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Forum Discussion
Recent Dropbox - Mac 12.3 Monterey support
The official support page relating to Mac OS Monterey 12.3 Dropbox compatibility is 2 months old now, and Apple just released (April 2022) first beta version of 12.4 and patched 12.3 with 12.3.1, but still no references to current status other than "in late march we will release a beta version...". How can I know is the beta version is now secure or how many days, weeks or months (or years!) do we still need to wait for the final stable release of a 12.3 and up supported version of Dropbox?
- Hi everyone,We wanted to provide an update on availability of full support for macOS 12.5 and higher to more customers. We’re continuing to expand our rollout through May 2023, and anyone interested in receiving this updated experience earlier can join our beta now.If you haven’t already received the update, you can expect it between now and the end of May 2023. We’re also working directly with a small subset of customers with complex configurations to ensure their migration is as seamless as possible.Here’s how you can join our beta:
- Basic, Plus, Professional, and Family plan customers: Turn on early releases and keep an eye out for a notification to opt-in
- Standard, Advanced, Enterprise, and Education customers: Contact your Account Team or Customer Support for more information
The updated experience is more integrated with macOS and comes with some changes that are consistent with macOS requirements. For more information, please visit our Help Center.Thank you.
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey Nousmedis, thanks for your interest in this.
As you know, we are actively working on full support for macOS 12.3 (Monterey).
The private beta version is currently available to select users.
If you are interested in joining, you can turn on early releases, to be notified, when you are eligible. More information can be found here.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks for your reply, Hannah. The question is, Mac OS is prompting everyday to upgrade to latest release (12.3.1) for security reasons, but I'm afraid we won't be able to work with Dropbox by manually selecting folders to sync, as we use laptops with reduced storage and rely entirely in Dropbox for our day to day work. So the question is: is secure to use the beta version? what's the schedule for the final version?
For a service that has become so embedded in my (and many other people's) digital working, it is deeply troubling that Dropbox isn't up to speed with Mac updates.... makes me wonder if I should be looking elsewhere for remote storage/sharing.
PLEASE fix this soon or I'm jumping ship. one of my Macs upgraded to 12.4 automatically and that Mac is now sitting rotting and unused. Yes this is how valuable Dropbox is. So I'm looking at alternatives.
Is VERY disappointing to be subscriber of a premium file management solution and being still waiting for a solution to this issue.
I think that enough time has passed and many of us are considering seriously switching to other service.
I'm VERY DISAPPOINTED. There is no possible workaround to this and my daily work is radically affected.
Our company is in a similar situation. We have staff members scattered throughout the US, Europe and Asia. Because we have multiple people working on individual files throughout all 24 hours of a day and because we too have folks with the latest MacBooks with tiny SSDs, it's not feasible to have everyone store all their files locally. Ironically, our workflow evolved based on Dropbox's advancements in sharing files stored in the Cloud. We currently have a companywide order not to upgrade Mac OS to 12.3 until Dropbox issues a fix. The fact Dropbox has not updated users on progress to fixing this situation is simply not acceptable. We are exploring options other than Dropbox, but for the sheer sake of convenience, we'd prefer to stay with Dropbox. Dropbox, PLEASE let us know what's going on.
*Bump*
Information please. It's one thing to be late, it's another to be completely silent. I only administer a small number of machines, but I still have the same problem.
Have a look at this beta thread:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-desktop-client-builds/Beta-Build-147-3-4765/td-p/590978
It beggars belief that Dropbox is now non functional due a Mac OS update. How is it that two huge companies can't collaborate on something so important for todays cloud users. I've been reduced to using my old laptop now just to be able to function properly. I look forward to the day when large corporates are held responsible for businesses having to continuously find workarounds and patches because they use actual users to find out the bugs instead of testing the software for a few months before releasing. If Applenotofied Dropbox of this pending change that would affect a large portion of it's users, then shame on Dropbox for not having this sorted. I'd love to invoice Dropbox or Apple for my loss of time (again) when things don't work after some upgrade.
I've just notified Dropbox that I am migrating to OneDrive. We have an Office365 subscription so it makes financial sense anyway, its just that we have been long time DB users so didn't move before. I'm no programmer but if they can make OneDrive, iCloud and CreativeCloud work surely rocket science is not involved?
