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.

[mymgraphics]

But 12.3 is last years OS. I am running 13 Ventura

[UKD]

@mymgraphics they changed it from 12.3 onwards so when the new update does finally arrive (apparently May I believe now) then you will be asked to update probably and then you will have your Dropbox folder moved.

The fact that this isn't clear and black & white just goes to show how poorly Dropbox have been communicating with their customers. I think in total there have 3 maybe 4 press releases about the new change and all except 1 say that it's delayed because they want to ensure they're giving their customers "the best experience" 🤢

[mymgraphics]

Thanks. I guess I’ll just buy a bigger SSD hard drive in May and use that as my StartUp disk.

[UKD]

I guess that depends on what Mac you have and how old. I have a Mabook Pro and it's not so easy to upgrade and if you're on a new M chip Mac I don't think you can swap out your hard drive. I might be wrong on that though so do your own research.

[ArthurPix]

@UKD You're correct. I have an M1 MacBook Pro, and you cannot swap out the SSD. It's soldered in and heaven knows where it's located. 

[mymgraphics]

It’s a Mac mini with intel chip. I have an external drive with 4 HD hooked up to it. 1 of them has a copy of the OS so I can boot up from it. I can’t upgrade my hard drive inside my Mac mini because the jerks soldered it to the logic board. Thanks Apple! But I can boot up from another drive and use that as my new startup disk.

[fjazzfjazz]

That is cool, the only issue to me is that I work in big teams, and freelance also, so everyone sharing media assets and sessions cannot be required to do that. But yeah, for personal use that is a smart solution, especially for me that always work from my desk. But yeah, if I and ALL of my contacts, team, clients, cannot use dropbox properly, it wont work for anyone, and we all are going to look for alternatives. 

But I am REALLY hoping Dropbox will fix it and copy whatever Sync.com was able to achieve. 

[UKD]

I think we're all hoping that Dropbox sorts this out but sadly some of us can't just wait for them to let us know on launch day. It's too much of a risk to our business and our teams, so due to the total lack of communication and the generic PR spiel coming out of support I would not hold your breathe.

Me personally, I am jumping ship. I intend to move my Mac guys over by the end of April to sync.com and my PC guys the following 2 months after that. Luckily the PC guys aren't affected like the Mac ones but I am not paying for 2 suppliers. I'm already trialling sync.com and it's not bad. A little bit basic in comparison to what Dropbox is now, and maybe more of what it used to be, a simple streamlined clean and accessible data cloud storage, but I'm ok with that.

[ArthurPix]

@UKD I'm okay with Sync.com too, and have just moved my entire Dropbox contents into my Sync folder. So far, so good.

[UKD]

@ArthurPix how big was your Dropbox? Mine is gonna take several weeks to move over as it's a lot of TB, plus I need everyone to keep working away to pay them dreaded bills.