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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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Peter Proulx OMG.... good luck with that! Years ago I accidentally allowed Dropbox to "just simply" backup my mac. I'm still dealing with that issue. Moving the folders over to externals from dropbox has been interesting. I'm finding triplicates in some situations (some are my fault, you know, the "have I saved this?" conundrum) and others from having to go back and forth twice with Dropbox. My computer today slowed to a crawl while Dropbox was "synched" or connected or whatever. Finally...
millifoo Yes. Took me awhile to figure that out myself.
First of all - THANK YOU for working on a solution for this issue.
Second - Dropbox is located internally on some of our devices and externally on some devices. It sounds like internally located Dropbox apps will be automatically updated to the new app version. As you say, the externally located Dropbox apps won't be updated automatically (again, thank you). Will there be syncing issues between the different versions of Dropbox apps that will be on our different devices?
NewStudio this a disaster for me. I updated a laptop I use on the road and now my main machine is not syncing anything created on the laptop. It will sync from the old version to the new version but not the opposite way. My workflow is trashed. I'm looking for an alternative as I find it unacceptable for the company not having an immediate fix to this. Some posted fixes that require using a second application, but is this really acceptable? What is DropBox thinking!!!!????
Didnt I read somewhere that Db is pausing this rollout as the complaints from people like us helped?
Or was I just dreaming?
Im still working ok with the external drive...
'Hopefully', 'soon' doesn't cut it for a company as mighty as Dropbox. Be sure of your update or don't release it.
And no one faulted Dropbox sync otherwise, that's not the point of this thread.
The wording of the "pause" was a big cagey:
"While we work to implement a solution, customers who have their Dropbox folder on an external drive will not be migrated to the updated macOS experience."
I take that to mean if you have it set up with an external drive already, and don't mess with it, it'll keep working... for now.
But if you - say - try to migrate to a new machine and have to re-set things up, it's going to switch to the new "internal drive only" mode. That might (???) explain why Warhen and Peter Proulx are having problems now.
DropBox canceled my account and moved me to basic. I had a support chat asking about resolving this issue. I had stated in the support chat below twice that I wanted a refund “after” I found another service to move to. "( 19:07:37 ) Visitor: Let me move my files to a different service and follow up with a request for a refund.” and again at "( 19:11:19 ) Visitor: Lousy guidelines Courtney. I will want a refund after moving to a service that will support external drives."
WTF!
Beware if you are setting up a new machine. While doing a restore/data migration to a machine I was using as a loaner, the Dropbox app forced the change. I've two computers running latest Mac OS and DB applications (DB v168.4.4802 Mac OS 13.1.) and while doing a data migration coping one to a temporary machine (for a repair loner period on one computer) the new computer forced the update disabling external drive usage after the data migration. The two existing machines did not force the change yet,
Due to my business workflow of working with large amounts of data (larger than the internal drives of my computers) I'll need to find another service if Dropbox can't find a way to make this work...
Another major gripe is if my external drive where my DB folder lives becomes disconnected, DB needs to NOT delete my entire Dropbox account. Have had this happen 2-3 times now and most recently it took support and the restorations team 7-9 days to restore my account, where I was waiting 24 hours per reply from the restore team. While I'm grateful for the restore team's help, it was unacceptable it took over a week to get my data back while paying $300 a year for Dropbox.
Dropbox if you can't fix these two issues, I have to move on and you'll lose a 10+ year customer.
