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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://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
Just confirmed this with DB support (see below). Gutted - been with Dropbox for years and our entire video team flow is based around it 😕
>Hi there, I read today that you are scrapping the ability to store the Dropbox folder on external disks, on OSX. I'd like to ask more about this please.
> Hello Jon, and thank you for contacting Dropbox Support. My name is Joseph, and I will be more than happy to look into your request, right away.
That is correct Jon, as part of the Dropbox for macOS update, the Dropbox folder must be located in ~/Library/CloudStorage.
>This is a showstopper for us, and will mean we have to move to another service. We have a large distributed team using DB for video work, no way it'll fit within internal drives.
Is there a workaround?
> I totally understand and I apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, there is no workaround on this as changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.
>This change doesn't seem to have hit us yet - we're running a variety of machines inc Ventura
What will trigger its enforcement? Can we stay on an earlier OS or Dropbox version?
>The updates happening automatically every time the Dropbox app is restarting, for example if your device never restarts it should maintain the older version but we can't guarantee full functionality on older versions of the application.
>So what will happen - if we have a Dropbox folder on an 8TB drive and a tiny internal drive - will it try to clone stuff across and eat up the space? What's the mechanism?
>That's right, it will try to move the content on your internal drive until it has no space and gives you an error.
>Is Smartsync still supported? I.e. will it move stuff to being online only if it won't fit?
>It is, however it is now known as online-only.
- Hi there, Ive received an email re the new MacOS FileProvider version of Dropbox.
I have 2x partitions on my MacBook internal drive, one for the system and one for Dropbox. This allows me to quickly erase/reinstall the system without having to copy terabytes of work off the drive - basically nuke any system issues quickly.
The FileProvider email links to notes which state it won’t support external drives and I assume this also means partitions?
And if so, is this temporary or the future of DropBox on Mac?
BTW sorry if this isn’t the right forum, the link just dumped me at the default forums home page.
Any help/ideas much appreciated. Cheers, Ben.Ben S.31 Have you put that two-partition system to the test? Because unless something has changed, I don’t believe Dropbox allows you to point a new software install at an existing Dropbox folder to avoid resyncing all those files. Every time I’ve ever re-installed Dropbox, it demands that I do a new sync to an empty folder.
And yes, you are correct, the new Dropbox version will not support non-boot partitions. The reason is that Apple has forced cloud file providers to store their files in a folder within your user profile. In some aspects this makes sense - think of a shared computer and the need to keep your personal cloud files private and separate from the other users - but it also creates a huge gaping problem for anyone needing to sync more data locally from their cloud provider than will fit onto Apple’s internal drive offerings (physically or financially).
Some folks here have mentioned just moving your user folder to an external drive (or in your case, the other partition), which should in theory relocate the cloud storage folder along with it, thus solving this whole issue. But poking around one will find many, many stories of this workflow backfiring on people, as any OS updates will break this setup and potentially lock you out of your computer. It’s super risky and, in my view, not a viable solution at all.
For now, one good option is to invest in a NAS and store your files there instead of Dropbox. This can completely bypass the need for on-demand syncing of local files to save precious drive space, and gives you so much more control over your own data. If Dropbox is important to you, Synology has a cloud sync application for their NAS that will sync with Dropbox, which I am currently using but honestly will probably not bother going forward. The reason is that this setup has so much storage available that there is no need to fuss with setting files to local vs online-only to save space, and the built-in feature set of Synology Drive is good enough to render Dropbox almost completely redundant. From here, you can back up your entire NAS to the cloud for protection via Backblaze, if you use their backup service which offers unlimited backup space. Not to be confused with Backblaze B2 which is like Dropbox and, because of the expanded feature set, is way more expensive.
Lots of great inforation, thank you for taking the time to explain things so clearly.
My issue currently, is that I and my team share large (200gb projects) using dropbox, and so we need to syc to our local machines, as any one of us may need to work on any particular project at any one time. Get 3 or 4 of these projects on the go for ay individual, and they will quickly run out of hard drive capacity.
I'm praying there is a software developer who has developed a workaround....!
