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.

[UKD]

yeah I don't think @dropbox gives a flying f*** about you or companies like you. I've been bleating at them for nearly 18 months about how incompetent they are and what's our options and their answer is always the same "Kindly note, if you have a large amount of files on your account you can opt to use Selective Sync so they don't take up space on your hard drive, and only utilize space on Dropbox". 

Apple are looking out for themselves and what people to upgrade to the most expensive internal hard drives on the planet. Externals will no longer work with Dropbox so we are now all stuck with either looking elsewhere and with someone who does work with external drives (anyone know who?) or stump up huge amounts of cash to Apple. Looks like someone isn't working in their own self interest are they???🤔

The problem is who is any good. Sharepoint to me is a big no no. Box is ok but very slow. Google Drive is very expensive and also very irritating with the constant reverting to master account and having them approve access all the time.

Anyone got any recommendations?

[ArthurPix]

I agree with everything you said—especially the parts about what happens if your external drive gets disconnected. As you say, it’s no big deal, and having all my Dropbox folders DOWNLOADED and PHYSICALLY PRESENT on my massive external RAID gives me far more security than having my folders only in the cloud (which would have to be the case if I were forced to put my folders on my internal drive) and inaccessible in the event that my internet connection goes down!

[ArthurPix]

P.S. to fjazzjazz, I truly commiserate with you, as the owner of a small business who keeps all the projects and data for my company on Dropbox, not to mention all the personal receipts needed to back my personal tax returns. This is a very big deal — one might call it an existential crisis.

[TheMainOne]

@fjazzfjazz 

Drop your box has dropped everything and has no solution. This is the big problem isn't it. They have no contingency plans. 

You probably have too much material to rapidly get stored and download it from Sync.com. But their price sure is right. And their speed is absolutely doable for us. But we don't have that many terabytes of data nor that many people trying to access it. 

Unfortunately, drop your box has become victim to its own silliness. Either that or people like you and even people like me are no longer their target market. 

This problem is overcomeable as other companies have created solutions that work. The question is can you find a company that will do all you need. 

Another problem with drop your box is that nothing is private with them. They can and will read, listen, look at or give your material to whomever they see fit or whomever they consider a partner or frankly anybody, from their terms qualifies.

For me, it was simply time to move on. I stopped the program I was on on a yearly basis about six months ago. When the time ran out it shifted to a monthly program but I almost immediately shut it down and went to the free version and I'm now happily on sync.com.

[fjazzfjazz]

Thanks for the recommendation. You seem to speak of Dropbox with the property of someone that knows something we all don't. Do you have inside info, or to rephase it: how can you say they don't have a contingency plan? 

[revealnews]

I'm following this issue with some dismay as having a large volume of data accessible via local syncing and using DB like a storage "lending library" has been a huge success in our media production environment. And despite issues like this, the support has been top shelf. It allows us to use what we need and have the rest available when the need arises, in a UI that is *much* more universal than one which would force everyone including our infrequent partners to use a server that we admin in house.

I see the note that Dropbox hopes to restore this functionality, which I hope we will see whether in the form of symlinks or some other end around. If not I fear that this would be the death knell for our use of Dropbox as an organization, and we'll have to devolve into more antiquated methods of file sharing.

[psalcal]

1.  The moderation of this discussion board is just terrible on a few levels.  They are way too quick to combine threads while at the same time being way too lax on garbage posts, politics, etc.  

2.  The idea of continuing to mark this issues as "SOLVED" is another bad one.. while at the same time moving an external drive related posts to this thread.  Just plain bad form.  

3.  The lack of transparency is problematic as well.  Yes, apple did make a change.  Yes, other companies have found ways around it.  BE REAL dropbox.  

Frankly, these items above have combined to greatly call into question Dropbox's viability and competency.  I guess large companies often fall into this trap.  But it's super sad to me to have to be looking for an alternative.   

[UKD]

for anyone who wants to know about the external drives there's this little gem of a page: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes

[MottoW]

That's a nightmare, no more logic and Final Cut synched over cloud services, seems like Mac is trying to kill its pro user base.

[Bluebicycle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZB_FVWZq2Y&t=3s