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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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This is a disaster for our my small business. We have 5 Mac Mini's with tiny 250gb hard drives, which run Dropbox on external SSDs (formatted to the AFPS system). I literally setup a new Mac Mini this weekend this way.
Now I am reading that Dropbox just won't work on them at all? So Dropbox has to use what little space is available in the 250gb internal drives??
If this is true...we will have no choice but to leave Dropbox and migrate to something else.
- We are in the same boat. We pay Dropbox thousands a year, I’ve just been talking to support about getting a partial refund when we cancel our account once we work out wth to replace it with :-/. Disaster is right.
Has this change already happened? I just checked one of our Mac Minis and the Dropbox folder is still on the external SSD.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the change is being driven by Apple itself, not by Dropbox, which may mean that all alternative services face a similar limitation. If you continue to use Macs running Ventura or later, you may need to find another way to work or acquire machines with more internal storage (which a cynic might suspect as a reason for Apple to make the change).
So for older systems on older OS's this will or will not happen? ie my main rig is on Catalina and I wasn't planning on upgrading it anytime soon. Will I need to find another solution for our 20TB dropbox?? holy moly this is a disaster.
This is bad bad news, and may make Dropbox unusable for me, as well.
Anyone have any thoughts about sticking an alias in that new required location, that points to an external drive?
Agreed. This change leaves us beucoup screued.
- +1 that will cancel this service if there is no change or option
- If you read my exchange with db tech support they say it’ll happen when Dropbox is next automatically updated which happens on system restart.
- One drive appear to have made a workaround. Major shame db haven’t. 😕
