You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Dropbox removing external disk support for Mac users
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://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.
- Mark
Super User II
I'm not sure it'll be the end - until very recently external drives werent supported. Plus, they come with HUGE risks of data loss. For example if the drive disconnects or Dropbox doesnt open quick enough then it can be seen as a complete deletion of all files.
I think the bigger issue is around online and offline folders. BUT the irk with that needs directing at Apple.
Yeah, we run a weekly public radio show to over 500 stations and we have more than 4TB of audio that needs to be readily accessed by our reporters and engineers, at a moment's notice. And this is a small (under 50 people) operation compared to other media companies that require way more space in other to professionally work with media, especially since 2020. Since people in the team wont be able to have internal drives with 4TB+ of data storage, it means that if we can't use external drives, this WILL BE the END of Dropbox for a lot of these professional media companies.
If you unplug your external drive, or it glitches otherwise (which can easily be resolved by 1. not having your Dropbox start automatically upon log in 2. not more your computer after the drive and dropbox are turned on) it will simply re-index all files. It takes a few hours for 4TB to re index, it is no big deal and does not cause mass deletion of files. In the unlike event it does, any admin can, with 4 clicks and a filtered search can restore these files in 10 minutes.
And yes, I am also trying to reach out to apple, but as you know, there is not much hope they aren't doing this intentionally, and very little hope they will change their ways. In the other hand, Dropbox might be able to address this issue creatively.
dropbox , please let us know what's your contingency plan, or we will need to look for another solution.
Thanks
This is a bombshell for the entire Mac community. As everyone knows, Apple charges a fortune for extra terabytes of SSD storage on its Mac Studio, Mac Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro computers, and it's impossible to increase internal disk capacity after you purchase your computer. Up until now, however, it's been possible to augment a skimpy internal drive with very fast and cheap external SSDs.
In fact, I have been pricing out a new Mac Mini M2 with 512 Gigs on an internal drive, supported by 4T of external storage, on a wicked fast Samsung SSD inside a very inexpensive external, enclosure. This is a bargain, given that Dropbox and other apps can be placed on the external drive.
Now, however, it seems that either Apple or Dropbox — or both companies working in tandem to skr3w us consumers--are making this impossible. Soon we'lll all be victims of Apple's greed and monopolistic power to squeeze us for every dollar they can extract.
My only response can be to stop using Dropbox and find an alternative. Microsoft OneDrive has already deprecated use of external drive. And, given that it irreparably corrupts PDF files, I can no longer recommend it to anyone.
I now must throw myself on the mercy of the Dropbox community. Is it really true that MacOS will soon make it impossible to use a cloud service on an external drive. If so, what can we do t work around this? If not, which of the many alternate cloud services are the most reliable and serviceable? HELP?
- ArthurPix
It is true and there still does not seem to be a workaround. Dropbox seems to be leaving us in the dark.
The most viable alternative that I’ve found seems to be Sync.com, which still works on an external drive, but isn’t as robust as DropBox and has a 40Mbps upload speed limit - which, if you have a gigabit connection and need to upload large amounts of data, is pretty slow.ArthurPix yes, it is a bit slow. But it's also fantastic. And they have just a few days ago sped it up. It's still not real fast but it's better. At least a listen, that's more than I can say for drop your box.
We pay $30 between two of us for a business pro account and have UNLIMITED STORAGE. That more than fits our needs and the speed is good enough.
They also are private. Again, drop your box is ridiculous. They openly state they will give your content to anyone and they will even read it or listen to it or whatever they want to do. I could not be more happy than to be away from them.
Just to be clear, I have dropped all of our paying accounts with dropbox. I am now on a free account. Two other people at our business no longer pay dropbox anything and have moved to sync.com. And there are numerous other friends of mine that are now no longer involved.
I really dislike politics altogether. But one thing I'm not is "woke". And here is a major corporation like Drop your box throwing in our faces, racist nonsense. It is more than I can take. I instructed them to immediately give me a response as to what they are doing to prevent this in the company further and give everybody a fair chance. They just blew me off. I wrote numerous times demanding a response. So I voted with my wallet.
My hope is that they go in the way of the dodo bird. Just like the Twitter employees.
In the meantime, sync.com is more than sufficient for 95% of us. There are definitely some use cases that will require more speed. However, they will now have an enormous problem with dropbox due to the space issues of having to have this on their primary drives. This is a complete non-starter for a great many businesses.
No, not really. It's just that dropbox doesn't want to do what it takes to make it work.
Sync.com is a fantastic alternative. They are a little bit slower, but they just sped up their service as well. So it's still a bit slower but much better. I don't know what the actual numbers are but I would absolutely try it.
Here's what I really like about them… They are private. They cannot see what you are uploading under any condition. And that's unlike dropbox that says openly they will share your stuff with anybody they want to. Drop boxes terms of service are horrific it should be illegal.
