End of support for windows xp

[Andy M.12]

I received a message saying that dropbox will stop supporting windows xp after August 29th and that the client software that I use to load and download files to/from dropbox will nolonger work.  I use dropbox to share files between an old desktop running xp and a laptop running windows 10.  Ater August 29th will I still be able to share files using the web application dropbox.com?  There is an icon on the webpage that allow me to upload files will this still work with my windows xp pc?

[Richard P.]

Use of the Dropbox website is not dependent on your OS, it is dependent on your browser being compatible.

If you can access the Dropbox website today, chances are you will be able to access the Dropbox website after August 29th - the caveat being of course if browsers move on in the next few months 🙂

The websites requirements are available here - https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/3

Note that Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Safari are not supported on XP any more, and the version of Internet Explorer that is available on XP falls outside the "two most recent versions" requirement, so you are reliant on Firefox to continue using the website as a supported user (other older versions may work, but are not guaranteed to work).

[Andy M.12]

Thanks for the quick reponse

[Neil M.7]

I use Dropbox between multiple devices. Android phone, Windows XP, Windows Vista. I have customers who I share files with that use Windows XP. I understand files already created will still be safe in the Dropbox cloud.

My question is:- the files that are created & modified using various applications on a Windows XP OS. Will Dropbox still upload them & download them to other computers which are still using Windows XP OS. It is not a requirement to access Dropbox via the browser. 

Regards Neil

[Richard P.]

That depends on how those various applications integrate with Dropbox.

If they use the Dropbox API (or in other words, if you can use them on a computer which does not have a Dropbox client installed), then they will continue to work just fine.

If they use the Dropbox folder on that machine (or in other words, if you can only use those applications with Dropbox specifically when Dropbox is installed on that computer), then they will stop working, because Dropbox is withdrawing the Windows XP client support, which is what does the syncing.

[Rick_M]

https://www.dropbox.com/help/9227

"On August 29, 2016, the Dropbox desktop app will no longer support Windows XP. On this date, you will be automatically signed out of any Dropbox accounts linked to a Windows XP computer. You can sign in again once you update to Windows Vista or a later version of Windows. "

Only web page access and your old files on hard drive will be available.

Open clarification Question for Dropboxers: will old versions of DB client work? (I suspect not.)

[Richard P.]

Open clarification Question for Dropboxers: will old versions of DB client work? (I suspect not.)

No they won't - the server side API that the Dropbox client talks to (different from the public developer API) will refuse to talk to Dropbox clients installed on Windows XP machines, regardless of how new or how old those clients may be.

That is why Dropbox can do this on a particular day - its driven from the server side, not the client side.  No action is required by the client.

Future clients will simply refuse to install or work on Windows XP.

[Neil M.7]

I looks like the operating systems will need to be updated then.

All our applications are setup so they create & save in the Dropbox folder & sub folders. They then sync with the other computers using the same folder configuration.

Thanks for your reply.

[Richard P.]

To remove all doubt, yes that set up will stop working on the 29th of August this year.

[Alexis G.1]

XP is a 15 years old OS. Very old. Insecure. Even OneDrive not longer work with XP.