As someone with a ton of Dropbox data on an external, this is a pretty frustrating situation. However, I do want to just point out that Dropbox's initial response, which flagged this thread as "solved," does say pretty clearly that they are working on a solution that would allow us to continue working on external drives despite the OS changes, that users with files currently on externals will not be migrated over to the new system yet, and that they will let us know when they have more to share. That is probably the clearest and most detailed response we could realistically hope for, given that the Dropbox team is ALSO being kept in the dark.
The fact is, much of the anger over this issue should really be directed at Apple, not Dropbox. If you poke around a bit in other adjacent communities (Synology, etc), you will see similar outrage directed at various companies for failing to provide a timely solution to this issue, and for failing to communicate clearly about it. But in reading the responses from company representatives to these threads, it's clear that what's really happening here is Apple is not keeping companies like Dropbox, Synology etc in the loop. They are just ghosting these teams and leaving them trying to guess when, if or how to implement a feature that has been slow-walked, redesigned and rescheduled numerous times from the get-go. And even further reading reveals that many experienced IT folk believe there isn't a compelling case for Apple to require that this CloudStorage folder live on the internal storage at all. It is very likely a means to force customers into spending more up-front on their machine purchases, for built-in storage that is soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded. This IS the Apple way, and it has been almost since inception. They hate handing revenue to third party companies, and are not at all shy about using proprietary elements or other means to enforce ecosystem lock-ins that keep the money in-house. I say this as a long-time user/fan that is deeply invested in their products, and as a shareholder. I love their products, I have no ill will toward them, this is just an observation of fact, not a tirade against them.
I'm not saying Dropbox is completely innocent here. Only that it's obvious that Apple is not being forthcoming or working very well with third-party companies impacted by kernel extension deprecation/File Provider situation. So we should probably try to be a little understanding of Dropbox's rock-and-a-hard-place situation here.
beenyweenies This is all true to an extent, BUT…
As Simeone who’s been aware of this cruel policy for quite some time, I’d just like to point out that it was ONLY after we users kicked up a storm and some of us started canceling our auto-renewals and migrating to providers such as Sync and PCloud that Dropbox made the declaration we have been speaking of, and two months later there is still no solution. Some of us have our livelihoods tied to these policies, so it’s what you might call an existential dilemma.
All this said, I do get your suggestion that we should be directing our anger at Apple, and to an extent I agree, but Dropbox seems to care a bit more about users than does Apple. I have personally been complaining to Apple, as have others.
ArthurPix I hear you. And I agree that Dropbox didn't handle this as well as they could have. I just wanted to point out that many other communities are going through this same thing, and Apple's lack of communication/responsiveness is making it difficult for these companies to plot a coherent course of action.
We should definitely hold Dropbox accountable, but we should also be voicing our opinions to Apple as it sounds like you have (bravo!). If the chorus of displeasure grows loud enough, maybe Apple will back off on this silly requirement that the CloudStorage folder must live on the local drive. A boy can dream, anyway.
have you seen this post from another user further down this thread...>>
"
However a Reddit user came up with a possible workaround:
"It is linked to your home user folder location. If you move your home folder to an external drive, dropbox goes with it. And for that matter, so do google drive, one drive, box etc."
thoughts?
I'm frustrated and disappointed by this, and wanted to add my voice too. Gosh, many relatable stories.
So far my Dropbox hasn't tried to update and force me to move files onto internal storage. 🤞 I see this message:
However, another Mac I'm on that only uses internal storage was forced to update, or Dropbox would quit.
Like others, I've long relied on a professional path that depends on trusting Dropbox for file-sync integrity, but this sounds confusing and messy — the right thing to do here is to have a solution/workaround IN PLACE before removing the old pathway. That's called making a smooth migration, and not having it is simply not responsible.
Dropbox risks destroying much goodwill with longtime customers. The lack of communication is even more detrimental, during a time where we and our workflows would benefit from reassurance and updates.
I've been using OSX Catalina since I bought a Mac Mini a couple of years ago. The hard disk is only 250 GB, so the Dropbox folder has been located on an external 2 TB disk. This has worked perfectly.
