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
Disaster: 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://talk.tidbits.com/t/dropbox-drops-support-for-storing-files-on...
Mark
Super User II
Super User III'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
yeah I don't think dropbox gives a flying f*** about you or companies like you. I've been bleating at them for nearly 18 months about how incompetent they are and what's our options and their answer is always the same "Kindly note, if you have a large amount of files on your account you can opt to use Selective Sync so they don't take up space on your hard drive, and only utilize space on Dropbox".
Apple are looking out for themselves and what people to upgrade to the most expensive internal hard drives on the planet. Externals will no longer work with Dropbox so we are now all stuck with either looking elsewhere and with someone who does work with external drives (anyone know who?) or stump up huge amounts of cash to Apple. Looks like someone isn't working in their own self interest are they???🤔
The problem is who is any good. Sharepoint to me is a big no no. Box is ok but very slow. Google Drive is very expensive and also very irritating with the constant reverting to master account and having them approve access all the time.
Anyone got any recommendations?
P.S. to fjazzjazz, I truly commiserate with you, as the owner of a small business who keeps all the projects and data for my company on Dropbox, not to mention all the personal receipts needed to back my personal tax returns. This is a very big deal — one might call it an existential crisis.
Drop your box has dropped everything and has no solution. This is the big problem isn't it. They have no contingency plans.
You probably have too much material to rapidly get stored and download it from Sync.com. But their price sure is right. And their speed is absolutely doable for us. But we don't have that many terabytes of data nor that many people trying to access it.
Unfortunately, drop your box has become victim to its own silliness. Either that or people like you and even people like me are no longer their target market.
This problem is overcomeable as other companies have created solutions that work. The question is can you find a company that will do all you need.
Another problem with drop your box is that nothing is private with them. They can and will read, listen, look at or give your material to whomever they see fit or whomever they consider a partner or frankly anybody, from their terms qualifies.
For me, it was simply time to move on. I stopped the program I was on on a yearly basis about six months ago. When the time ran out it shifted to a monthly program but I almost immediately shut it down and went to the free version and I'm now happily on sync.com.
- I'm following this issue with some dismay as having a large volume of data accessible via local syncing and using DB like a storage "lending library" has been a huge success in our media production environment. And despite issues like this, the support has been top shelf. It allows us to use what we need and have the rest available when the need arises, in a UI that is *much* more universal than one which would force everyone including our infrequent partners to use a server that we admin in house.
I see the note that Dropbox hopes to restore this functionality, which I hope we will see whether in the form of symlinks or some other end around. If not I fear that this would be the death knell for our use of Dropbox as an organization, and we'll have to devolve into more antiquated methods of file sharing.1. The moderation of this discussion board is just terrible on a few levels. They are way too quick to combine threads while at the same time being way too lax on garbage posts, politics, etc.
2. The idea of continuing to mark this issues as "SOLVED" is another bad one.. while at the same time moving an external drive related posts to this thread. Just plain bad form.3. The lack of transparency is problematic as well. Yes, apple did make a change. Yes, other companies have found ways around it. BE REAL dropbox.
Frankly, these items above have combined to greatly call into question Dropbox's viability and competency. I guess large companies often fall into this trap. But it's super sad to me to have to be looking for an alternative.
Thanks for the recommendation. You seem to speak of Dropbox with the property of someone that knows something we all don't. Do you have inside info, or to rephase it: how can you say they don't have a contingency plan?
I agree with everything you said—especially the parts about what happens if your external drive gets disconnected. As you say, it’s no big deal, and having all my Dropbox folders DOWNLOADED and PHYSICALLY PRESENT on my massive external RAID gives me far more security than having my folders only in the cloud (which would have to be the case if I were forced to put my folders on my internal drive) and inaccessible in the event that my internet connection goes down!
for anyone who wants to know about the external drives there's this little gem of a page: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
That's a nightmare, no more logic and Final Cut synched over cloud services, seems like Mac is trying to kill its pro user base.
