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

Jon C.10's avatar
Jon C.10
Collaborator | Level 8
2 years ago

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...
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  • BenDBX's avatar
    BenDBX
    4 months ago
    Hi Everybody,
     
    We’re excited to share that external drive support for Dropbox for macOS on File Provider is now available for testing as a beta feature. This is available to some users today and will be available to additional users on a rolling basis. In order to be eligible to test this feature, please follow the instructions in this Help Center article. 
     
    Keep in mind that participation in beta programs is subject to the certain terms and conditions. There are certain additional participation requirements:
    • This beta is only available to US-based users
    • You must be on macOS 15 beta
    • You must have an external drive that is APFS formatted and encrypted
     
    Please let me know if you have any further questions!
Curly123456's avatar
Curly123456
Helpful | Level 6

Hi, where is this option please, and could you confirm if this worked?

 

I am needing to move 280GB from my Mac, onto an external drive.

 

Thanks

jaesm's avatar
jaesm
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

For me it's this: Preferences>sync tab>dropbox folder location>click the dropdown and select 'other'>then find the drive you want.

I'm on dropbox app v181.3.5613 on Ventura.

  • Curly123456's avatar
    Curly123456
    Helpful | Level 6
    2 years ago

    Thank you, I've found the option

     

    This is for work so I hope it's possible....

     

    Did it work okay for you, were you able to transfer your existing Dropbox folder from your Mac onto an external drive?

     

    (I'm also Ventura, Dropbox version 180.4.4912)

    • jaesm's avatar
      jaesm
      Helpful | Level 6
      2 years ago

      I tested it with a couple gigs worth of files and it seems to work. I'd really like to hear from Dropbox or someone who knows more about the situation. If it is working now, how come no one is talking about it? It makes me think I'm missing an important piece here.

      • GraphicQuarter's avatar
        GraphicQuarter
        Helpful | Level 6
        2 years ago

        It looks like a temp fix at best. They still warn that if you update to the new 'Dropbox for macOS on File Provider' then you won't be able to use an external drive.

    • beenyweenies's avatar
      beenyweenies
      Helpful | Level 7
      2 years ago

      Curly123456 You can’t ‘transfer’ your files from your local drive to the external. Any time you change Dropbox location, it has to completely download all of your files from scratch again. If you were to move all of the existing files to the new location it would reject that. I’m guessing that it uses the download process to build its database to keep track of which files are local, remote etc.

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