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?

[k3nny5]

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@wegan wrote:

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

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You can easily try that on your computer by using Private Browser mode on Firefox, or Incognito Mode on Chrome.

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@k3nny5 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.

I should clarify what I posted above as my reply - native form in my mind is the browser's download/save prompt. You'll most likely not even see any third-party (or even any DropBox) materials if you modify/append ?dl=1 to the end of each shared link.   Or for embedding images...

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@Rich wrote:

 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.

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[DwarfWoot]

Hello, I have a question regarding the recent Public box change, and this seems to be the place where a lot of questions are being answered, so here it goes:
I was previously using a script that automatically linked the images of a file in a folder of my public box when i put the filename in brackets (ie: [filename] ).
It accomplished this by having the folder's direct url hard-coded (ie: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/[mypublicfolderIDhere]/[subFolderName]/ ), then would append to that the the filename.

As far as I can tell, this is now completely broken and impossible with the new system. I've tried making my previous Public folder "pseudo public" again, by creating a public/sharable link, and even created one specifically for the sub folder- but it seems like every file now has a unique ID that's unrelated to the filename. Is there anyway to easily link to files that are in a "pseudo public" (re: shared link) folder if you have the link, or do I actually need to hard-code every file URL now if I want this system to continue to work? It seems really weird to not be able to easily navigate a folder if you know the contents of the directory, so I feel like I'm missing something.

[Terry P.]

I'm a Pro user and, like thousands of others, I'm greatly disappointed that my smooth workflow has been severely disrupted following discontinuance of the Public folder.

Is there still a reliable way for me to achieve this for all NEW links I post to my various forums and newsgroups? I confess that I'm still confused about exactly how to do this. Could someone spell it out in detail please?

Starting with the distinction between the two different context menu items I see when I right click a DB file on my desktop PC. I am currently using Copy Dropbox link. But does that mean that someone clicking that link in a forum thread discussion would be unable to view or download it if they did not have a Dropbox account?

If so, how can I achieve simple sharing, as obviously I am unable to specify individuals in such a general environment, which the alternative Share link seems to need!

BTW, I'm unable to send an email to Support. The boxes for Device, etc, do not accept any choices - and are irrelevant anyway.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Server_Align]

DwarfWoot : no there isnt, they wrecked that for ya! 

But dont worry its ALL SO MUCH BETTER NOW.

mahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[DwarfWoot]

@Terry P

As far as I know, the link created should be viewable by anyone, as I've been using that method to share pictures that weren't in my public folder for awhile now. You can always test it yourself by pasting the link into a "private/incognito" tab on your browser.

[Terry P.]

Thanks DwarfWoot, understood. Just tested using Firefox Private Window and you're right. 

[PeterF]

I found that it was much easier to just switch to Google Drive.  Simpler.  Better support

[ROMAD]

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@PeterF wrote:

I found that it was much easier to just switch to Google Drive.  Simpler.  Better support

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As long as you're comfortable with Google monetarizing all your data.

[hungxd2992]

We need to send a mail to the Director of DropBox to review and retain all the shared links from the "Public Folder". It really matters to a lot of their users.

[gbm]

Don't expect even a reply. THis thread has been going on since Dropbox first advised us the Public Folder support was ending. It ended way back for the free users. And now for those who pay.

If you have access to links and can edit them, just copy the new dropbox link to wherever you use it and change the end from dl=0 to dl=1. Then it should work as before. Problem is getting editing access to forums. Most do not allow editing after a certain time. So thousands and thousands of Dropbox links are now dead. It's not going to change. Just drop dropbox and move on.