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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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Does Sync work with an external drive? Are you using Ventura? Tks
Which OS are you using? Ventura? Thanks
Does Sync work with a Mac external drive in Ventura OS? Thanks
fjazzfjazz for teams on Sync.com? 2+. Look here [removed per the Community's Guidelines]
2 x tier pricing options for teams too so depending on whether you need a little or a lot there's options.
Overall I find them pretty good value for money but then again I only want 1 main thing, solid, reliable and secure data storage. You could count that as 3 but what I mean is no extra features beyond the core features (no paper, signing stuff, screen recording etc etc).
I want a system that you log in, upload and sync. Then can share with my team. This does it pretty simply but good. The current downside is that the cloud-only feature is still in beta but I'm sure that it'll come out of beta soon. I'm using it and it's been fine to date.
fjazzfjazz Can’t say for sure, but I don’t think so.
Thanks! Is there a minimum of users?
I'm appreciating all of the updates to this thread, which seems to have become a support group for those looking to move off of dropbox because of this glaring issue. Perhaps all of this activity will make Dropbox look again and address this issue, at the very least with some clear communication. But, more likely, I will be taking Sync for a spin as others have suggested!
ArthurPix I've gone on to a team account and I have no issues.
I have found sync to be pretty good. I have 2 very very minor gripes but they seem to be addressing this bit by bit.
- Their upload speed is quite slow BUT because of this it has made me look at how my cloud storage is used and how much I should have on a 3rd parties cloud server. Due to this I have archived a huge amount of data on to my own NAS and am using it as an archive with my team having access. (Synology have vastly improved their Synology Drive Client software and that is what I am using).
- Their support is a bit lax and slow because they're in Canada so you have to wait for Canada to wake up.
Like I say, very minor gripes and I can only see them improving as they grow so I'm not going to have a go at them.
I have managed so far to get 3TB up on to sync but it's gonna take a while. I still have about 3TB+ to go.
UKD fjazzfjazz shinbeth TheMainOne Your earlier comments about how much money you’ll save by switching to Sync are spot-on. They appear to be looking closely at Dropbox’s Team pricing and working hard to one-up Dropbox at every level. An Unlimited Space Team account costs $15 per user in Sync and $24 per user on Dropbox. Plus, for people with smaller space needs (like me!) Sync offers a 1T Team account for just $6 per user per month! Makes me wonder if I should be trying a Team account instead of playing ping-pong with my frequent collaborator —even though we’re not a permanent team, we might both save a lot of time!
