Dropbox files no longer inherit folder permissions

[rjwb]

Within my Dropbox folder, I have sub-folders with different Windows ACL permissions. Up until recently, whenever Dropbox synced a file it inherited its folder permissions perfectly.

Now it no longer does. It overrides the folder permissions and sets all file permissions to something completely different - Full Control for admins and Read/Read & Execute for users.

Is there any way to get back to the old days - when Dropbox respected the inheritance of ACL permissions to all files in each folder?

[rjwb]

@pwcAppreciate your feedback and efforts to get to the bottom of this.

However, my own experience with Support was that, as soon as they suspected Windows Server in my setup, they shut me down as running an unsupported configuration. So I don't have the time to play their game any longer. I am moving my company on to another product - transition is nearly complete and busy resetting all the ACL permissions trashed by Dropbox!

[pwc]

@rjwbAgree, and I'm also on that path, but this issue goes to all clients, not just Windows Server. In fact, my issue originated on Win 2012 R2, which I pointed out in the first email, but he basically dismissed that as not being a factor, as it applied to all clients. I'll probably have moved off Dropbox before (or if) they fix this, but even if you plan to bail on them, I'd still ping them, if only for those staying on the platform.

I have been using file sharing services since FolderShare was released in 2005. Keep in mind that every platform has it's own idiosyncrasies, and it can take quite a while to find and resolve them. Dropbox has it's share, but I know and can manage them. It generally works well, and I don't relish going through a qualification process for any new platform. To say you're going to bail and actually do it in a business environment where operation is critical are two different things.

If anyone has specific experience with file sharing services that they feel are as robust and cross platform as Dropbox, and do not suffer from this ACL issue, sound off... I'd like to know what you all might recommend.

Microsoft OneDrive is an obivous choice for us, as we use O365 and it's included in that service, but not sure it'll do what we need.

[KiwiMark]

@pwc thanks for the template letter.  This problem first appeared sometime in December 2019 or earlier. I first noticed it around Dec 10th.  

Your steps to reproduce are exactly what I found too. 

The issue is not that the Machine A is a server but that Machine A wants to share some files from the Dropbox folder to other users on the LAN but restrict the ability to edit/delete those files. And this may vary from folder to folder and user to user.  You should be able to do this without every user involved having there own installation on Dropbox.

[dragoner]

Ive got quite a few similar setups, and am now noticing this file permission problem. There is no way Dropbox have made a little change and are content with the broken file permission problem as a result. This is a typical cash grab companies go through to boost their profits etc. 

It's a dirty move to try and push users up to their higher tier plans.

[rjwb]

@pwc  I agree with everything you say... Personally we are going for a mixture of OneDrive (for personal folders) and Sharepoint libraries (for shared folders). Like you, we are already paying for O365, so it's a zero cost solution. I don't really have any choice but to jump ship, as my users' files on the server are turning read-only, thanks to Dropbox, and all hell is breaking loose with everyone saving multiple versions to get around it 🙂

It works OK, but has it's own idosyncrasies, as you say. You still have to use additional software like AlwaysUp to keep it running as a service on a server. For our solution above, you have to set clients to sync OneDrive, then each Sharepoint library individually, which is a bit of a pain. On the other hand, it gives more flexibility over who sees what.

Our setup is fairly simple: 1 server + some office desktops + some remote laptops/iPads/phones - it shouldn't be this complicated to keep them all in sync in this day and age!

[Akena]

Thanks for the post pwc.  I am experiencing same issue and have submitted your template to support.  I look forward to hearing that this has been resolved as it has broken dropbox functionality for our office.

[pwc]

@rjwb One suggestion: most of my external Dropbox changes are coming in the evenings or weekends as people are working from home. I've added a scheduled task on the server to reset the ACLs at 4am. Working for now, but it's a Band Aid  solution. Have a separate call to icacls for each directory that needs a ACL reset. In my example below (I've only slightly tweaked it from how we actually use it), each of these folders has a unique, non-inheirtable set of rights, so I need to run icacls for each. Here's a generic version of my batch file:

rem Resets the ACLs for all folders to fix the Dropbxo ACL problem that started in Jan 2020
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Accounting\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Transfer\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Company\Admin\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Company\Engineering\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Company\Finance\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Company\HR\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Company\Marketing\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Company\Operations\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Company\Purchasing\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C
icacls "E:\Dropbox\Company\Sales\*.*" /reset /T /Q /C

Make sure to run it as administrator so it has the requisite rights to make the changes. You could even go so far as to run it hourly (or at least multiple times a day... whatever makes sense for you)... it does cause Dropbox to think files have changed, so it goes through sync phase, but no files are actually transferred to it's pretty quick (a few minutes for ten of thousands of files) before Dropbox is happy again.

This is still only a temporary solution, but gives me a lot of breathing room to find an answer.

[pwc]

One other feature consideration I thought of while writing the post above: if you have a paid-for Dropbox account, it has a great file revision history capbility. We pay for the extended 1-year history (the standard history is 30 days), so we can recover a version of the time any time in the last year.

Additionally, and great insurance, is the ability to restore a folder tree to a specific point in time. How does that help you? It's a hugely valuable defense against a ransomware attack. If attacked, I can simple rewind a file system to the point in time just before the attack and recover everything. If you do regular backups, you might be protected, but if your backup repository is not firewalled against outside access, it's at risk of being encrypted, too. You might have offline/offsite backup, but it's going to be dated.

Not sure if O365 (my first choice as an alternate to Dropbox) has this capability, but goes back to a comment I mean in an earlier post: I've spent a lot of time understanding Dropbox, and moving to a new service is going to be a significant effort and relearning experience. And I'll likely find it's missing things I used in Dropbox (like this feature). I really hope Dropbox listens and puts proper ACL inheiritance back in place, as that'd make my life easier.

[volfman]

I'm having an issue with Dropbox client changing the windows permissions on a file when another computer/user makes a change to that file and it syncs. 

First screenshot shows the windows permissions of the file on Computer A prior to making edits on a different computer Computer B. 

After the first screenshot below, I made changes to the excel file on Computer B. 

Second screenshot below shows the windows permissions of the file on Computer A after Computer A Dropbox client syncs changes. 

The parent folder of this file has the same permissions as they were of the file prior to the changes/sync. This is shown in the third screenshot below. 

Before changes and sync

After change and sync

Permissions of parent folder are identical to the before screenshot

[Lusil]

Hi there @volfman, thanks for checking in with us. 

I've moved your post to this thread where other users have reported a similar behavior as to what you describe. 

As @Fiona also mentions here, the Dropbox desktop app tries its best to ensure consistent permissions in the Dropbox folder, and you may find custom permissions are not maintained to ensure that the files sync to other devices without any issues. 

I understand that this may not be the ideal reply you were looking for, but thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. 

Let me know if you have any other questions!