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Forum Discussion
Make offline files visible in the android filesystem
I think you should make files stored offline on Android available in the file system.
As it is now, the dropbox files marked as 'available offline' are hidden from the rest of the operating system. This gives a number of problems:
1: When opening a file in an app, that app may put the file path in its 'most recently used documents'-list. However, since the path it gets from the Dropbox-app is not long-lived, the 'most recently used documents'-list becomes unusable, since the links on it become dead rather quickly.
2: It makes using browsing apps, like photo viewers or podcast players, on your offline files impossible.
3: Some apps expect content to be found on the file system. For example, the samsung app used to download content onto a samsung smart watch, expects to find files in the file system. It cannot be used to download files from dropbox onto the smart watch.
4: Sometimes a smart phone is used a bit like a computer. Like uploading files to an FTP-server and the like. A FTP-client typically expects to find files on the file system, and allows them to be selected and uploaded. This does not work with Dropbox.
A possible work-around is to export the contents from the dropbox offline folder onto the phones regular file system. This is unsatisfactory because:
1) It feels cumbersome. The number of clicks to send a podcast episode to a smart watch, or to download a .pdf from dropbox and upload to an FTP-server, becomes a few too many.
2) For files which can be edited (like password manager saves, various profiles, text documents etc), the user needs to remember to copy the file back to Dropbox, which is very error prone.
Dropbox obviously already has technology to synk a file system folder with dropbox. Could not this functionality be offered on smart phones also?
- Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi everyone, we appreciate the feedback on how to improve the Dropbox mobile app.
This is the expected behavior of the Android app, so it wouldn't be possible to change it for offline files to be visible outside the app.Wrong answer Jay !
The Android app used to function as people on this thread are asking for it to function. Perhaps you did not notice that many of the comments indicate that they preferred the prior functionality and want it restored. We know this is possible, because it used to function the way THE CUSTOMER wants.
Or is it just that Dropbox believes that they know best what the customer wants—even if the customer is telling them, "This is NOT what I want!"? You know, if business school taught me anything, it was that the number one rule of business is: "The customer is ALWAYS right." The second rule of business is: "If it happens that the customer is not right, refer to rule number one." Or, maybe, Dropbox has decided that its business is resilient enough that if the customer does not like the product, they can take their business elsewhere. There are alternatives. And, it seems that is where you are trying to send people. Not a sustainable model, if you ask me. But, you're not asking. The "Community" may just be a place you all created to see how your customers think you have screwed up your product and have a laugh at those customers. Good luck.- If Dropbox continues to insist that this is the correct behavior, when you removed the key feature of the application, namely the ability to sync files between devices, I can find another cloud provider... Bye
- Just because it is the expected behavior does not mean it is not possible. It absolutely is possible and is exactly how it used to work until you removed the feature. Don't insult us with obvious lies about it not being possible.
Seems like systems got re-architected, and this feature was a casualty of refactoring. Totally understand.
I know from a dollars and cents POV it doesn't matter, but if you needed a narrative to help validate this work getting added into the development pipeline. "@merryt has been referring users since 2010, helping convince companies to get business plans, and a paying member since 2014, but this feature along with a few others cut over the recent years were pivotal enough to a few work flows that he quit his plan in 2021"
I do understand and appreciate that these decisions happen. Thank you for letting us know that this feature isn't coming back @jay . Getting an official response is enough to say I am unsubscribing from this thread and abandon hope.
Cheers,
Tyler
Jay wrote:
Hi everyone, we appreciate the feedback on how to improve the Dropbox mobile app.
...Jay, The application for Android used to work in such a way, so... "to improve"... 🤷 There is nothing to improve! Just get back the feature available on versions 202.2.2 and earlier (and might be one more later).
Jay wrote:
...
This is the expected behavior of the Android app, so it wouldn't be possible to change it for offline files to be visible outside the app.What are you saying? The versions I mentioned above are "impossible"?!... Strange... 🤔 Probably they are imaginary... They don't exist and never existed on the earth.
