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Forum Discussion
Make offline files visible in the android filesystem
I think you should make files stored offline on Android available in the file system.
As it is now, the dropbox files marked as 'available offline' are hidden from the rest of the operating system. This gives a number of problems:
1: When opening a file in an app, that app may put the file path in its 'most recently used documents'-list. However, since the path it gets from the Dropbox-app is not long-lived, the 'most recently used documents'-list becomes unusable, since the links on it become dead rather quickly.
2: It makes using browsing apps, like photo viewers or podcast players, on your offline files impossible.
3: Some apps expect content to be found on the file system. For example, the samsung app used to download content onto a samsung smart watch, expects to find files in the file system. It cannot be used to download files from dropbox onto the smart watch.
4: Sometimes a smart phone is used a bit like a computer. Like uploading files to an FTP-server and the like. A FTP-client typically expects to find files on the file system, and allows them to be selected and uploaded. This does not work with Dropbox.
A possible work-around is to export the contents from the dropbox offline folder onto the phones regular file system. This is unsatisfactory because:
1) It feels cumbersome. The number of clicks to send a podcast episode to a smart watch, or to download a .pdf from dropbox and upload to an FTP-server, becomes a few too many.
2) For files which can be edited (like password manager saves, various profiles, text documents etc), the user needs to remember to copy the file back to Dropbox, which is very error prone.
Dropbox obviously already has technology to synk a file system folder with dropbox. Could not this functionality be offered on smart phones also?
82 Replies
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This was the main reason for me to use dropbox. I'm probably going to cancel my subscription and pursue another service until it's added back.
It's ridiculous that this was a working feature until recently. It's also ridiculous that i have to re-sync 20GB of offline files for an arbitrary update. No one asked for this.
I wholeheartly support this idea. Oflline files are useless if you can't actually use them in the system. Even if it was "unintended' it used to work this way and was great for audiofiles. You can add me to the list that will not continue to be a paid subscriber if this isn't added back. It was literally the only reason I'm paying for the storage space, so I can use it on my device.
Please make offline files truly offline, i.e., please, please, please I want to have my music collection physically in my phone, so I can point my music player towards those files and have them available IN my phone.
I honestly think that is a must have for Dropbox, otherwise I have to keep using an app like Dropsync, which is absolutely redundant, since I am a paying Dropbox user.
Why fix it if it wasn't broken?
You actually made Dropbox less useful to its users.
Honestly super curious.Thanks for giving me the push I needed to quit using Dropbox. Been with you guys for over a decade now, your platform has been getting steadily worse, breaking your mobile functionality was just the final straw.
Whoever decided preventing a user from accessing their own files through their file system was a brilliant idea should be fired.
I was unfortunate enough to find out about this just after I had paid my yearly subscription. Actually, if I cancel now, will I lose the rest of the year or does is dropbox sensible and allows my rights until the end of the period? I don't even know how some subscriptions can basically steal your money by immediately cancelling all rights when you cancel the subscription, rather than when the time runs out for what you already paid. Assuming they don't give some of the money back, but I doubt any would do that.
What is the vote threshold needed? I see several ideas with less votes as accepted / delivered? I need to know if this will be done before I renew my subscription.
Bit of a joke that the community has to gather a shouting crowd to get the dev team to listen to them to request them to return a feature that has existed for years and was widely used. Poor show Dropbox.
Dropbox Devs, any news regarding this topic? 🤔😶
That this is functionality that was originally a part of the dropbox application that was taken away is a travesty, and the fact that I need to seek out a third-party application to reapply a feature that was originally a part of the application's service, go through a series of clunky steps that defeats the purpose of a cloud-based syncing storage system, or seek out a downgraded version of the application and never update the app again is horrendous app design, and unless this feature was causing some major security issues (in which case, more transparency is absolutely necessary in explaining this), removing it is absolutely a step back.