In addition, dropbox is a filthy woke corporation. They believe it's OK to discriminate. Just in reverse. They have a white manager who has openly said she would rather overlook even qualified candidates to hire black people. I have never been quite so disgusted in my entire life and told them so. They could care less. I demanded somebody get back to me about how they have corrected the situation and what actions were taken. I could hear crickets.
Being a person of a mixed family, all of us are disgusted by that. We all want a fair chance. That's all we want. Not a "more fair" chance than the next person. Nobody has to give any of us a break because of our color. That is disgusting on its face.
Sync.com has another thing that I just love. There are two of us and so we bought their business pro account. But are you sitting down? I think we pay $30 a month for the both of us in total. And for that, we have 100% unlimited space. Yes you read that right. So it is a bit slower, but not too bad, completely, 100% private, and now faster. So many improvements have just been made it's just amazing. Sync.com cares, and they listen. Two things the dropbox does not.
I was paying dropbox several hundred dollars a year and that was just for my account. I have now canceled my account and have gone to the free level as have several other people that I'm friends with and two other people in our company. I wonder how much this is really costing them? Yes we're just a few and very little. But it is not just us that is finding better places.
Dropbox marches on to the tune of their own "woke drummer". They have never given an appropriate answer. They have never even attempted to do what it takes to solve this. And we know that if other companies can solve it, they can do. Yes, yes Apple is suggesting that the main drive used. That's convenient for Apple as it causes all of us to buy a bigger drives. However, that is not the answer. Many of us have way too big of stuff that needs to be stored and accessed and the main drive even at 8 TB would not be big enough.
I'm very happy with sync.com. No, they are not paying me to say anything. I'm hoping this is somewhat like salt in the wound. Dropbox screwed me for a long time, refused to respond to my concerns, trade like crazy to keep me from downgrading my account. They can sign you up all right with a click of a button but to get away from them they can't help you. You have to trudge through their menus figure out how to get out and then click the buttons yourself. Ridiculous. They claim it's for privacy reasons. Funny that they don't respect her privacy in any other way.
Really, I just want to make sure this thread keeps going. Let's make sure everyone knows how ridiculous the situation really is. Maybe some Wolk engineer in dropbox will actually read it. I'm sure they won't care, but I wish for them the same future that Twitter employees had.
Next time when I instruct you to respond, I expect you to do so. I was a paying customer and I still would be. You failed me. You failed the common decency test as well. But you failed to follow my instructions and at least give me an update. You failed all of us in your ridiculous privacy policy. And now you show us how little you care by not even giving a real response to our questions and marking it as solved. I really do hope that each and every employee of this silly company get treated the exact same way they are treating others.
- Dude stop with the “woke”‘political crap. OMG you are just too much. The whole idea of “woke” is so completely out of context and frankly ignorant. Stop making every **bleep** thing political.
Nobody gives a flying crap about your politics. NOBODY CARES.
Dropbox needs to get on implementing this feature ASAP.As of 2023, with newer versions of MacOS 12+, it's not longer possible to store dropbox mirrored files on a separate disk!
It's insane, on the web, there are sooooo many of us using external drives that can match the capacity of the DB account.
When will this implement?
I've been using DB for a long time, but I'm looking now elsewhere for a different could provider, as this is a deal-breaker functionality that needs to be there forrecent OSX Mac users. Scout the web, and there are a gazillion of frustrated and angry users.
I just got a new mac mini, and sadly found out that I cannot move the dropbox folder elsewhere.
And using the "sync" only feature ain't cutting it for me.I am currently running Mac OS 13.2.1 and Dropbox version 163.4.5456 and it's working fine with my external drive. Which OS update has disabled moving the files to an external? I got asked to update my Dropbox app but I keep saying NO for now. Not sure how long before it just updates it automatically and tries to move all my files to my startup disk which has very little room left.
mymgraphics you can see the upcoming changes here: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
But here's the main one everyone is moaning about:
- Changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.
This we know is not true and is a "Dropbox is unable to support external drives". The reason we know it's not true is that there are other cloud based file sharing companies that do allow you to change the location of their folder in the new macOS 12.3+. I am looking at one right now (sync.com) and test bedding it.
dropbox you could at last clarify the language below:
But here's the main one everyone is moaning about:
- Changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.
This we know is not true and is a "Dropbox is unable to support external drives". The reason we know it's not true is that there are other cloud based file sharing companies that do allow you to change the location of their folder in the new macOS 12.3+. I am looking at one right now (sync.com) and test bedding it.
I've contacted support and they have actually been very helpful.
Today I got a followup on the mail, which might solve the issue with the external drives.
The app Dropbox is now updating my all my files (which may take a day or two), so I'll have to wait until it's finished to be sure it works.
I'll post an update once it's ready.For now, I can share my setup and possible solution provided by the Dropbox support.
My setup might differ a bit form others so keep this in mind, but I do think it could work for many of you.
Also, please take caution. I don't now if everything will be synced as before untill the update process has finished.
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My setup:iMac, 512GB harddisk space
Holding base Dropbox folder (with about 50GB of data synced)
Now relocated to the cloudStorage folder due to Apple's policy with a symlink to this at the old location (automatically created by the Dropbox update).
