Re: Ending support of public folder

ae2rigc · ‎12-15-2016

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?

BrianC · ‎09-12-2017

Thank you Dima, you're a lifesaver. Your solution worked beautifully.

Paul11 · ‎09-12-2017

Can't find this beautiful solution. Please, save my life too

BrianC · ‎09-12-2017

Paul, Dima provided a way to link directly to graphics files, which is exactly what I needed to do (I use some graphic files in my Public folder to link my email signatures to):

Dima wrote:

***
You can still create those links - just need to change the hostname to get a direct link instead of the HTML page.

Create a regular shared link to an image; you'll get a URL that looks like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ynzjfwe0lfdlr2e/cat.jpg?dl=0

Then, replace "www.dropbox.com" with "dl.dropboxusercontent.com", and you have:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ynzjfwe0lfdlr2e/cat.jpg?dl=0

You can then use it in [img] codes and so on.
***
There was a rumor that Dropbox would also "turn off" the dl.dropboxusercontent.com URL, but this solution worked for me today when I updated my signature files. Hopefully, Dropbox won't mess with the user content URL now!

-brian

NFAToys · ‎09-13-2017

Any suggestion that says the solution to the problem that Dropbox created, is to simply change public folder links to shared links, has completely missed the point. Over the past several years, I've posted maybe 2000 links on hundreds of web sites to the files I have on my Dropbox account. The i.d.i.o.t.s. at Dropbox changed their system a.s.s. backwards from what they should have done, by breaking all exisitng links, instead of redirecting them. They should have allowed us to create virtual links from existing ones to prevent breaking the millions of links posted by the entire Dropbox user base.

I've found a way to get a direct Microsoft OneDrive download link

If you use the get link feature of onedrive, Microsoft returns a link that IS NOT a direct download link. It's a sort of pseudo link that opens up the OneDrive web page where the file is located, and then starts downloading the file from that page. To get a link that only downloads the file without opening the OneDribe page, do the following.

1. Open up the OneDrive web site.
2. Open up the folder where the desired file is located.
3. Select the file from the displayed files.
4. Right Click on the file and select "EMBED" from the menu choices.
5. The status window opens that asks to Generate an Embedded link for a Blog or Webpage (this may not show if a link has previously been generated).

6. Click the Generate Button to get an embedded link.

7. The embedded link will look something like this:
<iframe src="https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=31E8FBE8628B7659&resid=31E8FBE8628B7659%21322&authkey=ABadePfzf2..." width="98" height="120" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

8. Delete the leading and trailing text to only leave the basic link info.
https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=31E8FBE8628B7659&resid=31E8FBE8628B7659%21322&authkey=ABadePfzf2...

9 Change the "EMBED" command to "DOWNLOAD"
https://onedrive.live.com/download?cid=31E8FBE8628B7659&resid=31E8FBE8628B7659%21322&authkey=ABadePf...

10 then paste the fixed link into your document.

When my Premium account expires this winter, I'm dropping Dropbox.

k3nny5 · ‎09-13-2017

@wegan wrote:
As a professional software developer of 30 years experience, I can't believe that Dropbox has axed a simple elegant soution that did what users wanted and replaced it with a clumsy, confusing system that doesn't do what the user wanted (and does some things they positively don't want) . I am a Plus user, unfortunately just renewed.

I liked the fact that with the old Public folder I could send a bare naked file for a friend to save to their computer in it's native form.
Now the user gets a file downloaded in a browser with Microsoft Word Online, invitations to share and comment and a whole lot of stuff I don't want happening, including them being able to see messages sent to me by other people who are nothing to do with the recipient. Yes, I know I can block comments but why should I have to. And does anyone know how to block Word Online from injecting itself into the process - none of the web based suggestions work for me.
All in all, this is a major disaster. I will try to work around it and see if I can somehow come to terms with it but I have already checked out the comparison chart shown earlier and will switch soon if I can't get a useful result. here endeth the rant

If you don't want the online DropBox/MS Office Online stuff, then at the end of each shared link there is a ?dl=0 link. Just change those to ?dl=1 (from zero to one). If it's not at the very end then just add it in yourself - it will just prompt for download in its native form.

