You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Disable automatic updates
How can I prevent dropbox from automatically updating itself? The new dropbox 3 has a very anti-windows-7 UI that I don't like, so I reinstalled 2.10. How do I stop dropbox from continually installing v3?
I've been holding it off by blocking dropbox's access to *.sjc.dropbox.com but its a very manual process since my firewall doesn't support wildcard domain blocking. At this point I'm just about ready to uninstall dropbox and switch to google drive, since it seems to have all the same features with a native windows UI.
@Mike Thanks Mike :) I will experiment with this. I am surprised that Dropbox implement uncontrolled updating at all. It is a very unprofessional approach, and is, of course, unacceptable in many commercial environments where any software change must be validated. In this case, version 3 is not an improvement, if only for the rubbish right-click behaviour and the icon. Thanks again :) James
[Had to delete and post once again to correct a character eaten by the publishing system, couldn't find a way to just edit my post]
A way to block updates is called "Software Restriction Policies" : see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457006.aspx#EJAA for Windows XP/2003 or https://technet.microsoft.com/fr-fr/library/hh994597.aspx#BKMK_Path_Rules for later versions. It may not work with basic versions of Windows ("Home", "Starter"...) .
What I did on XP Professional (tried to guess the English because I'm on a French version) :
- Start > Run : secpol.msc
- Software Restrictions Policies > Additional Rules
- Right click > New Path Rule
- Path : {YourPathToDropBox}\ .dropbox.cache\dropbox-upgrade-*.exe
- Security : DisallowedThen when the rule is matched, an event ID 866 with the source "Software Restriction Policies" is written in Windows event log "Application".
Why not make a button in Dropbox Preferences so you can tick (auto update or not) ???
Every other application have this feature.
PLEASE
Mac OS X
I learned of DropboxMacUpdater in the last couple days because Little Snitch has started noting it's trying to call home, when I'm not here.
Meaning it's being automatically blocked. Also meaning the server or port it wants has changed, as I've been allowing Dropbox for as many years as I've used Snitch.
Learning that it's checking for updates once an HOUR is the part that bugs me the most. (see: https://www.dropbox.com/help/9094)
There isn't an application ever that needs an update check more than once a day. In fact, I've used Dropbox for so long I remember when it could sometimes take a week or more for an update to push thru. I also recall when Google had desktop apps that checked for updates so frequently the apps themselves were unusable.
For the lovva mike, please change this thing to only check once a day at most. or allow me to set the interval. This isn't your computer to do with as you like, it's mine.
Dropbox just updated itself from 2.10 to 3.2 which was immediately apparent from the awful icons. Apart from the fact I don't like 3.2 I find it unacceptable that the Dropbox droid determines that it is going to update software on my machine without my permission, not even Microsoft is so arrogant. So its bye-bye nanny Dropbox as soon as I can arrange a more proffessional alternative. My first and sadly last comment...
The only way I could get the updates to stop was uninstalling the program. Which was a shame, since I've always really liked Dropbox. But I won't tolerate any software which won't let me opt out of automatic updates!
Yeah, as of today, the same for me. I would have to uninstall Dropbox on my imac. I am deleteing all my dropbox files and moving on to another remote file service. A lot of my ios apps well now break since there will not longer be a dropbox account.
For 30 yrs we nerds live and died to create, offer, and maintaine choice for the user. Nannyware is everywhere now. Oh and g-d forbid a bad update eats your stuff or damages something. Like fb, there is no phone tech support either.
Screw you Dropbox. Greedy evil company.
I Think I've found a way on windows:
Essentially just make a firewall rule to block all outgoing connections for the following program:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Update\DropboxUpdate.exe
I shan't go into detail as the process is pretty explanatory.
Hope this helps.Either delete their updater or I am blocking everything except dropbox.exe (i.e. updater, dropbox_client etc. ) in Comodo firewall (I have set firewall to custom policy and every connection I must approve). Good luck.
The interface (indeed, very much inferior) is the least of the problems caused by this forced downgrade. There MUST be a way to defeat updating. May be worth experimenting with permissions in the Dropbox executable folder or discovering how it connects to download the new software. Maybe possible to block it on the firewall. Anyone any ideas?
James B.2 wrote:
The interface (indeed, very much inferior) is the least of the problems caused by this forced downgrade. There MUST be a way to defeat updating. May be worth experimenting with permissions in the Dropbox executable folder or discovering how it connects to download the new software. Maybe possible to block it on the firewall. Anyone any ideas?
If you use a firewall other than the default one with the OS you can create a rule to block autoupdate from connecting out. But you shouldn't have to do that. Hopefully they will add an option to disable it. I removed the app from my system as I really don't need sysncing anway so I can still upload files and share the link.
Anyone found an answer to preventing updates? Both my computers have non sse2 cpu's. I appreciate that dropbox would probably want their software to run the best they can but forcing an update that won't work on types of pc's that can't handle it seems crazy (still many systems in circulation) If you can't disable the updates, it looks like it's time to try a new cloud provider until I can afford to upgrade my machines.
Hey,
Yes! Disable this auto update, now!!!!!
I am using a screen reader and it crashes with all of the builds in the 3.x series, so I can't use it, every time it updates I have to run the installer again, and that is not fun at all.
I also had a very very long discussion with the support about fixing this problem, but nothing has been done!
I hope we can do something.
Regards,
Marc
