Dropbox Apple Silicon (M1) install

[wwmiller3]

Hi,

I recently purchased a MacBook Pro 13" with the M1 processor and I cannot seem to get a native install of Dropbox for this chipset. From searching the community, it seems like M1 support should be available in the latest installer. However, trying that plus the latest beta build all ask me to install Rosetta during installation. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,

Warren

[xmarc999]

I get that Dropbox does not support Apple Silicon Macs AKA M1 Macs. Is there any list of what works and what doesn't work? I reorganized some folders on my MacBook Pro M1 and those changes just don't sync, meaning they don't show up when I log into dropbox.com and they don't show up on my old MBP. 

Some people seem to be able to open the Dropbox desktop app using Rosetta, but I can't open it at all.

I had been accessing my DB folders through Finder, but if syncing is hit or miss, I'm concerned I'm going to lose or damage critical files.

Any idea what is safe?

[Hannah]

Hey @xmarc999, thanks for posting on our Community.

At the moment, indeed, the Dropbox app should work with Rosetta. Are you having this issue while using it that way?

Do you have a Dropbox icon in your menu bar, that can give us some info on the sync status of the app?

Are you perhaps getting any error messages?

Keep me posted!

[xmarc999]

In researching this further, a lot came up.

First, my setup: macOS Monterey
Version 12.1
MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)
Chip Apple M1 Max
Memory 32 GB

Despite being in my Login Items, Dropbox was not consistently starting at boot. Re-booted into Safe Mode and manually started Dropbox. *Now* I got a login window. So likely was not fully logged in before for whatever reason. Logged in. Went through System Preferences and made sure Dropbox had all the access it needed (at least one access was turned off in Security and Privacy). Restarted in normal mode. 

Dropbox icon in menu bar now badged with numbers. Status shows several thousand updates pending (!). Let it sync. 

Logged into Dropbox via web. Online view now shows updated files and folder organization.

So it looks like DB was in some odd state which was causing problems at startup. Everything now seems to work as I need it.

Thanks for pinging me on this.

[Jericho]

Look into StrongSync from ExpanDrive.  It seems to work fine on my new Apple silicon MacBook Pro Max.  Just installed it a few days ago.  Access to DropBox is a little different through StrongSync, but it gets me there.  

[xmarc999]

Thanks for the tip, Jericho. I think using Migration Assistant to move over from Big Sur/Intel to Monterey/Apple Silicon did not do justice to DB. If I had it to do over again, I think I would have deleted DB completely and reinstalled it.

Kudos to StrongSync for being the first to implement Apple's File Provider extension. And for their new support for DB. Having said that, I'm not fully sure what its functions are.  I'll have to look into it; I have started to look into Expandrive also

[Jericho]

I am under the impression that ExpanDrive does not work with Apple silicon.

[iTechnology]

is there a way to download the M! version rather than the default version and changing the setting for early release?

[xmarc999]

It looks like the early release of Apple Silicon DB is available now. 

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/apple-silicon-support

[Walter]

Hi all - I just dropped by to let you know that, starting today, native Apple silicon support will begin automatically rolling out, with availability to all users in the coming weeks.

While this rollout is in progress, users can receive immediate access to native support by opting in to our early releases. For more information, you can visit this Help Center article.

[Emmet · Accepted solution]

Hi all,

Native Apple silicon support is now fully available. All users with Apple silicon devices will receive the native version of Dropbox automatically. If you would like to update your device manually, you can do so by clicking on the latest Stable Build and downloading the Offline Installer (Apple Silicon) file. For more information, visit the Dropbox Help Center.

If you need assistance with anything else, please feel free to create a new thread and our community team will be happy to assist.