k3nny5 · ‎09-13-2017

@NFAToys wrote:
Any suggestion that says the solution to the problem that Dropbox created, is to simply change public folder links to shared links, has completely missed the point.    Over the past several years, I've posted maybe 2000 links on hundreds of web sites to the files I have on my Dropbox account.     The i.d.i.o.t.s. at Dropbox changed their system a.s.s. backwards from what they should have done, by breaking all exisitng links, instead of redirecting them.    They should have allowed us to create virtual links from existing ones to prevent breaking the millions of links posted by the entire Dropbox user base.

I've found a way to get a direct Microsoft OneDrive download link

If you use the get link feature of onedrive, Microsoft returns a link that IS NOT a direct download link.   It's a sort of pseudo link that opens up the OneDrive web page where the file is located, and then starts downloading the file from that page.   To get a link that only downloads the file without opening the OneDribe page, do the following.

1. Open up the OneDrive web site.
2. Open up the folder where the desired file is located.
3. Select the file from the displayed files.
4. Right Click on the file and select "EMBED" from the menu choices.
5. The status window opens that asks to Generate an Embedded link for a Blog or Webpage (this may not show if a link has previously been generated).

6. Click the Generate Button to get an embedded link.

7.   The embedded link will look something like this:
<iframe src="https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=31E8FBE8628B7659&resid=31E8FBE8628B7659%21322&authkey=ABadePfzf2..." width="98" height="120" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

8. Delete the leading and trailing text to only leave the basic link info.
https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=31E8FBE8628B7659&resid=31E8FBE8628B7659%21322&authkey=ABadePfzf2...

9 Change the "EMBED" command to "DOWNLOAD"
https://onedrive.live.com/download?cid=31E8FBE8628B7659&resid=31E8FBE8628B7659%21322&authkey=ABadePf...

10 then paste the fixed link into your document.

When my Premium account expires this winter, I'm dropping Dropbox.

If you don't want the online DropBox/MS Office Online stuff, then at the end of each shared link there is a ?dl=0 link. Just change those to ?dl=1 (from zero to one). If it's not at the very end then just add it in yourself - it will just prompt for download.

Generating shared links should take considerably less time than changing storage providers.

Rich · ‎09-14-2017

NFAToys wrote:

If you don't want the online DropBox/MS Office Online stuff, then at the end of each shared link there is a ?dl=0 link. Just change those to ?dl=1 (from zero to one).

Or change it from ?dl=0 to ?raw=1 if you want to embed an image (or other file type) on a web page, forum, social post, etc.

wegan · ‎09-14-2017

NFAToys wrote:

"If you don't want the online DropBox/MS Office Online stuff, then at the end of each shared link there is a ?dl=0 link. Just change those to ?dl=1 (from zero to one). If it's not at the very end then just add it in yourself - it will just prompt for download in its native form."

Useful to know, I'll keep it in mind. However, I still have a problem with "Shared links" insofar as, instead of offering a simple download feature, they seem to involve the recipient in some form of collaborative relationship with the provider, including access to other irrelevant (and private) material. Perhaps your suggested tweak gets round that too, but at present I'm too lazy to experiment with it, as I've found my own solution - just put the file on one of my websites and give the link to it. Remaining question is whether the residual functionality of Dropbox (minus Public Folder) is worth the money I pay. I'm inclined to punish them for their stupidity but who knows what I'll think in a year's time - inertia is a powerful force!

Rich · ‎09-15-2017

wegan wrote:
they seem to involve the recipient in some form of collaborative relationship with the provider, including access to other irrelevant (and private) material.

A share link only provides access to the file or folder being linked to. A link will not provide access to any other data in your account.

If you are testing a share link yourself and seeing your other files, it's because you're logged in to your account and Dropbox knows it's you. Log out of your account, or test the link in another browser or private session where you're not logged in, and you'll only see what the recipients will see; the specific item that you linked to.

wegan · ‎09-15-2017

I'm talking specifically about what the recipient sees on their computer, not me on mine; it included third party material not relevant to the recipient