But because Catalina is being phased out by Apple I decided to update to Ventura. Only after the installation did I discover that I could no longer use Dropbox on the external drive. So I used TimeMachine to go back to Catalina. I expected everything to work as before, but no, Dropbox wouldn't open at all. I was forced to update the Dropbox app and then I got the same problem: Dropbox could not be located on an external hard drive. All files were forcibly transferred to the internal disk, but now as “online-only”. At the same time, the Dropbox app informs me that there are currently problems opening online-only files, but that they are working on a solution. This is of course because many more customers have their files online-only now, and Dropbox does not have the capacity to deliver all the data. In addition, I get the question that I hate the most about Dropbox, whether I want to take a backup of the machine. It is not possible to click "NO, never ask that question again", only "not right now". The next time I plug in an external drive, the same annoying question comes up.
Then I have to start with "selective sync" to get the most important folders offline so that I can actually use them. Online-only files only cause the programs to freeze or crash with a spinning wheel. Dropbox then begins indexing. This should sort of happen in the background, in the same way as a TimeMachine backup, but it happens in the foreground. The fan on the Mac Mini is running full blast and I can barely open another program while Dropbox indexes and indexes endlessly. This is the big problem with Dropbox. The program tries to take over the entire machine. I can't find any solution other than to switch to another file sharing service, but which one?- It sounds like I left just in time. I went with Sync and since I got it set up, it’s been fairly seamless. Good luck.
Does Sync work with a Mac external drive in Ventura OS? Thanks
DropBox Users: You just destroyed our years long workflow. Literally everyone knows that internal drives don't have the capacity needed for a huge number of DropBox users. We'll lose business and suffer significant costs because of this.
DropBox: Welp, can we interest you in AI while we fire a ton of our workforce?
"Dropbox on Thursday announced plans to cut 500 employees, or about 16% of its workforce, according to a blog post on the company’s website.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston wrote in the blog post that the company has been reckoning with slowing growth, in part due to a maturation of its business, but also as a result of economic headwinds that are pressuring its customers.
Houston said that the company is also facing an urgency to focus more on artificial intelligence-powered products, and doing so will require hiring workers with different skill sets."
Woah! I was just looking at the update and was about to ask about this, this is not good news I don't want my hard drive full of files I use extensive externals and soon a raid, the hard drive is just for Apps and some current projects.
Dropbox will lose customers if they force this on clients, I have a pro account and would look for alternative if this was to happen.
leeharris Thanks for registering your concerns. This is a loooong thread, and practically everyone feels similarly. Happily, until we hear otherwise, we’ll be able to continue using our external drives, as long as we’re happy with using the old API. If anyone has a contrary experience, we’d like to hear from you.
Yes, I think I feel a little more relaxed; misery loves company!
This is a disaster! We are a creative firm using external drives for big file storage on our Macs. Why Apple!? Why!? Please give us back the ability to store data where we want to!!
I only partly blame Apple. This lies squarely in the lap of drop your box. They have mismanaged their company, mismanaged their service, mismanaged their communication with their customers and dropped the ball and the box entirely. They should be ashamed of themselves.
They could've created their own an API. Apparently other companies are doing exactly that. They are figuring a way to make this work we're only drop your box is screwed the pooch every which way but loose.
Due to the way they treated me previously when I confronted them on their silly decisions to let a woman act racist in a public way who is the manager for them, I am happy to keep the pressure on them. Next time when I ask for an answer, maybe you'll give one. Or maybe you won't be here to be able to give one. Either way works for me.
Drop your box could've handled this had they got their asses in gear long ago. They are big enough to actually exert pressure on Apple. I don't know what they have or haven't done but whatever it is it hasn't worked. And they have failed to communicate with their customers in a timely manner as well.
Drop your box disgusts me. This is a perfect study on a slow moving disaster. I think though it will speed up here quite shortly.
Feels like dropbox is trying to hide something, i've read somewhere where apple responded that dropbox won't fix their malicious API, it could be the API that tries to collect our data to sell to advertisers and Apple wanted to put a stop on it.
As dropbox stated, their engineer are trying so hard to fix it, in other words "We're trying to make a workaround to still get your data bypassing Apple's strict API".