2x External drive 1TB
Synced via the Dropbox Backup
I'm not sure this these were located at the Dropbox Backup tab before, but they are now.
Both drives have an .dbx-external-drive extension in the Dropbox cloud.
This setup has worked for over a year and stopped working after the MacOs + Dropbox update
The drives were stated as disconnected on the Dropbox Backup tab and could not be reconnected.
If you have the base Dropbox folder located on an external drive, this will propably not work, but as a workaround you could create a new empty one at your working station (might allready be done by the update) and add the external drives via the Dropbox bakcup option.
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The solution (?), provided by Dropbox:--------------------------------------------
For me, it was the last step of the solution which made the drives visible again by DropBox; checking the removable drives box in the Security and Privacy tab. Just in case, I'll copy the complete reaction with all steps provided by Dropbox:
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Could you please check that all options listed in the Sharing and Permissions section of each external drive's Get Info page (navigate to external drive and press command + i) are set to ''Read & Write'' please?
I have attached below help articles from Apple explaining further the process:
https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/mac-help/mchlp1038/mac
https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/mac-help/mchlp1203/12.0/mac/12.0
Additionally, can you please ensure that "Removable Volumes" are enabled for Dropbox by the following steps:
- Open System Preferences.
- Click Security and Privacy.
- Click the Privacy tab.
- Click Files and Folders.
- Check the box next to Removable Volumes under Dropbox.
Once the above has been applied to each drive, can you please reconnect the drive were you should hopefully be prompted to backup again as desired.
Should the issue persist after completing the above steps, I kindly request that you advise us of what you encountered when attempting the above (with screenshots if possible) to enable us to investigate further.This is a disaster! We are a creative firm using external drives for big file storage on our Macs. Why Apple!? Why!? Please give us back the ability to store data where we want to!!
I only partly blame Apple. This lies squarely in the lap of drop your box. They have mismanaged their company, mismanaged their service, mismanaged their communication with their customers and dropped the ball and the box entirely. They should be ashamed of themselves.
They could've created their own an API. Apparently other companies are doing exactly that. They are figuring a way to make this work we're only drop your box is screwed the pooch every which way but loose.
Due to the way they treated me previously when I confronted them on their silly decisions to let a woman act racist in a public way who is the manager for them, I am happy to keep the pressure on them. Next time when I ask for an answer, maybe you'll give one. Or maybe you won't be here to be able to give one. Either way works for me.
Drop your box could've handled this had they got their asses in gear long ago. They are big enough to actually exert pressure on Apple. I don't know what they have or haven't done but whatever it is it hasn't worked. And they have failed to communicate with their customers in a timely manner as well.
Drop your box disgusts me. This is a perfect study on a slow moving disaster. I think though it will speed up here quite shortly.
I'm happy to keep applying pressure to get this fixed. Dropbox is a big part of our creative business and we pay a lot of $ every month for it. Not it is pretty much rendered useless.
Woah! I was just looking at the update and was about to ask about this, this is not good news I don't want my hard drive full of files I use extensive externals and soon a raid, the hard drive is just for Apps and some current projects.
Dropbox will lose customers if they force this on clients, I have a pro account and would look for alternative if this was to happen.
leeharris Thanks for registering your concerns. This is a loooong thread, and practically everyone feels similarly. Happily, until we hear otherwise, we’ll be able to continue using our external drives, as long as we’re happy with using the old API. If anyone has a contrary experience, we’d like to hear from you.
Yes, I think I feel a little more relaxed; misery loves company!
DropBox Users: You just destroyed our years long workflow. Literally everyone knows that internal drives don't have the capacity needed for a huge number of DropBox users. We'll lose business and suffer significant costs because of this.
DropBox: Welp, can we interest you in AI while we fire a ton of our workforce?
"Dropbox on Thursday announced plans to cut 500 employees, or about 16% of its workforce, according to a blog post on the company’s website.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston wrote in the blog post that the company has been reckoning with slowing growth, in part due to a maturation of its business, but also as a result of economic headwinds that are pressuring its customers.
Houston said that the company is also facing an urgency to focus more on artificial intelligence-powered products, and doing so will require hiring workers with different skill sets."
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?- 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.
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?
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?
I'm frustrated and disappointed by this, and wanted to add my voice too. Gosh, many relatable stories.
So far my Dropbox hasn't tried to update and force me to move files onto internal storage. 🤞 I see this message:
However, another Mac I'm on that only uses internal storage was forced to update, or Dropbox would quit.
Like others, I've long relied on a professional path that depends on trusting Dropbox for file-sync integrity, but this sounds confusing and messy — the right thing to do here is to have a solution/workaround IN PLACE before removing the old pathway. That's called making a smooth migration, and not having it is simply not responsible.
Dropbox risks destroying much goodwill with longtime customers. The lack of communication is even more detrimental, during a time where we and our workflows would benefit from reassurance and updates.
