Dropbox support for macOS 12.3

Hellorfog — could you be a little more precise, i.e. "new installations" of Dropbox? Is it necessary to reinstall Dropbox from scratch at some point? I didn't do this when updating macOs and Dropbox still "works" the same way. I'm apparently at version v164.4.7914.

Also, "asked to enable the last version" means what exactly—the last version of Dropbox?

Thanks for your patience !

cbonargent  both versions are the same, 164.4.7914, but it restarted before start updating, then I assumed it did some internal stuff that needed restart, like drop some extensions or uncompress a different executable. Not sure. 

From Dropbox documentation, it says it will be "automagically" enabled by batches, then perhaps yours in at doors to do it. Really don't know if a new installation will enable it, and if it is per user or per installation, as I hadn't any Dropbox installed in my Macs (I removed them due not having the "on demand" or whatever it is called), but installed in a Mac to sync something between my NAS and Dropbox and voila, it asked for it.

rfog Thanks for the clarification! I only updated to os12.6.2 for the moment, like @johnhalldesign, because I couldn't continue to remain stuck in 12.2 for another year. I have no idea if my data has been "moved". Otherwise, the Smartsync does not function with 3rd party apps as anticipated. For the continual back-up of all my devices however, it seems to be fine for the moment.

This is not working well. After update, now double click on a PDF says it cannot be opened because developer is unidentified (it is a PDF!!!!) and then shows a -128 error. Some other files does not open. Simply flashes and do not open. DOCX files are opened in Safari instead of installed World, and a third iMac is not offering the change, then I cannot run that with DEVONthink. 

But the main problem is any file is being opened once the Dropbox app is updated. This closes my last try to have Dropbox. My renew is this next march and I'm going to disable it. 

In the meantime, I will try to have working Mac one more time. I expect not have to reinstall macOS due this cr*p.

You might try a chat at 
https://www.dropbox.com/support

When I had lots of questions I was connected to someone (real person) almost immediately who helped me understand and stayed as long as it took.

Hope this helps!

cbonargent Thanks for your worry, but I pass. I'm tired of this. 

This is just... wow...

Beyond belief.

I have been in contact with a  very senior macOS developer, not related to Apple nor Dropbox, and he says that implement the cloud the way Apple has defined is not easy, and he adds that there isn't any company that is doing it as Apple documentation says, because they don't want by any reason or simply they don't know how to do it. Said that, I really doubt Dropbox still has some macOS seniors developers anymore, and that is the most important problem.

I got notified to activate the new on-demand or whatever it is called, I enabled it and caos started. Once it finished to do it job, not any document opened anymore from finder with double click, not only the ones inside Dropbox folder but ANY other document did. It seems Dropbox app takes control to open absolutely all document types and then it fails to redirect to the desired application, you can see it right clicking and seeing how all files are linked to Dropbox.

And worse than that, Dropbox remains "searching for changes" forever, plus very slow in download under demand, and confusing iconology... 

Quite interesting the limit on 300K files. You offer 2TB, but can't have more than 300K or you will have issues. 

Now I understand my issues with the "new way" and my near 1 million files. 

It took you ages to respond to your customers and now we're getting basically a worse service as a result for the same price (until inflation hits it), the change log list is not a nice read! 
https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes

So you're promising users with more than 300k files worse sync speed, no lan sync solution and the list goes on... 

As I understand it, it's not even possible on the dropbox app or website to tell how many files you have in your dropbox account. I've been through multiple forum posts about it and it's not something you can even do unless every single file is synced locally to your computer and you then do it with your system's file browser. Part of why I even have Dropbox is so I can offload files I can't fit on a local drive. Especially older archive material I don't need on a regular basis. So like how in world are we even able to know whether we have 300k files?

Further, it looks like the only way to tell if we can get the dropbox version that supposedly fully supports selective sync is updating to the version of MacOS that breaks said feature on the older version of Dropbox. And now you're telling us rollout will not be fully complete until May (and let's acknowledge how many times you've lied about timelines at this point so I'll be taking that with a huge grain of salt if you don't mind).

So basically I can wait until whenever it's fully clear (May of 2023? MAYBE!) that support for this has been rolled out to everyone and continue to use an outdated version of MacOS until that time or I can upgrade MacOS now and likely have the feature broken until you guys get your act together.

