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?

[Pablo f.6]

try ammazonS3 or Google cloud storage both is cheap easy and public link works

[Rich]

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MadDogDJ wrote:
They better not charge me automatically for another year when my pro expires.

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You signed up for a subscription service, so unless you cancel it before then, you will be charged, and rightfully so.

[lupussonic]

The ending of the public folders really concerns me, as I have spent YEARS posting content on web forums, including several of my own as personal blogs.

I confess I have not read 33 pages of this discussion, but can anyone tell me if all my content links will be lost, and if so, how to avoid this happening?

[SolitareLee]

Yes the links will all be broken and lost, there's no way of avoiding it, and no, Dropbox refuses to reply to any concerns and has even deleted suggestion threads on other ways of dealing with the situation.

Do yourself a favor and start moving to a new program now. There'll be no helping the links you've already posted unless you have means to edit them. And yes, this is a giant crotch-punch to all of Dropbox's users, particularly the many PAID ones who gave them real money for this service they're discontinuing.

[VC]

As a result of this announcement, I am actively looking for an alternative to dropbox.

[lupussonic]

Thanks for the reply. I'll be leaving very soon.

Why in gods name did they think this was a good idea?

Wuld love to have been a fly on the wall when this was tabled.

[Matthew T.27]

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@lupussonic wrote:

Why in gods name did they think this was a good idea?

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Well, I have a theory. Dropbox's failure to innovate has led to disappointing results recently which leaves their equity holders nervous. Unlike a public company, this is all happening in boardrooms and we have no insight into what's going on. But private equity holders are vicious and want results.

When you provide a shared link (non-public), users who try download your content are nagged to sign up to Dropbox. This misleading conduct encourages people to signup, deceptively raising the number of active users. They can't do this with public links.

Also, it gives them less wriggle room to introduce ads on the download page which I have believed would eventually happen for a long time. So if sometime in the future, you get a craftily-worded public relations response litered with weasel words saying, something like "We know you love Dropbox. We want to keep that experience for as long as possible. That's why we're including sponsored content on our download pages" yada yada yada --- come back to this post -- hello 2018 was 2017 as bad a year as 16? Did Le Pen join Trump and Brexit in the world of political claptrap?

Dropbox is smart though. They don't make all these terrible changes at once or a bulk exodus could not be hidden by sneaky conduct such as the aforementioned (practically) forced sign ups. They take it slowly, one at a time.

[cdgoin]

I have already backed up all my dropbox content on OneDrive and where I can attaching the pictures in replies to old threads. But still most will be lost and Dropbox will find out come March just how much they are screwing up.

[shileyd]

Dropbox leadership are nothing but corporate cowards.  They discontinue a service that has a collassal impact on thousands of loyal customrers, and all they can do is offer a shallow apology that is nothing but insulting. 

I just want an explanation WHY?  Would that be asking too much, Dropbox?  Surely you have a reason.  Would it be too difficult to provide an explanation? That is what respectable companies do!  I suspect the reason you haven't provided even a shred of explanation is because you simply don't have the guts to admit why you are turning your customers lives upside down! 

Like others I will be moving on, and my greatest wish is that so many others will do the same that your corporation is turned on it's head like you have done to your customers. 

[Chris R.]

It now seems that Dropbox aren't ONLY going to end support for the Public Folder (probably for the reasons suggested above) but also they REFUSE TO TELL US WHY THEY WON'T PRESERVE THE EXISTING LINKS, when it would be so easy to do so.

That's their real cowardice - happy enough to kill parts of the Internet but refusing to tell anyone (not even their brown-tongued "super-users" here) WHY.