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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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I'm not going to go back and forth shinbeth . I made a case based on real world experiences. You do you, I'm OK with that.
I can tell you have not worked in a fast paced pro audio or video environment. There is no world where waiting for a Time Machine machine restore during a critical edit is acceptable. Ever. And that assumes you have no hardware failure and can simply wait for that Time Machine backup to restore from that spin drive backup. That is just not a thing in a pro environment.
Those RAID drives are backed up. There is a complete backup strategy in place involving LTN, cloud storage, and offsite storage. Again.. if you worked in that world you'd understand.
That you don't get it just shows you haven't experienced that. That's OK, by the way, if it works for you I think it's wonderful, but that you cannot see why it's not a universal fix just shows you don't have experience in those other worlds. No offense meant. Be well, friend.Same here please don't assume your needs are the same as everyone else. Please take the time to read all my former comments before jumping to conclusion. You guys on this thread are a minority of users and you're making it big like your life depends on it lol whereas Dropbox was never meant to be syncing external drives in the first place. They only introduced this feature a while ago as a favor and I see no reason to further extend it since it doesn't really make sense.
Ok point taken. Well then I hope it will work out for you, really. I can understand why a RAID system would make sense in your work environment indeed. Alright let's hope for the best then.
But my experience with Dropbox dev and comm teams is that they're retarded. But let's hope still!
shinbeth The way I reading things here, KyleKoch did nothing to try and tell you what YOU should do. We are simply disagreeing with your assessment about what is a good workflow for us.
Why would you feel the need to come here and tell me, someone who has worked for over a decade in pro audio and video editing how I should be doing things? Especially when it's quite apparent your experience is not in the same environment.
I'll say one more time, I think the workflow you mention is TERRIFIC for you, bud. I would never criticize your way. I just gave you a bunch of real world reasons why your workflow doesn't work. It's OK if you choose to do otherwise.shinbeth of the cloud storage providers, I have worked professionally with Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive so far. I even tried to see if iCloud was workable (no). For my money Dropbox is the best fit. Do you have something you like better you could recommend?
I'm a little pissed at them right now because the latest update has stopped my folders from syncing (the update which forced the internal drive storage). But still.. they are the best I've found.I've tried 8 different cloud services including those you mentioned, and Dropbox both personally, professionally and even as part of working for larger companies that were using Dropbox too.
Nothing comes as good as Dropbox in terms of usability, that's a fact. So we have to stick to it.
But I wish they could finally upgrade their product it's been a while since it's been the same I see no new features and upgrades.
Ideally yes it should support any kind of external sync. It should offer more space. So let's keep pushing them into the right direction and they will finally become the ideal cloud service we all wish they were.
Does anyone know if moving the user folder over to an external drive would solve this issue? I tried this and it seems to work so far, but my DropBox has not yet been transferred over to the new version, so I'm not positive it will work once that switchover happens.
I just tried moving my user folder to my external 40TB RAID drive, and so far it's working. This is a desktop computer, so if you're on a laptop you'd have to have an alternate account when logging in with the hard drive disconnected. It's working so far, but my DropBox hasn't yet been updated to the new version, so I can't say for sure it will continue working once the switchover happens in the coming months. Has anyone else, who has already been upgraded to the new DropBox, tried this method?
- It’ll technically work, but unless you have a beefy Thunderbolt SSD, you’re paying a performance penalty for for living on a spinning-rust hard drive again.
