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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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- TheMainOne I am curious when you say slower, what is slower?
I am looking at archiving a huge amount of our files on to my NAS and the rest of the files we use to stay on cloud. Speed. Uptime and accessibility are our main goals and my team are spread in Europe and Asia.
My video guys have some hefty file sizes so the speed is quite important. - Sync caps the speed at 40 Mbps.
ArthurPix I am also trying them out. I have decided to keep a huge amount of files on my NAS as an archive and only have online our active working files.
Going for the Pro Teams Unlimited version as we use a lot of space.
From what I can see the interface is a little basic in comparison to Dropbox's but that's OK. We'll get used to it and as long as we can share multiple files etc etc then I'm ok with that. Obviously you can do more with the online portal.
I've already communicated with my team about the possible impending change and they all just lurved that idea... not!! I am so looking forward to migrating everything over. Thanks a lot Dropbox.
Watch this space.... and I'll communicate back my progress
UKD one thing I am curious about Sync.com
With Dropbox, all my producers and clients have it also. They generate media assets and specific software that read those assets, and they share it with my Dropbox. So we can work from the same software, referencing media assets, locally.
Can Sync.com do this? I mean, do all my clients and producers also need to have Sync.com if we want all parties to work on software that reference media assets locally?
Thanks
fjazzfjazz from my understanding you can share folders which is what I do with my team. Now how this would work with external partners I'm not sure. I too have specific folders shared with external partners so how this works I will find out. I presume you can share a link to a folder and they can upload and download files if you give them access. Again, I'm not sure if that's right or they need to have an account or be part of your team licence.
In my testing I can create a team folder which is I guess our day to day working folders but as for externals, I'm not sure yet. I've only started playing around but I have downloaded the beta version of their desktop app as that's the one that has the same as smartsync as dropbox. Non-beta version is download files only.
What I have found out so far, and for which I've emailed support on to get clarification on, is that it seems that if you open a file like indesign and it has links, those links if they're online only do not automatically sync locally. So what in turn means is that if you have files all over the place it's gonna be fun times ahead.
UKD ufff.... sounds like it will also be an uphill battle with Sync.com then.
If you could please test if you share an InDesign session, with the assets correctly on the same folder, to someone that does not have Sync.com, can they work on it? Just " sharing a link to a folder and they can upload and download files if you give them access" wont be enough for audio and video editors.
Also, (if you have time) can you explain why the duck can Sync.com allow external drives and Dropbox can't?
Thanks!
fjazzfjazz I can't test an external user on an indesign file because of copyright and protection for our clients. I have to be super careful in that and external partners.
Do you mean if someone can be on the file at the same time as you? If yes then Indesign never allowed that itself anyway. Dropbox treats the file as an individual file once stored locally and is therefore a local file. Now if you were working on that file on your machine and saved your file and someone else was working on their file at the same time as you but saved after you, then their version would overwrite yours. There's no joint working on files that I am aware off.
And I presume Dropbox cannot be bothered to do it and are just saying it's Apple's fault. Maybe there's higher encryption in theirs, maybe they use Apples API and haven't created their own. Maybe it's because they've turned themselves in to a bloatware company with all these new and amazing features that nobody f*****g wants. Who knows, but I am pretty sure they do not give a flying f*** about us customers.
fjazzfjazz UKD I’m going out in a limb here because I rarely use Dropbox for file sharing or collaboration, and don’t think that’s going to change if I migrate. But from what I see in the “getting started” instructions, your collaborators will need to use Sync as well, and — while it’s conceivable that two different storage providers could create a joint-use framework — I don’t see much incentive for this to happen in the real world. For one thing, the engineers at Sync have created a true “Trust No One” environment, with real end-to-end encryption that only YOU have the keys to unlock. At Dropbox, the company’s engineers have keys as well, and I won;t go any further down that rabbit-hole. So you’re going to need to keep at least a minimum paid Dropbox account unless you can persuade all your coworkers to switch.
