Dropbox latest update & location

[capellifabio]

Hey everyone. I just saw the latest update for OSX and I am extremely afraid. They are saying the main dropbox folder will change location and path. 

I have multiple machines and projects synced with files within dropbox and if The location moved, it'll change the locations of the files which will lead to an infinite amount of work to re-link all the files. I work in audio-post and I been using dropbox to sync every single project and been able to go back and forth from home to the studio. 

Plus I have a desktop machine that I can't upgrade to the latest OSX so that file on that machine will stay a they are. But on my portable rig the files will change locations. 

Did any of you experienced this or found a safe way around it? 

Thanks for your support, 

Fabio

[Hannah · Accepted solution]

Thanks for taking the time to post here today, @capellifabio.

Indeed, as part of the Dropbox for macOS update, the Dropbox folder must be located in ~/Library/CloudStorage

There's no way around this at this time, as this is an update that will need to happen sooner or later, but we appreciate your feedback about this.

You can take a look at some more info on what to expect with the update and any possible limitations here.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[capellifabio]

Hey Hannah thanks for your message.

I already went through the changes introduced by the new API and that's why I was in touch with the support. I am very afraid honestly, I have like 10 years of work on dropbox and every project is synced to other specific folders. 

Maybe we can find a workaround.. Like creating a folder in the old location of dropbox, call it "Dropbox"  and make it syncable ? But we are not allowed to sync folder from outside the official dropbox folder no? 

[Hannah]

Thanks for getting back to me, @capellifabio!

You could perhaps create a symlink in the old location to redirect to the new one, if that's something you'd like to try, but that's pretty much what we can suggest at this time.

[capellifabio]

Hey Hannah, thanks for your reply. 

I can't believe I am the only one facing this problem? nobody else brought it up? 

I mean the only alternatives I see at the moment are either I don't upgrade dropbox ever again, or I move to another cloud storage that can backup the dropbox folder I have now without having to move it? 

[markus_4x4]

In my case Dropbox won't start at all after updating to the most recent version, where the Dropbox folder is moved to the new cloud storage location. It worked for some time but suddenly it stopped working. I'm on Monterey 12.6.3 and as long as the former Dropbox version is supported, I won't update. With the traditional installation everything works as usual. But the update is somewhat unstable at the moment.

[Hannah]

I understand where you're coming from, @capellifabio.

Most issues such as this can be resolved when upgrading to the most recent version of macOS, if that's something that you could possibly do at some point.

I will make sure to let our team know of your situation, though, and pass along your feedback.

As for you, @markus_4x4, you mentioned that the app won't start; are you getting some kind of startup error?

If you hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar, what's the sync status and version of the app?

[markus_4x4]

Hi Hannah,

yes, of course:

First:

"Dropbox cannot start - Dropbox ran into a connection issue"

and then:

"Couldn't start Dropbox - This may be a temporary error ..."

--> it wasn't temporary. Restarting didn't help, reinstalling didn't help. Only solution that works:

- completely deinstall, advanced install and BEWARE OF UPDATING to the new Dropbox version, where the folder is moved to the cloud storage location. Because THIS CAUSES THE ERROR.

My log-file looked pretty much the same like the error logs of all the other user, who encountered the same issue (and that's a lot of user, I guess ;).

I'm running Monterey 12.6.3 - on Intel-base. So maybe your migration to a version that supports Apple silicon and the new cloud storage API from Apple is not compatible to Intel silicon and/or older macOS Versions.

As I'm running the older Dropbox version now (and it's working), I'm not able to reproduce the issue anymore.

However the app always notices that there is an update. I'm gonna ignore this message for now.

[capellifabio]

Hey @Hannah unfortunately even if I upgrade both my systems, the path of the files will still be different. Which most-likely will cause an error and I'll have to re-link all the projects. I work in audio-post production and all the projects are connected to each other and really on files that are in a specific location with a set path.