Disaster: Dropbox removing external disk support for Mac users :(

[Jon C.10]

In case anyone's unaware... if you're a Mac user storing your Dropbox on an external drive, you'll shortly lose that ability.

https://talk.tidbits.com/t/dropbox-drops-support-for-storing-files-on-an-external-drive-and-onedrive...

https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes

Just confirmed this with DB support (see below).  Gutted - been with Dropbox for years and our entire video team flow is based around it 😕

>Hi there, I read today that you are scrapping the ability to store the Dropbox folder on external disks, on OSX. I'd like to ask more about this please.

> Hello Jon, and thank you for contacting Dropbox Support. My name is Joseph, and I will be more than happy to look into your request, right away.  

That is correct Jon, as part of the Dropbox for macOS update, the Dropbox folder must be located in ~/Library/CloudStorage.

>This is a showstopper for us, and will mean we have to move to another service. We have a large distributed team using DB for video work, no way it'll fit within internal drives.
Is there a workaround?

> I totally understand and I apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, there is no workaround on this as changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.

>This change doesn't seem to have hit us yet - we're running a variety of machines inc Ventura
What will trigger its enforcement? Can we stay on an earlier OS or Dropbox version?

>The updates happening automatically every time the Dropbox app is restarting, for example if your device never restarts it should maintain the older version but we can't guarantee full functionality on older versions of the application.

>So what will happen - if we have a Dropbox folder on an 8TB drive and a tiny internal drive - will it try to clone stuff across and eat up the space? What's the mechanism?

>That's right, it will try to move the content on your internal drive until it has no space and gives you an error.

>Is Smartsync still supported? I.e. will it move stuff to being online only if it won't fit?

>It is, however it is now known as online-only.

[millifoo]

@Bluebicycle 

I've been trying out MountainDuck the last couple weeks, and it's working ok, albeit I've gotten a couple (well, a few dozen out of millions of files) errors while trying to sync.

The biggest pain is that I have to re-download everything -- can't seem to get mountainduck to recognize the existing TB of data already local.

[TheMainOne]

We have been testing sync.com. I have about 1.5 TB of space on it now. 

First the things I love… It is private. Really private. No nonsense like dropbox. Dropbox says they can read, give your content to trusted third parties and on and on. Not Sync.com. It is fully private. 

The next thing I absolutely love is unlimited storage. Yes it really is true. Unlimited. We pay about $30 a month. Which is two seats at $15 a month each. Billed monthly, not yearly. And this gives us unlimited for both of us. It is a business plan and is exceptional because I want a lot of space. 

Now the thing I don't love so much... It is rather slow. It is not as fast as dropbox. But it is fast enough. It took a couple of days to get the initial 1.5 TB online. But I don't have the fastest Internet either. That said, dropbox is faster. But this works plenty well for me 

Buh bye dropbox and your woke nonsense. 

[Michael C.121]

Has anyone discredited using sym links with this new/upcoming change yet? 

That's what I've doing for years and the system "sees" it as if it was all on the internal drive.

[WriterGuy-123]

What happens if my boot drive IS an external drive (which mine is)?? Is it possible that the Dropbox folder needs to be on the boot drive, wherever that happens to be?? If this is true, it wouldn't help teams whose workflow is based on shared network storage, but it MIGHT help those like me with simpler set-ups. Does anyone know if this is so???

[psalcal]

@Michael C.121 yes that has been shown to not work.  

@WriterGuy-123 I do believe that solution will likely work, but that one doesn't seem like a common use case.  Glad it could work for you.  

@TheMainOne thank you (though the "woke" comment.. LOL really dude?).  Looks like I may give that a shot.  I'm also going to evaluate how rock solid they are as a platform.  I have had zero data loss on Dropbox.. that's huge for me.  

[shinbeth]

What’s wrong with the "woke” comment? He’s totally right, not only Dropbox is a sleazy bunch of Disney type wokes but they also sneak on you data (never felt safe on this front, why on earth would they screen your data lol same way as the GAFAM with the NSA and all that).

Hopefully Elon Musk will buy them back and clean them out from the inside Twitter style.

That said sync.com speed sucks and doesn’t work with my TBs. Lol 2 days for 1.5TB only that’s a deal breaker for me. Sadly no alternative to Dropbox ease of use and speed as of today.

[psalcal]

@shinbeth LOL.. y'all crack me up.  You complain about "woke" but y'all are the ones here essentially posting political stuff and forcing your own political beliefs on others in this thread!  😃. Please refrain with bringing yer politics into a thread where it really doesn't belong, eh?  

[WriterGuy-123]

Dude - chill out, please! Not sure what's got you all riled up about Dropbox (or Disney, really), but paranoia is NOT a good look... No one cares what's in your Dropbox folders, except maybe people who want to sell you some crap. These days, if you really value total privacy, you've got to live off the grid. So cloud storage should NOT be your first option, right? 

[shinbeth]

@WriterGuy-123 

Good doggie! Submissive guys like you are the dawn of humanity lol 

What a life with your wife that must be...

"you've got to live off the grid"

No critical thinking whatsoever, happy to be enslaved lol smth

[shinbeth]

"I've been trying out MountainDuck the last couple weeks, and it's working ok, albeit I've gotten a couple (well, a few dozen out of millions of files) errors while trying to sync.

The biggest pain is that I have to re-download everything -- can't seem to get mountainduck to recognize the existing TB of data already local."

In my experience using MountainDuck really slows things down. These services slow things down and aren't as good as the native service they're linked to.

And yes the re-downloading of 10TB+ of data is not an option, especially since it will be so slow vs. the native cloud service...