MacOS 13.0 Ventura, and Dropbox follows OneDrive in forcing the folder on the system drive

The "SUDO" Method with the extended reinstall of Dropbox will (i guess) only work for the "old" behaviour. As i pointed out, you cannot force the ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox Folder to be anywhere else. Errors appear and it only works when Dropbox / macOS creates the folder in your actual home directory library.

So no chance with SymLinking the complete Dropbox Folder, or even the CloudStorage Folder to an external storage.

I think the only way (when already working with the new behaviour of dropbox) is to move the home directory. And that's a complete Nightmare for some setups.

This will make Dropbox loose a lot of business customers

I contacted pCloud and Sync.com to ask why they are still NOT using ~/Library/CloudStorage and if they probably use an own API instead. The reply by pCloud reads as follows: "...Although I do not know the exact deliberations of the development team, we are indeed not beholden to that change, as we make use of the MacFUSE software as File Provider. We are looking at elimination this additional piece of software, this this will happen further down in the future...".

Indeed pCloud creates a virtual folder in the user directory instead, but I have no idea if this complies to Apple's requirements on a long term.

However, using Fuse might be a solution for those Dropbox users who need their Dropbox folder somewhere other than ~/Library/CloudStorage. This could probably also be achieved using Cloudmounter.net. Just mentioning this as an additional input...

Feedback from Sync.com will follow...

Feedback from Sync.com regarding the implementation of Apple's new API requirements: "...We are aware of this on our end, and an update is on our roadmap as we monitor further updates from Apple..."

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Martin R.19 wrote:

Only joining as a beta tester will force the change of the folder location. 

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I have the new version of Dropbox (the one where everything is forced to be in ~/Library/Cloud Storage/Dropbox) and I never signed up to be a beta tester. I installed Dropbox on my new Ventura computer and initially I got the old version. But then almost immediately was presented with a request to for Dropbox to change me to the new version. The message I was presented with said that this is how Dropbox would be going forward and it would be "better" or something along those lines.

If there was anything about being a "beta tester" it was in the fine print, and everything I was presented with made it seem that I would have to make this upgrade sooner or later, and so I might as well do it sooner.

You guys are pretty impressive how angry you are about the system change that you insist I must be working under different conditions, or made up this method somehow, and don't attempt the workaround.  And that you are so insistent that I cannot have found a workaround that might work for you too, without just trying it out.

FYI, I was *forced* into the new system much earlier than you new guys in this thread, back in November, because I bought a new laptop, and had to do a fresh install, just as Dropbox was changing its policy and system. No "reverting" possible for me, I was forced into this Dropbox folder on my system drive.  I searched around for hours, and had apple care on the line over multiple calls over a couple of days trying to work this out, and got this answer in a thread, proposed to my by a dropboxer - someone within the company - not some rando.  It is from the old system, but it works under the new system because it doesn't use Symlink, it uses Sudo.

I've been using it for 2 months now without at hiccup, once I got the backups running properly.

So next time you want to tell someone what you think about about their problem, perhaps think twice.  And perhaps try it out to see if it works or not before coming up with opinions out of thin air.

nessus42 then you are located in a region/area where Dropbox already proceeds with the change while users like me are waiting for that still...

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Michael S.197 wrote:

I've been using it for 2 months now without at hiccup, once I got the backups running properly.

So next time you want to tell someone what you think about about their problem, perhaps think twice.  And perhaps try it out to see if it works or not before coming up with opinions out of thin air.

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I'm happy to hear that you are happy, but personally, why would I invest in a solution that Dropbox has said in no uncertain terms that they are phasing out?

Me, I'm not particularly angry. It just means that Dropbox isn't suitable to meet my needs enough to pay for a subscription. I'll use the free subscription that I currently have, and I'll live with that.  I'll use other solutions where I need to sync more data. Dropbox is not the only sync-fish in the sea.

Though I would happily pay for a Dropbox subscription if they weren't moving to this new model, where all synced files have to reside on the internal drive.

Michael,

I wanted to say THANK YOU for offering the tip on how you used TERMINAL to SUDO and install pointing to your custom path. I did actually read through it and I'm just timid. I really just want Dropbox to tackle this head on! I was one of the earliest to post on the original app incompatibility with Apple M1 Silicon early on so I am well aware of how you felt. I think I speak for a number of people on here when I say thank you for offering a solution. I have to tell you, I just really don't want to edit anything related to Dropbox in terms of config - at all!!! Reinstalling an earlier build regarding this other issue I had about two years ago was scary enough! 😭

Will this "new Dropbox" be forced onto Monterey users at some point (and if so, how long), or are we safe if we just don't upgrade to Ventura?

The "advanced reinstall" or here called "sudo" method (sudo is just "running as admin in terminal") sounds like it is just the setup process we know from the old version of dropbox, where we can select external storage for the dropbox folder?

And this method via terminal / sudo works for the new ~/Library/CloudStorage Version of Dropbox to move it to external storage? Can someone confirm this?