This company is ridiculous.

Why is this thread marked as solved?

Dropbox on MacOS 12.3 + isn't a viable solution for any business right now.

em7yn  I have to agree. I'm using the version v168.4.4802  with OS 12.6.2 and it's a mess. There seems to be difficult or no access to third-party apps. So I guess it is just backing up my files, nothing more.

Has anyone moved on the the new, latest version Dropbox with OS 13 ?
There seem to be even more problems:

https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes

When I read that, I decided to wait—again! So I don't know if it is worse or not.

Thanks all for any feedback!

The "old" Dropbox is working just fine on my M1 Air and M1 Minis on 13.2.1 - My 10.15.7 Mac Pro has Dropbox on an external drive.

Does anyone know when I'll *HAVE* to update? Can I ignore the notification forever since sync is fine across all platforms (including Windows)?

I've forgotten more than Dropbox seems to know about "fixing what isn't broken."

I would prefer not to go through the whole rigamarole of moving my large Dropbox folder (with many subfolders) into ~/Library/whatever...  Can I get away with neglecting the update? I'm running the latest Ventura, on Apple Silicon and everything is fine.  My only use for Dropbox is sync-ing my two computers (and phone) with a small folder dedicated to sharing with my wife.  

At some point, no, it will become an enforced change due to restrictions that Apple have put in place. 

I'm updated to Ventura on Apple Silicon.  Can I get away with NOT updating to the latest dropbox (despite the little message there asking me to) and so leave all my files where they are.  Is something going to happen if I don't update Dropbox? It's working fine at the moment.

alextsnet

ddadda 

As crazy as it may be, I'm still using Ventura 13.2.1 with the "old" Dropbox, and it is as it is.

Have you (or anyone else in this situation) moved on to the new Dropbox, and is it 'ok' now?

Wondering if anyone with these issues is still out there at all...

Thanks for any feedback!

cbonargent I am running 13.4.1 on the M1 Mini and M1 Air with the "old" Dropbox. That badge and pop-up has been there since last time I posted in the thread and things are fine. I'm running 10.15.7 on an Intel 4790k desktop machine that has Dropbox on an internal HDD separate from the macOS drive and it's also fine.

So, your question - and mine - still stands: How much longer are we going to be able to get away with this?

My selective sync'd Dropboxes are fine hanging out where they are on the M1 machines (on the boot/OS drive). It would be a minor annoyance if paths changed because I do Hazel and some light/sane symlinking for convenience. The big problem is if "updating" is going to break Dropbox on my Catalina rig. That one cannot go back onto the boot drive.

Edit: I completely understand it's inadvisable to have such an old OS like 10.15.7 "on the internet." It isn't most of the time. It's a DAW, and I simply refuse to eat Apple's internal storage prices just to have all of my Dropbox available offline on the boot drive. Even a new Mac Studio or whatever would still be largely offline for me - that's not the problem - the problem is that Dropbox "has" to be on the boot drive according to this post. Except it doesn't... yet??

So question for the people still using the old Dropbox (non File-provider version) with OS 13

I'm currently on OS 12.6 on two Macs using this version. I have been dealing with the limitations of not being able to open online-only files directly through an app, by just making them local before I work on them.  Little bit of a hassle, but I can deal. Most of my everyday files are local on both machines anyway.

But I was about to take the plunge and upgrade both machines to the current OS (13.5)  today, and trying to understand the File Provider version better, and see I'm getting is message:

"You are not eligible for the updated Dropbox for macOS on file provider at this time. Your Dropbox folder contains some file types that are not supported"

Really can't figure out what files these might be.  

So not sure what do do now. Do I go ahead and update to the latest OS and see what happens, or should I figure out what these files are, and try to do the File Provider update first?

If I upgrade OS without upgrading to File Provider, will things keep working as they have been, or are there likely to be further complications? I'd really prefer to keep working with the workarounds I have now, than to deal with the Dropbox folder moving, and having to relink everything. My files are mostly Adobe files with a lot of links to other Adobe files.

Really need to get current on the latest OS, which I haven't done in over a year just because of Dropbox?

Since I'm using Synology Drive (you need a Synology NAS), 0 problems. Synology Drive uses Apple FileProvider and I have about 1 M of files, and any change is almost immediately propagated across devices.