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Forum Discussion
Dropbox is now too hard to use.
Congratulations Dropbox,
You have lost sight of your core value added, and ruined your offering. You have layered so much unwanted additional functionality on top of simple file sharing, the the interface is now confusing and inaccessible. It's very difficult to do the simplest things like copying a link to a file in my dropbox so I can paste it into an email for someone. You want me to use your collaboration tools, and your "improved" methods for sharing files.
Not Interested in being coerced into doing things your way. Dropbox is now too hard to use. I am actively searching for a new file sharing platform that understands the real value it is adding. Oh, and adding all this new crap does not justify raising your rates.
Goodby Dropbox.
Unhappy customer
Thank you for addressing this. Dropbox has made me bat sh*# crazy for the longest time. The SIMPILEST of file maintenance tasks are impossible.
Herron I have to agree with you - I' just want to store pictures and search them so it's obviously far too complex for me - did you find an alternate ?
Hi CM18 and Herron
Each to his/her own but I disagree with you. The new Dropbox experience (smart workplace) is easier to use and the integrations make it easy to share content with other people. Dropbox needs to evolve. And that is what they are doing. Otherwise they will be "just another cloud storage provider".
I use all three major cloud providers (Google Drive/Microsoft OneDrive Personal and Business/Dropbox Personal and Business). Dropbox is lightyears ahead with speed of syncing, integration, mobile experience, etc.
OneDrive and Google Drive are much slower when you want to sync. Google Drive cannot store folders offline on mobile devices (only files). When sharing content with OneDrive the recipient needs a Microsoft account.
With Dropbox you can even share content to WhatsApp and integrate with Zoom, Teams, Slack, etc. I do not use Papper (I use Evernote) but from what I read, Paper is a good solution as well (I do not like OneNote).
I guess any solution is related to the person (or business) requirement. If you want only cloud storage for your files, use OneDrive or Google Drive (although Dropbox does this seamlessly as well). Try all three, and choose what is best for your specific requirements and budget.
Regards
Casper
I am not opposed to Dropbox expanding its mission. However, the CORE mission is now almost impossible to access and easily use. The idea that I now have to "learn Dropbox" is absurd. I am trying to run a business not "learn Dropbox". If I wish to use it as it originally functioned, I should have that option without having to "learn" Dropbox. Unfortunately when I open it, what I see is totally incomprehensible to me and rather than sit there and "learn Dropbox" I prefer to go about my business productively. It's become a total waste of time for me.
For weeks I have been trying to link my phone to my laptop - I follow all the instructions and onscreen prompts with no success. There's nobody to talk to, there's no troubleshooting nothing and now this. Time consuming, inaccessible, obscure and instead of being able to go to my photos easily and quickly as I could before there's just a multiplicity of offers to do things I don't want to do, and frankly I can't believe anybody in their right minds would want to do either.
I suspect this update has been devised by Dominic Cummings and his henchmen at Westminster - it's certainly as bad as anything the Tories have managed to do so far. Every programme seems to be "improved" to the point where the developers seem to have forgotten what the point of it was and all they want to do is show how clever they are and how they can make things so complicated that only they can understand how to do it
Absolutely agree. So shockingly confusing that the simplest task of actually sending multiple photos is actually impossible. Good bye dropbox. No way would I pay for such a headache.
Hi Crispinhj
Dropbox is a USA based company so I doubt that the UK politicians would have had anything to do with the recent updates. :-)
Jokes aside. Let's try to get it working for you. What type of phone do you have (Apple or Android) and what errors do you get? Please paste a screenprint of the errors you get on here, without any personal identifiable information.
Looking forward to try to help you!
Regards
Casper
Hi Casper
I hope you're keeping safe and well. Yes I was only joking too. I'm sure the people who run Dropbox are brighter than the bunch of idiots we've got as a government hereSorry to be slow replying to this I have only just seen it. I would very much appreciate some help. I have an Apple phone which is up to date. My MacBook Pro laptop is rather old (manufactured 2009) and I cannot update it past OS X 10.10.5, and I have wondered if that is the problem. When you ask for messages I don't get anything. I follow the instructions, get the phone pointed at the pattern of dots on the laptop's screen and that's it - nothing more happens
Best wishes
Crispin
Yes, I just got so angry today trying to use their new way of doing things. In the past, I right-clicked a file, got the link, and pasted the link in an email to send to people with an explanation. But thanks to their ridiculously new complex procedure, I have no idea of how to get the link of a file. This is absurd. Did DropBox even bother to run this through a UX team before they unloaded it. Thank god, my subscription is coming to an end. I signed up for a simple easy-to-use interface, not some ridiculous piece of hard-to-understand intrusive bloat that wants me to jump through hoops.
And I never did discover how to get the link. I copied one from an old file and hope it still works.- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hi KeepItSimple; thanks for joining our Community.
I'm sorry to ask, but are you following the steps from the relevant Help Center article and not working for you?
https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/share/view-only-access
Could you give them a go and let us know if you're still having issues with this?
Thanks!
Walter:
Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately the indicated document shows exactly what everyone is complaining about. DropBox clearly didn't use anyone with even the most basic user experience expertise to design or check the interface for ease of use. It was clearly developed by programmers who never considered things from the user perspective. I suspect the programmers just got told, "We want users to do stuff that we can charge more for. So just force them to do it that way."
