it others like Sync.com have continued to offer external drive support? Because they can. Dropbox may decide not to, but saying they cannot is just incorrect when others do it.
GraphicQuarter I have a feeling it's not up to Dropbox. They're going to stay with Apple File Provider API, because there doesn't seem to be much of a choice. If Apple updates the API to support external storage, that will be how Dropbox remedies the situation. If Apple fails to do this... I'm afraid we're out of luck. That's my take, at least.
... and remember.. Dropbox has marked this entire thread as "solved" which is the HEIGHT of bull**bleep**.
- Thanks for confirming that. Good to know, but not something I can entertain really. Too much data on the line and waay to much paid work to risk. I need to be solid and secure. This has cost me about a grand, but my business is worth paying that for to ensure everything keeps working properly. Hopefully Dropbox will fix it properly at some point.
