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Problems created by new Dropbox app
I was able to resolve some of the issues in my last post, but I still have three significant problems, which I describe below.
I was out of the office for two weeks, and when I returned, Dropbox updated to a new version. I use Dropbox on macOS, and now it appears that all of my files have been moved to ~/Cloudstorage/Dropbox. My goal is to make sure that all of my files are both stored locally and synced to the cloud.
1) Are all the files that used to be in my old Dropbox folder on my machine now in the new location in my machine? Is there any way to verify this? Would I see an icon indicating that a file was only in the cloud and not on my local machine? Is there any way to see a list of files that are only in the cloud and not on my local machine?
2) I need to be able to have all NEW files be stored on my local machine by default. Please advise how to do this.
3) Is there a way to download all files that are stored in the cloud but not stored locally?
3) Can anyone confirm of the local files are indexed by Spotlight and backed up by Time Machine?
Hey Asjadsfjur, thanks for reaching out to our Community.
If all the files in your Dropbox folder before the update, were synced and available in your account online, they will also be available in the new location of the Dropbox folder.
You can see more info about the sync icons on your files here.
After the update, all new files added by other computers, will sync as online-only by default.
This and other info about the expected changes that come with Dropbox for macOS (which will answer your questions), can be found here.
Let me know if you have any questions.
36 Replies
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- Hannah
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey Asjadsfjur, thanks for reaching out to our Community.
If all the files in your Dropbox folder before the update, were synced and available in your account online, they will also be available in the new location of the Dropbox folder.
You can see more info about the sync icons on your files here.
After the update, all new files added by other computers, will sync as online-only by default.
This and other info about the expected changes that come with Dropbox for macOS (which will answer your questions), can be found here.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks for the help with this. Is there any way to change the default to having new files be online only? I need all of my files to be stored and synced on all of my machines, and I don't want to have to change that setting manually for every single file or folder that I create.
"After the update, all new files added by other computers, will sync as online-only by default."
This is why I can't & won't do the update and have now turned off auto app updates on my desktop and two laptops. I can't lose the feature of auto-syncing between devices. That was the feature that got me to upgrade so I could have access to multiple folders/files automatically on my six devices (iPhone, iPad Pro, iPad Mini) as well as easily share files with my husband. We travel frequently, I write books, and the auto-syncing is a must for us. There is no way I would always remember to mark new files for offline use on each of my devices. Makes no sense... I don't know if there are other applications that can replace this function, so for now I won't upgrade Dropbox or my Mac OS (currently happy on Monterey).
I'm with you. I really wish that I hadn't upgraded. Is there any way to change fix this problem? If not, I will leave Dropbox. I don't want to have to do that, but I will.
- Jay
Hi Asjadsfjur, I think you're referring to having your files available offline.
By default, new files will be online-only, however, if you mark individual folders as available offline, files inside those folders will become available offline as well, including new files added from other devices.
Sadly, that won't work for me. I can't imagine have to remember to mark a folder for offline access everytime I create a file or folder. Is there any way for this to be a default setting? If not, I will need to find another cloud service.
- Jay
Currently, it isn't possible any longer for files to be marked as available offline by default with the new version of the Mac OS app.
That is too bad. Dropbox's great advantage is that is reliable. However, its much more expensive than its competitors and now it doesn't have even this very basic features. I'm leaving.
How do we escalate this with DropBox? This is NOT acceptable. We are a Business customer, and this will BREAK EVERYTHING WE DO.
We also have seen that Microsoft's OneDrive have worked around this: why can't you. I see the repeated "we can't do anything" but that clearly is not true. Can you speak to your management and developers and ask why they think it is?
If the answer is "we're not investigating a fix" and/or "we've made our decision and this is they way it is, sorry" then we will be moving to Microsoft.
thanks.
I just had a thought: Is there any reason that I couldn't create a new folder at the very top level of Dropbox, move everything else i have in dropbox to that folder, and then set that folder to always keep offline copies. In theory, that setting would apply to all of the subfolders, and everything would be kept on both the local machine and in the cloud. Can any of you think of a reason that that would not work?