But honestly, I do care a bit about the privacy, but I really care more of dropbox fixing this ASAP. Had to use icloud temporarily for my audio files and it sucks.
I've contacted support and they have actually been very helpful.
Today I got a followup on the mail, which might solve the issue with the external drives.
The app Dropbox is now updating my all my files (which may take a day or two), so I'll have to wait until it's finished to be sure it works.
I'll post an update once it's ready.For now, I can share my setup and possible solution provided by the Dropbox support.
My setup might differ a bit form others so keep this in mind, but I do think it could work for many of you.
Also, please take caution. I don't now if everything will be synced as before untill the update process has finished.
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My setup:iMac, 512GB harddisk space
Holding base Dropbox folder (with about 50GB of data synced)
Now relocated to the cloudStorage folder due to Apple's policy with a symlink to this at the old location (automatically created by the Dropbox update).
2x External drive 1TB
Synced via the Dropbox Backup
I'm not sure this these were located at the Dropbox Backup tab before, but they are now.
Both drives have an .dbx-external-drive extension in the Dropbox cloud.
This setup has worked for over a year and stopped working after the MacOs + Dropbox update
The drives were stated as disconnected on the Dropbox Backup tab and could not be reconnected.
If you have the base Dropbox folder located on an external drive, this will propably not work, but as a workaround you could create a new empty one at your working station (might allready be done by the update) and add the external drives via the Dropbox bakcup option.
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The solution (?), provided by Dropbox:--------------------------------------------
For me, it was the last step of the solution which made the drives visible again by DropBox; checking the removable drives box in the Security and Privacy tab. Just in case, I'll copy the complete reaction with all steps provided by Dropbox:
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Could you please check that all options listed in the Sharing and Permissions section of each external drive's Get Info page (navigate to external drive and press command + i) are set to ''Read & Write'' please?
I have attached below help articles from Apple explaining further the process:
https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/mac-help/mchlp1038/mac
https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/mac-help/mchlp1203/12.0/mac/12.0
Additionally, can you please ensure that "Removable Volumes" are enabled for Dropbox by the following steps:
- Open System Preferences.
- Click Security and Privacy.
- Click the Privacy tab.
- Click Files and Folders.
- Check the box next to Removable Volumes under Dropbox.
Once the above has been applied to each drive, can you please reconnect the drive were you should hopefully be prompted to backup again as desired.
Should the issue persist after completing the above steps, I kindly request that you advise us of what you encountered when attempting the above (with screenshots if possible) to enable us to investigate further.I am currently running Mac OS 13.2.1 and Dropbox version 163.4.5456 and it's working fine with my external drive. Which OS update has disabled moving the files to an external? I got asked to update my Dropbox app but I keep saying NO for now. Not sure how long before it just updates it automatically and tries to move all my files to my startup disk which has very little room left.
mymgraphics you can see the upcoming changes here: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
But here's the main one everyone is moaning about:
- Changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.
This we know is not true and is a "Dropbox is unable to support external drives". The reason we know it's not true is that there are other cloud based file sharing companies that do allow you to change the location of their folder in the new macOS 12.3+. I am looking at one right now (sync.com) and test bedding it.
dropbox you could at last clarify the language below:
But here's the main one everyone is moaning about:
- Changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by macOS.
This we know is not true and is a "Dropbox is unable to support external drives". The reason we know it's not true is that there are other cloud based file sharing companies that do allow you to change the location of their folder in the new macOS 12.3+. I am looking at one right now (sync.com) and test bedding it.
Dropbox needs to get on implementing this feature ASAP.As of 2023, with newer versions of MacOS 12+, it's not longer possible to store dropbox mirrored files on a separate disk!
It's insane, on the web, there are sooooo many of us using external drives that can match the capacity of the DB account.
When will this implement?
I've been using DB for a long time, but I'm looking now elsewhere for a different could provider, as this is a deal-breaker functionality that needs to be there forrecent OSX Mac users. Scout the web, and there are a gazillion of frustrated and angry users.
I just got a new mac mini, and sadly found out that I cannot move the dropbox folder elsewhere.
And using the "sync" only feature ain't cutting it for me.
