Dropbox removing external disk support for Mac users

shinbeth no that won’t happen, because if it doesn’t get fixed by mid-November, Dropbox is canceled.

Bluebicycle Agreed on both counts.

Bluebicycle Let me enlarge on this. There was a time, years ago, when I found that Finder was crashing whenever I uploaded files exceeding a certain size, not especially large, but let’s say over 30mb. I received some very helpful advice from a tech who told me that Dropbox, OneDrive and pretty much every cloud storage provider had to operate their magic by loading their software into a Finder or Browser extension — and that it was a similar state of affairs in Windows. This created an inherently unstable star of affairs — which could be more dangerous than subjecting me to the occasional crash. Because, as certain types of “hats” know very well, a predictable crash can also be called an EXPLOIT, which provides a large hole that’s perfect for for the injection of malware.

I know this problem was patched in a hurry, because there was an update after which I never experienced the predictable crashes again. But I’m certain that, ever since, Apple, Microsoft and quite a few third-party cloud storage providers have been laboring into the wee hours to create a VERY stable, inherently stable API for online storage.

So I do agree with you that Apple did not create this new API for the purpose of selling internal storage, but to make MacOS, iOS and iPadOS more resistant to malware injection. Unfortunately, this also makes it much harder for cloud storage providers to support external drives. AND I agree with you that the ideal hardware platform for the online file systems like Dropbox or Sync is a RAID with dual redundancy, like the ones upon which you and I rely.

Let’s hope that Dropbox figures out how to support us sooner rather than later. While I’m rather comfortable with Sync.com, I’d much rather have an end-to-end encrypted Dropbox that supports external drives and, in particular, external RAIDs. Dropbox is unique among cloud storage providers in its creature comforts, and I’d rather have my cake and eat it too. make sense to you?

To be honest I'm well aware that Dropbox is probably not meeting all the security specs that it should, I'm also very annoyed that they don't provide the choice to pick storage servers in Europe because I don't trust the Americans at all 🙂 But I don't really care because I will never upload sensitive information in my Dropbox folder, so the NSA can screen all they want and the hackers can inject and leak anything they want, I won't be bothered, but all I want is larger storage plans haha.

So I found my ideal solution until then. I'm keeping Dropbox 3 (+1) TB Pro plan that's the Dropbox folder with 4TB max. And I'm having the remaining 4-6TB with sync.com Pro plan, in the Sync.com folder (located on my hard drive for now, until I upgrade next MacBook Pro) with 4-6TB. That's 8-10TB total.

When Dropbox comes up with larger data plans, I will transfer the 4-6TB back into Dropbox. Until then, no more of my money other than the Pro plan to Dropbox. Your call Dropbox 🙂 If you don't want to make more money, you loss!

Note: if Apple doesn't release more than 8TB in the next MBP M3, I'll put some of it on an external drive like the SanDisk 4TB. So yeah Dropbox, I agree with this thread, you better work out this external storage sync issue asap for Apple users!

shinbeth >>When Dropbox comes up with larger data plans, I will transfer the 4-6TB back into Dropbox

F.F.S can you stop spamming this thread about your personal storage needs!

This thread is purely about *where* the data is stored!

Either start a new thread about your needs, or maybe join in on the many existing threads?

shinbeth Sync isn't a US company. The company and its servers are in Canada, making it ideal for anyone worried about the NSA, and its encryption is TNO (Trust No One, in the words of Steve Gibson), true end-to-end, so your data is safe as can be with them. If you actually had an online storage provider in Europe, it would probably be MORE (not less) susceptible to intrusion by national intelligence authorities. 

P.S, Soon it seems Drobox too will be true end-to-end encrypted as well.

Ru 1971 I agree with you that we're getting topic drift here.

Also, keeping on the topic of where Dropbox is stored-- isn't it interesting that not one user has commented that "I'm happy keeping my Dropbox on my Internal Drive." I for one am still paying for my MacBook Pro M1 Extreme, purchased in 9/2022.  I purposely bought it loaded so I wouldn't have to buy another for at least 4 more years! But for me, "loaded" means "equipped with the fastest processor, 32 GB RAM and 2T Internal SSD."

I expect most users who recently upgraded their Mac have a similar story to tell. How much internal storage, I wonder, does the typical Mac power user buy? I've been ordering 2 terabytes going back to my Windows days.

So I have 2T on both desktop and laptop, both of which were purchased within the past year. On both, I rely on external storage to house all folders from online providers--with the exception of one folder containing data updated whenever I go through email.

Does anyone in this thread have more than 2T? If I'm right that the answer is "nearly nobody," our URGENT concern about support for external drives may be nearly universal among power users — and even more prevalent among casual users, who may have 256-512GB.