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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.
It would be good if the OP could remove the "Resolved" marking for this thread.
Thanks!
The Dark Knight Ah finally found the button - done!
Awesome - thanks Jon C.10!
You're a legend for starting this thread!
This is also extremely worrisome to our future as well. We've spent years revolving around this feature and it is absolutely business critical. Without this feature of moving the sync folder anywhere, our entire sector of business will come to a complete stop. We use this feature so much because of the advantages it brings to processing, rendering and handling files locally that we can not do efficiently in the cloud. As of right now, we're being advised to not update the OS and thus the app will not get updated and remove the feature. However when we bring a new computer onboard, we will be forced to use the new OS that the machine ships with and will not be able to run a legacy OS and will be forced into the app version without the folder relocation. This is very worrisome. Without this particular feature, if we're forced to change our workflow, we're probably going to have to change our platform altogether. It would be a tough sell to attempt to use and pay for two different systems. We really don't want to leave Dropbox! You've been so great to us for so long!
Help us Dropbox Team, You're our only hope!
KzDbxCommunity Manager
Hello everyone. Thank you for your feedback.
We understand that this is a significant pain point for you and your teams that rely on having Dropbox sync on external drives.
Currently, the File Provider API only supports your Dropbox folder in ~/Library/CloudStorage. We are actively working on a solution to support external drives on the updated Dropbox for macOS. While we work to implement a solution, customers who have their Dropbox folder on an external drive will not be migrated to the updated macOS experience. External drive support will continue to work as usual on your current experience.
We will keep you updated when we have more details to share."While we work to implement a solution, customers who have their Dropbox folder on an external drive will not be migrated to the updated macOS experience. External drive support will continue to work as usual on your current experience."
Hallelujah! Thank you, Dropbox, for listening.
May I suggest that in the future, for those of us who contacted Customer Support directly, you give us mere mortals confirmation that our feedback is being taken seriously and being passed upwards?
I made an attempt at that and was told outright by the service person that they would not escalate the issue. After asking to escalate the issue 6 times, I was told:
"Charlotte: Unfortunately, I cannot escalate your case, I'm really sorry that I can't help more with this"
As a Business Advanced customer, that's completely unacceptable.
You were ->this<- close to losing us as a customer; in fact we were testing out OneDrive today to see if it'd fit our needs.
I'm really confused over this. If I've got most of files and folders current set for DROPBOX online only how is this going to affect me? Does it? I don't have the Dropbox app on an external. ie it reads users>Homefolder>Dropbox>xyzfolder. So, if this is the case, when does this issue affect me. I'm certainly not going to choose "Okay" or "start" until I know what's going on. I want to "downsize" my 2014 Mac Mini (1TB) to a 2023 Mac Mini2 (512gb), and planned on putting the videos in dropbox and pull them down to work on them; do I need to now just put them on an external instead? I basically use DROPBOX for storage so how does this change my situation? Any insight is appreciated.
On Friday, Dropbox posted this comment...looks like they are pausing the rollout until they implement a solution.
While Dropbox works on making external drive support official, as KzDbx kindly informed us about, I'd like to share an insight that was given to me by one of Dropbox Germany's support agents, Stephanie, who I asked for help with a concern I had regarding moving my Dropbox folder to an external drive, and not wanting to have to download all files again.
The solution she gave me seems to also be relevant to all those of us who already have all of our files on external storage and want to keep it that way...I re-wrote her instructions to hopefully be more clear:
• Quit the Dropbox client
• Download the newest client from http://dropbox.com/downloading
• When installing it, it may have the option "All Files Offline" greyed out (not enough disk space), so continue with "All files Online"
In the next step, choose "Advanced Options" and point the location of the Dropbox folder at your current location (the root of which your Dropbox folder resides in, not the Dropbox folder itself!)
• Dropbox will start and re-index all of your files, without downloading them again, which could take a while, depending on the number of files in your Dropbox
Once finished, your Dropbox folder will be on your external storage and, according to KzDbx, remain there until Dropbox finds an official solution.
Now stop threatening Dropbox with cancelling your subscriptions...they are obviously aware of how important this issue is, and can't afford to fall behind other cloud storage providers who are supporting external storage already!
Thanks KzDbx for letting us know, and please ask your overlords to do a better job communicating your progress to us foot-soldiers.
It doesn’t affect you.
This would be a deal breaker for my business use of Dropbox. I'd have to cancel my pro subscription, worth thousands of dollars a year, and move to another service.
Don't know if this will help some of you out there. I didn't "send for brochure" or send an email because it won't work for me. And I don't want to be called by a salesperson into infinity. If Dropbox gets squirrelly that I shared a link, Google "Best Cloud Storage" and search for Seagate. There are others but this apparently allows for collaboration, etc.
I was able to use a Time Machine backup and revert to a date before I upgraded to the new version that doesn't allow external drives.
This is BS. Google has figured out a way around it for google drive. This is a COMPLETE SHOW STOPPER and this is TERRIBLE and unusable. How many of us have large dropbox libraries on our desktop computers AND host all our files on external volumes?
Instructions on how to fix google drive, for reference:
"Disconnect their account from Drive for Desktop.- Quit Google Drive for Desktop.- Run this command in a terminal touch ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/DriveFS/fp_left_beta- Start Google Drive and log back in.
https://support.google.com/drive/thread/159983654?hl=en&msgid=162498347
This way the user will have a second folder that is not controlled by FileProvider and can be safely used."
MAKE THIS HAPPEN.It seems that moving from Mac to Linux might make more sense than giving up Dropbox. Is that feasible? If I installed Linux on my Mac computers, could I move all my Dropbox files over?
Never mind. I did the Dropbox upgrade, and most of the files ended up as cloud-only, so this did not use up my hard disc drive.
Please let's not have this marked as "solved" when the solution is kicking the can down the road. This is NOT "solved" to me. Please don't mark this is "solved" until you at Dropbox have a plan for exactly how you will facilitate external drive support in OSX. This is not optional. This is a complete nonstarter.
This explains the unusual Dropbox behavior I've seen the last couple of weeks. Add me to the list of Mac admins who will have to leave Dropbox (after 12 years of paid!) if it can't support external drives. What a mess this is making.
This is not a disaster. It's a clusterf##k. An absolute f##k you to your customers. So I'll be looking at other solutions, like everyone else.
Mister Admin THIS IS NOT SOLVED.
Please UNSOLVE this thread!
Just starting up a new thread because Dropbox marked the old one as SOLVED.
Continue making noise, this issue is NOT SOLVED.
LOL started a new thread and it was moved here. NOT SOLVED
