Ending support of public folder

[ae2rigc]

Just heard from dropbox that support for the public folder is ending.

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As a result, we’ll soon be ending support for the Public folder. Dropbox Pro users will be able to use the Public folder until
September 1, 2017. After that date the files in your Public folder will become private, and links to these files will be deactivated. Your files will remain safe in Dropbox.

If you’d like to keep sharing files in your Public folder, you can create new shared links. Just make sure to send the new URLs to your collaborators.

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It is one of the most useful features of the service for me as I use it to get links to single files that I can send to people without setting up shared folders and requiring them to have dropbox accounts.

(Save file to my public folder locally, syncs, right click, get publick link, paste. Doesn't get any easier than that.)

It's also useful for bb style forum posts where you can link to images with an easy tag.

With the public folder support being removed, is there going to be an alternative solution to allow easy public sharing of single files?

[Scott J.4]

Public folders are why I've been a Dropbox customer since it's beta days. I'm a paying customer, too, and do not abuse the service.

So, okay, what alternatives exist? Must I spin up my own Apache server again? I've much preferred Dropbox for my purposes for convenience and quick updates from any of my devices. Box doesn't offer anything similar... where else should I look? Seems Dropbox will be losing me if they go this direction.

[jigglywiggly j.]

Pretty sure spideroak will let you

[Streetwind]

Yeah, I'll be taking my files elsewhere too.


The public folder is the sole reason I even have Dropbox in the first place. I use zero of its other features. Heck, I couldn't even tell you if it has other features, or what they would be. Had to visit the Help pages to even figure out what "links" were. Unfortunately, after trying it out, I can confidently say that the "links" feature is not a replacement, in contrast to what Dropbox claims - it's just a way to trick the userbase into sending other people unsolicited advertising.


Well, at least we got advance warning. Plenty of time to find an alternative.


Sorry, Dropbox. I had a good time with you for many years. But by killing all my externally linked content in one fell swoop, you might as well have deleted my account. That would have had the same effect. So don't be cross if I do the honors instead.

[serbis]

What a shame. Looks like I'll have to start migrating everything to another service which is going to eat up a tremendous chunk of my time. Thanks for bringing something so great only to take it away a few years later.

[mathogre]

Thank you so much, Dropbox, for messing up all of my photo links by killing the public folder. Your move to "improve the Dropbox sharing experience" is whimsical at best. If you're reading this, you can see there are 16 pages of posts indicating this is not an improvement to the Dropbox sharing experience.

[Stefan K.27]

"create new links for all your files"

Yeah, how the f*** should I know what, where and when I shared stuff from my Public folder 5 years ago? They don't even show up in the "shared links" section on the Dropbox website so I can't even check what I shared...

I'm not paying 100 bucks a year for you guys to change a function that's critical to the stuff I do, if you remove that feature I'm forced to go to another cloud storage hoster.

[kiaz h.]

Great... so i need to rewrite one of my application, which is used to download a small file from public, and read things from it, as not just the public folder support ends, but the direct file access with it. In current public if i share the link for a file, it starts as a download. With the share option first a web page loads that ask to register, then i need to click on proceed to dowload, and THEN i get the file. The automatic application can't do this, just a simple http download. So i need to move to another server, and stop to use dropbox.

BTW which "manager" invented this thing? What was the corporate BS with it?

[SolitareLee]

I'm kind of amazed to see this: Dropbox has deleted the thread requesting they not remove public folders, moving all the comments within it here instead. 

Why even have a forum if you're not only going to not let people suggest things, but actively change it so that it doesn't look like there's an organized outcry against a product change? 

Forget waiting until March. I'm moving my sh*t to a new product NOW. They don't have time to reply to any concerns, but they have time to essentially tell everyone to f*** off by deleting a thread? That tells me all I need to know. 

[Markuswinter]

<This I fear is disasterous news for anyone (like me) who has used the public folder links to post images on web forums.>

And me. And as you can't edit your old posts it will all turn into broken links. Dropbox does not simply piss off their own users but damages communities all over the internet.

I'm sure that wasn't the intend, but the decision seems short-sighted with very unfortunate consequences.

[Runkel]

When Dropbox cancels this feature i will stop using it, is there a alternative wich offers direct linking like Dropbox did?
I think Google drive and MS Onedrive also doesn't allow direct linking.