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.

[fjazzfjazz]

+1. @dropbox  any news here?

[biosfera]

I've been using OSX Catalina since I bought a Mac Mini a couple of years ago. The hard disk is only 250 GB, so the Dropbox folder has been located on an external 2 TB disk. This has worked perfectly.
But because Catalina is being phased out by Apple I decided to update to Ventura. Only after the installation did I discover that I could no longer use Dropbox on the external drive. So I used TimeMachine to go back to Catalina. I expected everything to work as before, but no, Dropbox wouldn't open at all. I was forced to update the Dropbox app and then I got the same problem: Dropbox could not be located on an external hard drive. All files were forcibly transferred to the internal disk, but now as “online-only”. At the same time, the Dropbox app informs me that there are currently problems opening online-only files, but that they are working on a solution. This is of course because many more customers have their files online-only now, and Dropbox does not have the capacity to deliver all the data. In addition, I get the question that I hate the most about Dropbox, whether I want to take a backup of the machine. It is not possible to click "NO, never ask that question again", only "not right now". The next time I plug in an external drive, the same annoying question comes up.
Then I have to start with "selective sync" to get the most important folders offline so that I can actually use them. Online-only files only cause the programs to freeze or crash with a spinning wheel. Dropbox then begins indexing. This should sort of happen in the background, in the same way as a TimeMachine backup, but it happens in the foreground. The fan on the Mac Mini is running full blast and I can barely open another program while Dropbox indexes and indexes endlessly. This is the big problem with Dropbox. The program tries to take over the entire machine. I can't find any solution other than to switch to another file sharing service, but which one?

[Jennifer G.29]

It sounds like I left just in time. I went with Sync and since I got it set up, it’s been fairly seamless. Good luck.

[phantom tides]

This is my first and only post here. I have a successful business with exactly one employee. (The flexibility is great, but the boss is kind of an ass.) I've used Dropbox for well over a decade, maybe close to two. I've followed this saga for a few months now, after picking up a Mac Mini M2 back in February. (Recommended, by the way!)

I am bewildered by the posters who are certain Dropbox has an ulterior agenda. I guess it's possible, but I don't see any evidence of it, and I try to take people at their word. I believe the folks at Dropbox are frustrated too, and that Apple has screwed this up — they tend to guard their software aggressively, and to place strict controls on the way people can use their OS. It's entirely believable that Apple changed the API's, and that was the spark of the current conflagration. Mac software developers are at Apple's mercy.

I won't speculate on the reason that Dropbox has offered little or nothing in the way of adaptation and solution. Maybe they are really flummoxed by Apple's shifting gears. Maybe they've made a calculated decision that we solo power-users and the video houses that store 30TB in Dropbox aren't enough of a market to put in all the time to find a way to make it work for external drives that's not kludgy. Google seems to have found a way, but c'mon, Dropbox doesn't have Google's resources. Whatever the reason, Dropbox is moving too slowly for me in helping those of us who use Dropbox not just casually, but as an integral part of our work.

It's not just that they're moving slowly — their communication could hardly be worse. There are 47 pages in this topic alone, filled with desperation, anger, and frustration, and Dropbox has only posted a couple of times. I don't get that — unless it's part of their corporate strategy to let this corner of the market atrophy from neglect.

My files aren't huge — about 2TB total. As of today, I've moved everything from Dropbox to Google Drive, and it seems to be working correctly on an external drive. I'll keep Dropbox for a week or two just in case something goes wrong, but I'm just tired of waiting with no credible reply from a company whose products I've used with no hiccups for about 15 years.

That's my story. I wish it were different, because I've really enjoyed the seamlessness and utility of Dropbox. But I guess everything changes, right?

[UKD]

@phantom tides it's so disappointing the lack of communication from @Dropbox. Sadly they've communicated so infrequently and so poorly that it's just gotten everyone's back up. I personally think the reason that maybe they're having such a hard time is all the extra bells and whistles they keep adding on to their software. Maybe the integration with the new API is just is too much for them to code all in at this present moment in time.

Again, maybe had they communicated with the customers about the challenges they were facing and what their roadmap was, i.e. maybe some finder integrations dropped off on the initial release, followed by updates over a period of x number of months, then I'm pretty sure most customers would've accepted that. But that wasn't the case and this is where we all are, moving away from a service many of us have used, and loved, for well over a decade, some even 2 decades.

It's a sad sad day but I am sorry to say that they don't have anyone else to blame except for themselves here. Whoever runs their PR division needs firing probably!

[phantom tides]

"I personally think the reason that maybe they're having such a hard time is all the extra bells and whistles they keep adding on to their software."

@UKD I appreciate the support, and you are certainly entitled to any belief you'd like — but I don't know what evidence you have for your statement that it's the bells and whistles that have messed up Dropbox, especially when the Apple APIs are a fact. I'm generally more influenced by evidence than by speculation. and I try to be careful to keep the difference in mind.

What I do know is that other companies have addressed the challenge effectively, that Dropbox has not, and that the communication is insufficient for me. If it works for others, great — that's an opinion and a judgment call. Between the reality that it doesn't work, and the infrequent and uninformative communication, I am, sadly, going elsewhere. I respect if your judgment call is different from mine.

Cheers.

[kinetogenic]

Adding my +1 to this being a frustration. I've built an entire workflow for my company around dropbox over the past 10 years or so and it's going to cause some major frustration for me if/when this stops working. It will absolutely cause me to migrate to another service the moment my external drive no longer syncs. For now, even though the dropbox app seems to be less reliable than in the past, and icons sometimes do not show up or update, it at least is continuing to sync to my external. Hopefully this will continue until they sort out a solution, even if it limits other functionality.

[dandid]

I think DropBox wanted to sell to apple years ago but Steve Jobs was adamant that it wasn't anything worth buying and that 'mobile me' was going to be just as good (haha). even iCloud files is a poorly implemented option of something meant to do a similar job. But I think they want to sell more iCloud storage to everyone. They are pushing for subscriptions and service bundles like with Apple One and Arcade etc. For probably high proportion of Apple customers they won't understand the difference between more iCloud space and a service like drop box, and storage beyond 1 or 2Tb very rare. Then for the big boys that they have closer ties with, they are likely using their own proprietary synching or exchange type stuff that means these changes don't bother them. it's the usual 'Pros' that get the shaft.

[dandid]

this needs testing ASAP and making it more prominent, if this works DropBox need to be contacting customers to tell them there is this work around as it is a pretty good fix for an otherwise unmitigated disaster for a lot of people.

[dandid]

have you seen this post from another user further down this thread...>>

"

However a Reddit user came up with a possible workaround:

"It is linked to your home user folder location. If you move your home folder to an external drive, dropbox goes with it. And for that matter, so do google drive, one drive, box etc."

thoughts?