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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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CaptainClean - if you haven't yet read this article from a few days ago, it may answer some of your questions:
https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
Is there any progress on this front? It's been 9 months since this has been posted.
Many professionals rely on having their massive files on external drives. It just seems like a totally wrong decision from Dropbox to rely on the File Provider API. Why not code your own without this limitation?
"External syncing does still work on the latest MacOS as long as you don’t migrate to File Provider."
How does this work in practice? Will this work on later MacOS versions such as Ventura?
What is / where is File Provider?
ben_k @BTW I heartily recommend the Mac Mini M2 Pro! If Apple releases an M3 Pro Mac Mini, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Last summer I convinced my wife (and biz partner) to switch from Windows to Mac, and I’m mightily impressed with the Mac Mini M2 Pro I obtained for her. Also got her the OWC expansion unit with 2TB SSD and 8TB HDD (had one in my parts box) for Time Machine. Great companion!
ArthurPix , Serpico What do you see as the biggest risks?
I should say, the isn't my preferred way of working. No problems so far with my Intel processor, but I plan to upgrade to a M2 (or M3?) Mini in a few months and don't know if this will integrate as well.
(but there's no way I'm paying $800 extra for the big hard drive 🙄)
Here is a solution that is currently working for me:
I don't use the built-in 256GB hard drive on my MacMini at all!
Instead, I run everything off a 2TB external SSD in a Thunderbolt enclosure.
I used a utility app called SuperDuper! to copy the entire Mac HD to the external drive, then set that drive as the default startup disk.
Dropbox lives in the "/Users/Me/LibraryHome/CloudStorage" folder like Apple wants it to, and my 500GB+ of synced files work just fine.
I don't notice any slowdown compared with running off the integrated SSD. Thunderbolt is pretty fast. Your milage may vary.
See the procedure for downgrading to previous Dropbox behavior: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Storage-Space/Disaster-Dropbox-removing-external-disk-support-for-Mac-users/m-p/707286/highlight/true#M14400