Case in point, how to share a file. Which procedure do you think is more intuitive and easier to user?
------------
DROPBOX'S OLD WAY
1. Right click the file in the DropBox folder on your PC, and select "Copy DropBox Link".
2. Paste that link into an email and send it.
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DROPBOX'S NEW WAY (DIRECT QUOTE FROM DOCBOX)
1. Sign in to dropbox.com.
2. Click All files in the left sidebar.
3. Hover over the name of the file or folder you'd like to share and click Share.
4. If a link hasn't been created, click Create a link.
- If a link was already created, click Copy link.
5. The link will be copied to your clipboard. You can then paste it to an email, message, or wherever people can access it.
----------
(Actually, the new procedure is even worse, because the first step is actually a jump that leads to another procedure.)
DropBox is generally more expensive than competitors, but it used to be so easy to use it wasn't worth changing. Now you've just given everyone an incentive to seriously look at cheaper competitors. I have serious doubts about the future of any software company that doesn't regard the user experience as important.
amen. I just sent them that same message. It's absurd that using the core purpose has become impossible
Same issue here. I and my team rely heavily on WhatsApp for field personnel to send back photos to the operations team.
Before I would use DROP SYNC to synchronize android devices to my Dropbox folders.
The files no longer go into my nominated DROPBOX folder on my RAID 10 drive in my pc. Instead, after the latest update, they are "virtually available" in the drop box virtual drive on my pc. The problem is that my C drive is a high speed SSD REVODRIVE with cad and other important software. When I try to move the 1.5 TB dropbox folders to my D drive where the original folder was; I receive the error "Dropbox already exists" Dropbox does not allow live synchro to an existing folder on my D drive. Just a virtual folder on my already cluttered C drive. I want ALL my files live on my PC. In my D drive.
I am sure there is a way to do this. But I do not want to become a programmer to learn how to relearn what is not broke; that worked before. I am sure there is a programmer somewhere with his head up against the tree trunk and doesn’t realize he is in a forest.This is the problem that programmers have visions that make programming sense but are devoid of the basic functionality on which the average use relies. I have several professional drop box accounts that are distributed to site leads; I am actively looking for alternatives.
There is a feeling of frustration when a product that is simple and usable changes to unmanageable and unintuitive.
I understand that manament must stay on the wave of development; or lose out to newer technologies that virgin users find more accomodating than even legacy users. There has to be a blaance . It is lost in my opinion. You are tampoering with your core user group.I am a Mac user but experiencing many of the same issues. Dropbox was simple to use - it just stored my photos, they were filable and easy to find. Most importantly to me every time I connected my phone the photos downloaded without me having to do anything clever. I proudly told other people what a great app Dropbox was.
I get that many people are not as dim with technology as I am, and that they may have needs that Dropbox in its current form may answer perfectly. If the main drive of Dropbox as a company is to answer those needs I have no real issue with that but I really don't understand why while answering those needs the baby is thrown out with the bathwater.
Photobucket did a similar exercise, suddenly deciding they were going to charge users for what they had previously offered for free. Almost every user found some other way of storing their photos. It must be possible to keep both groups happy without too much effort, when you already have a working system, you don't have to have a huge great R&D budget to invent something new, it already existsI psent more than 30 minute sonline with tech support. I told them that this NEW appearance on my C drive of a redundant Drobox folder was incomprehensible. WHat is worse is that my phone no longer synchronizes my whatsapp media and camera to my origianl folder.
Even tech support could not move the fodler to my D drive where I have room. They asked me "do you have Widnows 7 ..that is the problem apaprently" oh..you didnt get my paymnet? I decided to send it in dollar emogie symbols....
This is another attempt to force a user to store eerythign online. People also ask
Couldnt agree more - its now pracitically impossible/difficult/unpleasnat to use when you are on the move.
It is so unnecessary as the origianl system was fine and its been completely ruined .
I am actively looking for an alternative
Worzel
Very much agree. Way to complicated now. I need something simple that allows for a single click share or upload.
- Lusil
Hey herron, thanks for checking in with us and sorry to hear about your negative experience.
If you're having any trouble with sharing or any other functionality, we'd be more than happy to see how we can help.
Just give us a shout and we'll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!
When I open Drobox now I don't even know what I am looking at. If I put a file on Dropbox now it seems to just disappear 'somewhere' and I don't even see it anymore. I used to be able to put it in, and there it was. That is how I wish to use it. I don't need or want the rest of the clutter. You should offer Dropbox in various functionality levels. Believe, me my time is scarce as it is, "learning" Dropbox is not among the best uses of my time.
- I thought I was the only one. How do I get up outta here? This is the pits. They hold your data hostage! I can't even download a photo!!!! It's so complicated.
Hi Walter,
That was an old post but thanks for responding. At the time I was really trying to combine multiple dropboxes. I had recently quit work and found that half my files were in one dropbox sign-in and half were in another.
I've got a situation now whereI have two or three nearly identical dropbox folders on one computer. But I also have a new computer and it only shows one dropbox after I've signed in online and downloaded the app. My plan is to download all files, erase all my current dropboxes, and try to start over with just one dropbox. I do not use dropbox much for sharing files or collaboration. I use it as my virtual cloud for documents and find it preferable to being tied into One Drive, or iCloud, or Google Drive.
