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
Vault on Desktop is going away (macOS)
Boohoo! Just received this message when starting the macOS upgrade wizard.
I'd just started using this about 6 months ago. Sigh.
Hey Darryl M.4, thanks for reaching out to us today.
We really appreciate your feedback about this and I will make sure that your comments are passed along to our team.
Indeed, on the latest Dropbox for macOS update, you will no longer be able to access Vault through the Dropbox desktop app.
However, you can still access your Vault on our website and the Dropbox mobile app.
Let me know if you have any questions.
So, like everyone else, I've stumbled through being required to access Vault via browser (Grrr...) but how can I edit a simple text file in Vault? Back in good ol' days I could just vi/whatever that file. Now, I click on it in the browser and Dropbox displays it but I can't edit it.
I'm still unable to access my vault files through the website nor iPhone app. This is a major disappointment!
https://www.dropbox.com/vault
This should bring up your vault if you are signed into your dropbox account and then asking for your pin. Even double clicking vault in your finder normally goes straight to yours in the browser.
My Vault folder no longer shows in Mac Finder, and even when I go to DropBox online, I can only get to my Vault by going through settings to unlock Vault. Otherwise, it's invisible in the sidebar.
I'm currently using Mac OS Sonoma 14.0 on an iMac 24" M1 chip computer.
- Megan
Dropbox Staff
Hi Zaniac, let's jump right into this!
You mentioned that you have some issues locating your Vault locally.
Could you hover your mouse over your little Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi on the menu bar, and check both the syncing status and the version of the app you're using?
Are you on the new macOS for File Provider?
Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!
Hi Megan,
There is no "Get Started" link, which means that, for some reason, the update isn't available for me, although I don't think I have a complicated setup. There is, however, this:
[Removed as per Community Guidelines]
But there is no explanation of how to move it there if I need to move it.
I have not accessed my Vault for a couple of months. My account settings or subscriptions have not changed. I can no longer see the Vault - on my Mac, on the web, on my iPhone. It has completely vanished, along with all of the files that I had put there!
The only thing that has changed is the upgrade to the new Dropbox, which has included its "migration" to a new integration with the Mac than it had previously. Has Dropbox deleted the entire contents of my Vault, or are they somewhere else?
It seems it has, but have a backup (fortunately)...
Very frequent vault user here and very disappointed with this decision.
You are making it harder for desktop user to easily access files on my HD, just so you have more access to my files?Seriously, I don't see any legit reasoning from your end why you make this change.
Been a client for 8 years and I'm out 👋😤Yeah... I can't even do anything now. I refuse to have to go to my browser, when I could have gone into the files, and then viola! Like magic! Edit or send files to the vault, then download them, and then reupload them through the browser. This is ridiculous. It was easy drag n drop when the vault was open when needed to. Now it's a hassle. If I didn't need this space for my business. I would go to iCloud. Unfortunately my clients files will no longer be stored in a private vault for them and out in the open for anyone to get into, if there should be any vulnerabilities on the web client. At least my other computer hasn't updated, and I will refuse those updates until I no longer can, or until I find something better. A highly sought out feature that was highly regarded just not to long ago. Then some stupid higher up decided to say "Hey! I know how we can piss off the majority of our user base! Lets get rid of the Vault in the folders options and make our users use their browser and make it really inconvenient!" I used to be able to send my own sensitive documents by drag n drop. Now i have to take the extra time to use a feature that wasn't broke. I also moved the Drop Box folder back to Favorites, super inconvenient to put it in "Locations".
If I could do what I could do with iCloud, or Google Drive like I could do on here. I would.
When I do go to the vault, it tells me that I can backup my drive. Then sends me to vault in the Finder to put the code in, Which then goes into a loop of opening Dropbox vault in a browser. What a joke.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it! - Thomas Bertram LanceI agree! I am really happy I did some research and found this post. Also have all my clients shared folders on here and would be really annoying to do these roundabouts for our files. I didn't update yet and really not going to either.
They are doing it for more **bleep**ing money, all these companies try to squeeze every last dime out of us.
I really don't get who makes these ridiculous decisions to make it harder and less user friendly to access your own darn files.
I am going to search for alternatives that is for sure!
- Jay
Thank you for your feedback and we apologize for any inconvenience caused by the deprecation of Vault on desktop.
We understand that this change may have caught some users off guard and we want to assure you that we're exploring options for addressing your concerns.
While the desktop support for Vault has been deprecated, the web interface is still available for users to access their vault data.
We appreciate your patience as we work to identify the best path forward for our users.
You can't compare the web interface to the ease of manipulating files and folders on macOS. It's just not workable this way 😞
Just cancelled my Dropbox subscription. Moved all my data to iCloud. If Dropbox does not want to listen to MacOS users, so be it...
ok, jay/dropbox staff- what's the result of your exploration of options that address our concerns? this is so disappointing and, frankly, unacceptable. i've been waiting for a year now, to see if this problem would be addressed but now i'm planning on migrating my files to another service. thanks!
Are we deprecating Mac users
- Hannah
Hey Darryl M.4, thanks for reaching out to us today.
We really appreciate your feedback about this and I will make sure that your comments are passed along to our team.
Indeed, on the latest Dropbox for macOS update, you will no longer be able to access Vault through the Dropbox desktop app.
However, you can still access your Vault on our website and the Dropbox mobile app.
Let me know if you have any questions.
I set up a Vault after carefully reading about it on your website... where it is STILL saying I can access my Vault from my Mac Desktop. Now that I've done all this work, I find out that I actually CANNOT access my Vault on my Mac Desktop? Thanks for completely wasting my time. Why would you disallow this? If this promised feature returning? Is there ANY response as to why this happened?
Yes, I understand that I have to access Vault via browser now but how can I edit a text file in the Vault? There doesn't seem to be a way to do this simple action.
- Jay
What the hell is Dropbox doing? This is a very important feature for users to put sensitive files on Cloud. Actually one of the alternative solutions is Boxcrypt but Dropbox indeed acquired them, and forced them to stop providing service anymore. So, there is basically no strong viable solution available in the market. Is this something Dropbox wants to discourage putting sensitive content on Cloud?