Oh... I forgot to mention that I'm using the version mentioned and it's working "as expected":
... As most people expect, not as you expect! 👆 So it's possible... definitely. 😉
- JayHi everyone, due to recent updates made to Android systems, offline files can only be stored in a Cache folder. I am afraid that the only way to access your Dropbox files on your mobile device even when offline is to use the Dropbox App directly. This would be the intended functionality.
If you wish to access these files outside of the Dropbox App then you can always export your Dropbox files to your mobile device directly instead. We appreciate your patience and understanding throughout this process.
Please let us know if you need further assistance.
Jay wrote:
[D]ue to recent updates made to Android systems, offline files can only be stored in a Cache folder.That is just not true. There are plenty of apps out there that store things in the file system where it's accessible by other apps.
Jay wrote:
This would be the intended functionality.That's the functionality that YOU have chosen. It's clearly not the functionality that your customers want. It may be working as intended, but your intentions here are rubbish.
Jay wrote:
If you wish to access these files outside of the Dropbox App then you can always export your Dropbox files to your mobile device directly instead.Again, that's not true and also defeats the purpose of Dropbox. The purpose of dropbox is to keep folders and files in sync across multiple devices. The app does not let you download folders. Plus, once a file is download to my phone, changes to that file on my phone are no longer reflected on my other devices.
Jay wrote:
We appreciate your patience and understanding throughout this process.
Please let us know if you need further assistance.My patience for this ran out a long time ago. My understanding is that you're sticking cotton in your ears and pretending everything is just fine. The only "process" going on here is Dropbox making false statements and claiming there's nothing they can do (about their own product).
I do need further assistance though. I need Dropbox to abandon their push on the web interface and again focus on the client programs/apps, which are the reason anyone ever starts using dropbox in the first place. You are ruining your own product by believing you can tell customers what they want, rather than selling the product they need.
- If this were actually true then there wouldn't be third party applications that can do this. In good news for me, how you've handled this has convinced me to drop my $19.99/month subscription and roll my own personal NextCloud instance. So I guess thank you for convincing me to no longer work with Dropbox, thus saving me some money.
Jay Stop saying that. It is simply not true. There are several apps out there, on Google play, with better star rating than Dropbox app, that do exactly that, which I bought and use to sync up files. "offline files can only be stored in a Cache folder" cannot be true as MULTIPLE software apps do this, and only one is needed to prove you wrong.
27,377 people have vouched for ONE of the sync solutions available. Another has 38,174. And all of them on the first page that I checked have a better rating than Dropbox's own solution, hovering between 4.6 and 4.8 with DB's own at 4.2.
And may I say, it's well deserved. DB has positioned itself as the premium and it's so warm and fuzzy in its throne that it doesn't even consider adding features that everyone else has. Even the reviewers recommend using a good explorer with Dropbox functionality in place of the original app. I don't understand how a solo developer using APIs that DB made outpaces a 2500 employees corporation.
simpson b. Please share what apps you've found that have this functionality, I'd like to know my options.
Upvote!! Dropbox please bring the feature back.
- My solution that solved it was the Dropsync app from the Google Play store. You can set up folder pairs (your music or video call or whatever) to sync where you want them to be. I set up the folder holding my music on Dropbox linked to a music folder on the SD card in my tablet. It indexed all the subfolders in the DB, then created matching subfolders on the SD card, then filled them all with the mp3 files. You can choose whether it checks for changes and syncs them, how often, if it can use your mobile data, if you don't want to sync unless the android is plugged in, and if it syncs files both directions or just one. The free version is limited, but the pro key is reasonable and permanent and lets you set up a large number of folders to sync. This is the best way I've found to make your offline files visible and accessible to any app you want to use locally.
So great that I first pay a monthly fee for dropbox, and then I need an additional 3rd party app to access my files outside the dropbox app.. makes no sense. Considering changing to another cloud service after my current payment period ends.
