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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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Ben S.31 Have you put that two-partition system to the test? Because unless something has changed, I don’t believe Dropbox allows you to point a new software install at an existing Dropbox folder to avoid resyncing all those files. Every time I’ve ever re-installed Dropbox, it demands that I do a new sync to an empty folder.
And yes, you are correct, the new Dropbox version will not support non-boot partitions. The reason is that Apple has forced cloud file providers to store their files in a folder within your user profile. In some aspects this makes sense - think of a shared computer and the need to keep your personal cloud files private and separate from the other users - but it also creates a huge gaping problem for anyone needing to sync more data locally from their cloud provider than will fit onto Apple’s internal drive offerings (physically or financially).
Some folks here have mentioned just moving your user folder to an external drive (or in your case, the other partition), which should in theory relocate the cloud storage folder along with it, thus solving this whole issue. But poking around one will find many, many stories of this workflow backfiring on people, as any OS updates will break this setup and potentially lock you out of your computer. It’s super risky and, in my view, not a viable solution at all.
For now, one good option is to invest in a NAS and store your files there instead of Dropbox. This can completely bypass the need for on-demand syncing of local files to save precious drive space, and gives you so much more control over your own data. If Dropbox is important to you, Synology has a cloud sync application for their NAS that will sync with Dropbox, which I am currently using but honestly will probably not bother going forward. The reason is that this setup has so much storage available that there is no need to fuss with setting files to local vs online-only to save space, and the built-in feature set of Synology Drive is good enough to render Dropbox almost completely redundant. From here, you can back up your entire NAS to the cloud for protection via Backblaze, if you use their backup service which offers unlimited backup space. Not to be confused with Backblaze B2 which is like Dropbox and, because of the expanded feature set, is way more expensive.
Lots of great inforation, thank you for taking the time to explain things so clearly.
My issue currently, is that I and my team share large (200gb projects) using dropbox, and so we need to syc to our local machines, as any one of us may need to work on any particular project at any one time. Get 3 or 4 of these projects on the go for ay individual, and they will quickly run out of hard drive capacity.
I'm praying there is a software developer who has developed a workaround....!
Apple File Provider is a MAJOR DESASTER - i quit my Dropbox Account
Title says it all
Dropbox Folder needs to sit on the system drive
Such an ignorance, i'm totally floored.
>> "We're always looking for ways to improve Dropbox. We regularly release new versions of our products with better performance, additional features, and security enhancements." <<
My suggestion:Start by not deteriorating your products. Apple File Provider is an unbeatable disaster.We have massive computing power at our disposal, and all we users do with it is process Word and Excel online. Is this your vision of our work?
Are your imaginations so limited that you can't fathom how a user deals with 2TB of synced data? Do you have any idea how an audio program accesses data? A photo program? A video program?
Do you really think we can or even want to handle online-only data? I just canceled my 2TB Dropbox account because you've made it unusable. You've crippled your own product and failed to deliver on your performance promise.
According to the new Apple File Provider guidelines, I would have to equip my 4 Macs with 3TB system HDs to accommodate the Dropbox Folder, the system, and swap RAM. This fails because system HDs cannot be replaced afterward and because Mac Mini and MacBook Air are not even offered with 3TB HDs.
I am shocked by this ignorance.
I was just about to upgrade but because I had this same thing happen to me with OneDrive, I thought to check first. This info should be very visible when you go to sign up. Something like, "On a Mac? Read this first!" Profits and all that though...what can you do?
I use Sync cloud because I can sync to an external drive still. Not sure what they're doing different but there you go.
Edit: I may have to retract. What is this I just found? I was able to choose an external drive.
Hi, where is this option please, and could you confirm if this worked?
I am needing to move 280GB from my Mac, onto an external drive.
Thanks
For me it's this: Preferences>sync tab>dropbox folder location>click the dropdown and select 'other'>then find the drive you want.
I'm on dropbox app v181.3.5613 on Ventura.
Thank you, I've found the option
This is for work so I hope it's possible....
Did it work okay for you, were you able to transfer your existing Dropbox folder from your Mac onto an external drive?
(I'm also Ventura, Dropbox version 180.4.4912)
I tested it with a couple gigs worth of files and it seems to work. I'd really like to hear from Dropbox or someone who knows more about the situation. If it is working now, how come no one is talking about it? It makes me think I'm missing an important piece here.
It looks like a temp fix at best. They still warn that if you update to the new 'Dropbox for macOS on File Provider' then you won't be able to use an external drive.
Curly123456 You can’t ‘transfer’ your files from your local drive to the external. Any time you change Dropbox location, it has to completely download all of your files from scratch again. If you were to move all of the existing files to the new location it would reject that. I’m guessing that it uses the download process to build its database to keep track of which files are local, remote etc.
