Discontinuing rendering of HTML content

[Perry P.]

Got email notice from dropbox that they are discontinuing HTML rendering.  This is going to cause major issues for my wife since she uses this to distribute info and files to her students.  We are running a basic account and would be willing to upgrade to a paid account to retain this feature, but this policy seems to be across all account levels.

Any advice on alternatives?

[David R.16]

I am in exactly the same boat. Trying to find an alternative now. Exams coming up soon too 😞

[Richard P.]

Use a proper web host - Amazon AWS, Azure, Dreamhost, Discount Hosting etc etc etc.

[R K]

The notice I got says that this change will be effective a year from now: "Please note that this change will take effect for your account on September 1, 2017".

By the way, what is the reason for this change? Security concerns?

[Richard P.]

Basic users will see this feature discontinued in October this year, while Pro and Business users have more of a grace period, September 2017.

The change was made because the feature was being abused (malware etc) significantly more than it was being legitimately used.

[Perry P.]

I am a basic user so it is one month notice.  While moving to a dedicated web host is an option, it is not as easily to implement for a novice user as Dropbox is/was.  While I understand there could be abuses, making this part of a paid tier makes more sense to me than just discontinuing it.  I am sure I am not the only one who took advantage of this feature.

I rather pay for Dropbox (upgraded service) and retain the simple benefits of publishing to a shared folder than paying for a web host that requires either ftp or web based file uploads.  

[R K]

Richard P.:

Your response indicates that Dropbox is able to determine who is using this feature for malware and who is not. If that is true, why not issue a warning to bad actors and then disable it for those that don't comply and let legitimate users continue to use this feature? You're changing an important feature that has been very helpful to many legitimate users.

[Mark]

why not issue a warning to bad actors and then disable it for those that don't comply and let legitimate users continue to use this feature

Because people can set up infinite accounts in seconds - quicker than they can be removed.

[R K]

By this do you mean that they can set up infinite Dropbox free accounts? If so, why not keep this feature for paid Dropbox accounts?

[Mark]

Nobody here can answer that I'm afraid Rich - we are all users like you