I will expect a refund as we only recently paid up our subscription... and yes wouldn't it be good to invoice for time and loss of earnings!
keithswd: I thought OneDrive had similar issues with 12.3? Has Microsoft been able to come up with a fix faster than Dropbox? I'd still prefer to stick with Dropbox because of the hassle of moving 10TB of data and ~50 accounts to something else, but this is getting beyond ridiculous that Dropbox isn't saying a word.
I've been holding off on updating my OS (Still at 12.2.1), but would like to update to the latest OS (12.4). Is Dropbox up to the task yet? I know there were a lot of warnings out there for 12.3.
- So, Megan from Dropbox support, you’re saying your solution is to link to your colleague Hannah’s post higher up in this same topic? Really? That’s Dropbox’s solution for businesses waiting to upgrade their software and leaving them open to vulnerabilities while they wait for Dropbox to come up with a solution to a problem the company was aware of ahead of time? Well, we are a small company that spends just short of $10,000 on Dropbox each year, but I believe with a solution like that, it’s likely we won’t be spending that money on Dropbox next year.
As I understand it, in macOS Monterey, Apple introduced the File Provider framework which builds "smart sync"-style functionality directly into macOS. Services using this framework most notably end up in the Finder's sidebar rather than syncing files into a folder in your home directory (local copies are stored in ~/Library/CloudStorage, but you're not supposed to care about that). This is modeled after the way iCloud Drive works.
OneDrive quickly adopted this. Dropbox didn't.
There is an app named "Strongsync" which connects to various services, including Dropbox, using the File Provider framework. It runs natively on Intel and M1 Macs. Although I own it (there was a sale), I don't personally use it, but I do use the company's similar product, ExpanDrive on Linux (I'm working on getting off of macOS, but that's a different, related, story), and have used ExpanDrive previously on Mac with good results. If your data is stuck in Dropbox and you need "smart sync" (i.e., all the files synced, but not stored locally taking up disk space), Strongdrive may be a solid replacement for Dropbox's client, and it's not in beta.
I also use OneDrive (two accounts) and iCloud Drive. I've had more sync issues with the other services than I have with Dropbox: duplicating files, issues with "illegal characters" in filenames that I can't change (e.g. because they're in an app's package), file deletions (iCloud Drive), etc. I'm definitely considering moving to OneDrive, since I already have it anyway, but like many in this thread have said, my workflows are based on Dropbox, so moving would be inconvenient (plus I'd have to deal with the stability and filename issues I mentioned).
If you try Strongsync (I think there's a free trial), let us know how it works.
Very sad that Dropbox is basically ignoring MacOS 12.3 and later.
- Seriously?!?!??!? I never thought that Dropbox would have literally NOTHING to say about 12.3+ support to this day. No beta no nothing. We are extremely close to 90 days after the release of 12.3 and will not be able to prevent users from updating. What’s the deal?!
I'm seriously considering to cancel my dropbox account and go to another cloud provider. Fix the Monterey problem please!
Ironic that today Dropbox announced a price increase as if it were some sort of improvement, but no word as to whether their now more expensive product will actually work.
Adding more thoughts to my reply from a few days back re:
https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/macos-12-monterey-support
The support doc refers to MacOS 12.3 which was released March 14.
Today is June 3. MacOS 12.4 is already out.
It's almost 3 months later. Longer if you consider 12.3 Beta was out in Jan.
The problems have not been addressed nor has article been updated.There are 2 issues mention in the document:
1. Online-only files show size of 0K.
2. Online-only files don't open "automatically" (i.e., via 3rd-party applications... i.e., all applications).
What the article doesn't mention is:
3. Modified Dates on folders and packages are changed (destroyed) when syncing.
4. Random files will sync whenever they want to. I've noticed this dozens of times in all kinds of scenarios. I've looked long and hard for a pattern and haven't found one.
5. Sync status icons don't always refresh when they should. You need to open/close folders to get the real status.moral of story:
Dropbox is awesome.
Smart Sync is not Smart.
