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Vault No Longer Accessible from Local Desktop
Hi folks, I've had this problem for the past year now but haven't spent much time trying to track down an answer until today, and I am at a dead end.
When I set up my Dropbox account a few years ago on a new computer and the "Vault" was a new thing, I set up the passcode and then started storing all sensitive stuff in this vault by just saving them on the "VAULT" directory on my computer, which would then upload to the cloud version of Dropbox.
Somewhere down the line, the "Vault" is still showing in my Finder window on my mac, but when you click it it will ONLY send you to the cloud version of Dropbox. There I enter the PIN and access the files on the Vault but it is online ONLY. If I enter my PIN then go back to the "Vault" directory in my Finder it shoots me back to the browser.
The worst part about this is there is no "UPLOAD" option on the web version of the Vault. You can only "CREATE" a new folder in the directory. So I have tax data from 2021 I want to include in that Vault folder and there is no way to upload it, and it does not appear as actual space on my local drive to sync.
What am I missing here?
EDIT to add, the "Vault" shows as a "Dropbox Feature" in my Finder Window as opposed to an actual Folder. So right-clicking the "Vault" in my Finder window does not bring up any of the Dropbox options such as "Make Available Offline..." It treats it as a program or object with the typical "Open, Trash, Get Info, Rename etc" options. The Vault does not appear to be physically connected to my desktop computer at all and does not appear in the Selective Sync options in the Dropbox app. Kind of important - all of my important files and records are in this so-called Vault so it would be great to have access to them!
Thanks
4 Replies
I recently installed vault, however, whenever I try to access the files on my computer. It keeps sending me to the dropbox site to access the files there. I have no idea why it keeps doing this... any advice?
- Nancy
Dropbox Staff
Hi JFHSQT and Jason Brown! I hope you’re both doing amazing.
Can you let me know what’s the exact OS version of your computers?
Also, JFHSQT, is there any chance that your Dropbox folder is located in this path ~/Library/CloudStorage? If yes, then this explains what you see (for more info, please check this Help Center article).
I’ll be here, if you need something else though.
Thanks - so it sounds like I can simply no longer access my Vault files from the desktop. Since there is no "Upload" button on the online version of the "Vault" I assume then that this feature is no longer functional the way it was intended, as I can no longer add my files to the Vault for secure safekeeping? I realize this is a change apparently forced by Apple's API but this makes the Vault basically unusable as it was originally intended, and I assume that means anything we'd normally store in "The Vault" for extra security now only can be synced on a normal Dropbox folder and therefore does not have any enhanced security that was originally the feature of the vault, is this correct?
So if I need another more secure offsite solution and I can only access Vault files from Dropbox Cloud, I assume I will have to download each file in the Vault to my hard drive manually to change the location of these files?If so, man, that's kind of a big deal, isn't it?
- Nancy
Hey JFHSQT!
I've passed your feedback on this to our team, so that they can also see your comments here.
As per Vault on the Dropbox website, that should be working like before, so you should still be able to add files to your Vault, after inserting your Vault PIN.
Can you please clarify if you've checked this via multiple browsers, and you keep seeing the same thing each time?
