Beta Build 152.3.4855

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asiufy wrote:

So, how do I get Dropbox to actually move to the ˜/CloudStorage/ location?

 

 

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I did it some builds ago by completely uninstalling Dropbox and reinstalling with fresh set up.....after which I had all my data in the CloudStorage location. At that point it was all on-line only so I had to right click "make available offline" everything I wanted local. Confusingly all my Dropbox data also still existed in a ~/Dropbox folder (not an alias). Dropbox confirmed this can be deleted and I believe that more recently this legacy folder is being removed. 

This is the thread  where I received some help forcing the change to CloudStorage, and it contains some helpful detailed instructions from JWL Photo.

This is another thread which may help.

BTW my Dropbox has updated it self to 153.2.794 which is a higher build than has been announced in the beta forum.

OK, so it seems to me that a whole new download of everything is necessary, and that's a big problem for me, as I have 18Tb of data and obviously a not-big-enough drive on my computer...

If I'm going to download everything again (and force my apps to rescan all my data again), I might as well switch to OneDrive, which costs a lot less than Dropbox for my amount of storage...

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asiufy wrote:

OK, so it seems to me that a whole new download of everything is necessary, and that's a big problem for me, as I have 18Tb of data and obviously a not-big-enough drive on my computer...

If I'm going to download everything again (and force my apps to rescan all my data again), I might as well switch to OneDrive, which costs a lot less than Dropbox for my amount of storage...

 

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No you don't need to download it all....after the change to Cloudstorage all my Dropbox folders were on-line only... I had to right click > "make available offline" the stuff I wanted local. You want to keep your 18TB on line no problem...you dont need to do anything.

I believe I do.

99% of my files are music files, and I use a library software to catalog them. Once catalogued, the file is put "online-only", and before, Dropbox would fetch it whenever I asked that particular file to be played. Nice.

Problem is, if Dropbox moves the location of the files, I am not sure my library software will understand files that are "0 bytes", and, at best, will download them all again to scan and catalog them (again).

Like I said, if I have to rescan my whole music collection (18Tb) again, I might as well just go to OneDrive...

Dropbox, please?

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asiufy wrote:

I believe I do.

99% of my files are music files, and I use a library software to catalog them. Once catalogued, the file is put "online-only", and before, Dropbox would fetch it whenever I asked that particular file to be played. Nice.

Problem is, if Dropbox moves the location of the files, I am not sure my library software will understand files that are "0 bytes", and, at best, will download them all again to scan and catalog them (again).

Like I said, if I have to rescan my whole music collection (18Tb) again, I might as well just go to OneDrive...

Dropbox, please?

 

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Presumably your catalogue software points to the Dropbox location, currently ~/Dropbox. It will need changing to point to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox. Won't it just carry on where it left off? 

I had to do similar this with my DEVONthink data.... same with two other apps which store data on Dropbox. I say "similar" because in my uses (unlike you) I do want the data to be local so downloaded it, but I would expect your catalogue software to recognise it if redirected, but I well could be wrong in which case there is a problem!

As I said in another post I think Dropbox is completely failing to point out this aspect of the CloudStorage change. The third party developers don't fully appreciate it either. One of my apps has a preconfigured option to use Dropbox but this points to the old ~/Dropbox location. This has to be bypassed by using a different option...which will confuse users no end.  

I'm already working on migrating my stuff to OneDrive, but I thought I'd try Michael B's tip to uninstall/disconnect Dropbox and install the latest.

Well, guess what? Didn't work 🙂

When I reinstalled, I was asked for the location of my files, and the only option was ˜/Dropbox. Nothing was put in  ˜/Library/CloudStorage.

So, yup, Dropbox costs 2x as OneDrive and offers less. WTG...

Hate to break this to you but OneDrive on Monterey handles files exactly the same way Dropbox beta does. They both use the same FileProvider API that is now mandated by Apple as does Google Drive.

And I'm sorry to break it to you, but Dropbox doesn't work and OneDrive does. How do I know? I tried it.

I'm not the only one with this issue. Existing users with Dropbox folders are *not* being automatically switched to the new folder structure, for some odd reason. Some folks have reinstalled and Dropbox then moved/created a new folder there, but that was not the case here. Still stuck with ˜/Dropbox.

So, please, no useless snarky comments, and more useful contributions, please. 

I'm really happy for you. Truly happy that OneDrive works. Of course whether OneDrive works is completely irrelevant to those of us using Dropbox. Might want to follow your own advice re useful contributions. Also doesn't change the fact that Dropbox and OneDrive both use the same FileProvider API from Apple. But I'm sure you knew that right? Because OneDrive works and all.... And yes, I'm well aware of the idiosyncrasies of the Dropbox beta. Was posting about it months before you showed up here and actually mentioned to you a month ago that it wasn't going to work like the old days because they're using OS-provided APIs now. It can't work that way anymore.

It is useful to know that OneDrive works, as folks might be inclined to migrate, if Dropbox continues to drop the ball. 

Anyway, I have contacted Dropbox support, and here's the scoop from the horse's mouth:

"Unfortunately I was informed that the Beta experience is not fully available for Business accounts yet. "

So, I guess the more you spend with Dropbox, the less features you get. Nice...