Here's a novel idea, instead of focusing on new ideas, how about you fix the old problem with OS 12.3 / 12.4. It' been 6 months, and yet there is no timeline for a fix. Making it real hard for businesses to continue using your product. I need to be able to update my mac (security reasons), but I can't since DropBox doesn't work properly beyond 12.2.1.
It's been 6 months since Dropbox lost automatic smart sync capabilities on Mac Monterey.
My business relies on this feature to function smoothly. Our teams are losing significant productivity while we wait for this to be resolved.
Can anyone recommend alternatives they find have a reliable auto-sync function, so when a user opens a project file (lets say Adobe After Effects) the file client automatically downloads any source/asset files use in the project?
OneDrive? Google Docs? iCloud? I'm interested in your experiences, as I really can't wait any longer, especially when Dropbox don't even have the professional courtesy to inform their users of a possible timeline.
ayoole wrote:It's been 6 months since Dropbox lost automatic smart sync capabilities on Mac Monterey.
My business relies on this feature to function smoothly. Our teams are losing significant productivity while we wait for this to be resolved.
Can anyone recommend alternatives they find have a reliable auto-sync function, so when a user opens a project file (lets say Adobe After Effects) the file client automatically downloads any source/asset files use in the project?
OneDrive? Google Docs? iCloud? I'm interested in your experiences, as I really can't wait any longer, especially when Dropbox don't even have the professional courtesy to inform their users of a possible timeline.
I use both Dropbox and OneDrive. OneDrive would be my choice to bail to, because:
- I don't like how Google Drive handles documents (Google Docs is great for collaboration, but I don't like that the files are basically trapped in a web site).
- You get OneDrive for free with Microsoft 365, and Word, Excel, etc are still probably the best word processor and spreadsheet out there.
- I've lost files to iCloud Drive. Used to have all my personal files on it, then I flew on a plane with crappy airplane Internet, and iCloud Drive decided to randomly delete files. I still don't know how bad the damage was - I discovered it (after landing) when I opened a Logic Pro X file I'd been actively working on (stored in iCloud Drive) and Logic complained that some of the project's sub-files were missing.
My primary (possibly only) reason for using Dropbox is that I do music in Logic Pro X, and Logic writes files into its "package file" that contain what OneDrive considers "illegal characters". OneDrive is also slightly more prone to announcing "conflicts" than Dropbox.
I'm currently drudging through this Monterey issue by keeping my active projects and archive files clearly separated, then syncing the active projects locally. My wife thinks I'm dumb for sticking with Dropbox - she uses OneDrive exclusively.
From a business perspective I have begun exploring box.com again. it is not a feature for feature exact comparison but at the very least it works on the latest OS and is able to have third party apps trigger a download of "online-only" files. opening up an indesign file with a bunch of links for example works fine versus dropbox's current behavior.
We postponed updating to Monterey to give time for Dropbox to fix their issue with macOS 12.3 12.4 is well established and 13 Ventura was announced 1 month ago, but Dropbox is still saying "we've got a fix in progress" - rather stretches one's trust in what Dropbox say. If they're not going to fix Dropbox for Monterey they should just say so.
I didn't have time to wait for dropbox to fix a problem that has been long overdue. I switched to Google Drive and has been working fine.
But will it be fixed for Ventura or will it be more of the same?!?
Why is Dropbox silent on this issue?
A. They don't care and stopped working on it weeks ago. But it's a good selling point, so they are still marketing it as a feature.
B. The engineers can't actually hack it, and marketing is too embarrassed to let us know.
Z. {fill in yer own answer}
D. Apple has engineered Monterey to make it impossible to have this feature. Dropbox is using all their resources to argue with Apple which may or may not include threats to sue them as a "monopoly".E. "the pandemic"
Personally, I'm leaning towards D.
This is crippling to any artist who has relied on Dropbox for years. I have over 600 gigs of active working files. Am I honestly supposed to manually download them all, work with them and them copy them back to a platform that doesn't work? Also, why am I paying full price for a utility that no longer provides what it once did?
Does anyone have a suggestion of where to move my files? I am going to cancel Dropbox.
We're in a similar boat, with upwards of 10TB on Dropbox. We're looking for alternative solutions. If it's not bad enough that Dropbox continues not to say anything, they also announced a price hike! That's just nuts.
