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Forum Discussion
Make offline files visible in the android filesystem
I think you should make files stored offline on Android available in the file system.
As it is now, the dropbox files marked as 'available offline' are hidden from the rest of the operating system. This gives a number of problems:
1: When opening a file in an app, that app may put the file path in its 'most recently used documents'-list. However, since the path it gets from the Dropbox-app is not long-lived, the 'most recently used documents'-list becomes unusable, since the links on it become dead rather quickly.
2: It makes using browsing apps, like photo viewers or podcast players, on your offline files impossible.
3: Some apps expect content to be found on the file system. For example, the samsung app used to download content onto a samsung smart watch, expects to find files in the file system. It cannot be used to download files from dropbox onto the smart watch.
4: Sometimes a smart phone is used a bit like a computer. Like uploading files to an FTP-server and the like. A FTP-client typically expects to find files on the file system, and allows them to be selected and uploaded. This does not work with Dropbox.
A possible work-around is to export the contents from the dropbox offline folder onto the phones regular file system. This is unsatisfactory because:
1) It feels cumbersome. The number of clicks to send a podcast episode to a smart watch, or to download a .pdf from dropbox and upload to an FTP-server, becomes a few too many.
2) For files which can be edited (like password manager saves, various profiles, text documents etc), the user needs to remember to copy the file back to Dropbox, which is very error prone.
Dropbox obviously already has technology to synk a file system folder with dropbox. Could not this functionality be offered on smart phones also?
The fact that this doesnt work like that is utterly useless. I will be cancelling my pro, not even waiting till the trial ends. Might as well not have the app at all and only use web version in chrome on mobile. Who came up with the idea of REMOVING the only point of the goddamn service - file synchronization. This is a joke.
2.5 years later and still not fixed. This list of comments likely only scratches the surface of the number of people who are affected by this (most people just wouldn't bother to comment).
People want to be able to edit the file with other apps and, when saved within that other app, have that sync to their DB account.
Does the DB team even read these comments?
"Does the DB team even read these comments?"
Doesn't matter. The overpaid, technologically illiterate suits with MBAs at the top have zero vision and cannot understand why someone would want this ability.
I need someone from dropbox to explain why this is so messed up. I used to love your service hiding the files on android phones is ridiculous.
I can finally confirm that "Autosync for Dropbox - Dropsync" does exactly what we're looking for. Everyone here might find it useful. It's free, but you can pay to remove ads and get some extra features.
I use another app for viewing images in Dropbox because of annoying prev/next, zoom, and panning usability flaws in the Dropbox image viewer. I can't any more, which is super inconvenient.
this was the key feature to choose Dropbox over other options. Why was it removed?
I see many people agree with the idea presented here. Still, the idea has only 1 vote. So please vote for the idea if you like it! :-)
Please make offline files truly offline, i.e., please, please, please I want to have my music collection physically in my phone, so I can point my music player towards those files and have them available IN my phone.
I honestly think that is a must have for Dropbox, otherwise I have to keep using an app like Dropsync, which is absolutely redundant, since I am a paying Dropbox user.
Why fix it if it wasn't broken?
You actually made Dropbox less useful to its users.
Honestly super curious.Thanks for giving me the push I needed to quit using Dropbox. Been with you guys for over a decade now, your platform has been getting steadily worse, breaking your mobile functionality was just the final straw.
Whoever decided preventing a user from accessing their own files through their file system was a brilliant idea should be fired.
It's been a while and there doesn't seem to be any interest on dropbox's side to add back this functionality. My yearly subscription ends in 2 or so months. Guess it's time to look into MEGA or Onedrive. What I liked about Dropbox was the Block-Level Upload, but since I'm using 3rd party apps to sync my music now with my android device, I'm having to waste time to scan the whole folder anyway, so it doesn't even matter anymore.
For whoever is interested about alternatives, MEGA is used as a big file sharing site a lot, so a subscription to them will help you get over their 4GB per day limit. And I think Onedrive also gives you Office. MEGA doesn't support syncing either, though. You still need to use a 3rd party app. Not sure about Onedrive. I think it does, but it's locked behind the subscription. Will investigate further.
