not sure honestly, I also don’t get it, it should be such a small app.
I can tell you from the moment I removed it and rebooted the Mac is speedy again though.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Dropbox alternative on M1?
- Thread starter adww12321
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I can tell you from the moment I removed it and rebooted the Mac is speedy again though.
I maintain some shared folders but I've never shared any specific files anonymously.
Sharing a single file with iCloud Drive will show the full name (e.g., Jon Doe) and the option to either add the file to the user's iCloud Drive or download the file.
I didn't realise that Dropbox was using Rosetta. It worked perfectly on my Mac Mini. No problems or performance hit.
It's incredibly annoying that Google Drive Backup & Sync doesn't work.
I have One Drive (you get 1TB with a subscription to Microsoft Office 365), 2TB iCloud, Unlimited Google Drive, 2TB Dropbox. I really should consolidate but they are good for different things. Google Drive is unlimited storage with G Suite for Business at £9.20 so I'm not going to drop that considering I have 80TB+ of movies & TV shows there but I have been using Dropbox for years because historically it worked better than the others.
I can't recall why I have 2TB of iCloud because compared to the others it lacks features. As an example I can use the utterly brilliant command line utility rclone to copy files between Google Drive, OneDrive & Dropbox but not with iCloud.
It's incredibly annoying that Google Drive Backup & Sync doesn't work.
I have One Drive (you get 1TB with a subscription to Microsoft Office 365), 2TB iCloud, Unlimited Google Drive, 2TB Dropbox. I really should consolidate but they are good for different things. Google Drive is unlimited storage with G Suite for Business at £9.20 so I'm not going to drop that considering I have 80TB+ of movies & TV shows there but I have been using Dropbox for years because historically it worked better than the others.
I can't recall why I have 2TB of iCloud because compared to the others it lacks features. As an example I can use the utterly brilliant command line utility rclone to copy files between Google Drive, OneDrive & Dropbox but not with iCloud.
Dropbox is also solid on my M1 Air. Why should I care if it runs under Rosetta or not if it just works?
Smart Sync is alone worth the price.
Smart Sync is alone worth the price.
Would be more efficient with native AS support. I put too much emphasis on it. Yes, I would like an AS version to run more efficiently, but the current version under Rosetta is running just fine. I can't tell anything with it.
On the off-chance that someone comes along and actually wants to know!
On Windows:
Right-click, Share with iCloud Drive and follow the choices.
On Windows:
Right-click, Share with iCloud Drive and follow the choices.
I'm using OneDrive for work and it generally works fine. It's just a small set of files. But for myself, I have 1TB+ of files. Since OneDrive refuses to sync to an external disk, I'm looking at setting up a NAS as my personal cloud. Way over the top solution, I know, but hey, gotta keep the IT knowledge up to date.
Synology's cloud drive solution isn't AS/Universal. I ended up ditching it and going back to Dropbox for personal and OneDrive for business.
I'm not buying Synology but rolling my own based on Proxmox and Nextcloud. I don't know yet how good NextCnoud is. But I can run a Windows VM on top of Proxmox, which eliminates my need for the occasional Windows VM on my mac, so it frees me from the Intel chains for ever *evil laugh*
I'm planning to upgrade to Apple Silicon as well and did some research on it.
You can use https://isapplesiliconready.com to see that almost no cloud service is offering native support at the moment. Not Dropbox, not Microsoft, not Sync, nor any other provider.
Microsoft recently committed to offer full native support in the future:
The important thing is, that it is using the new "File Provider" framework from Apple. No other service is doing that at the moment. Only Expandrive Strongsync offers a (expensive) third party sync client.
Google just now transitioned to the new "Drive for Desktop" client: https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/10309431?hl=en — but it requires users to allow kernel extensions in recovery mode and stuff like that (https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/10444081). It is not based on the new File Provider Framework and I doubt they will rewrite their newly launched app.
So for now (besides iCloud that is missing too many features for me) Microsoft OneDrive seems to be the best bet for the future.
You can use https://isapplesiliconready.com to see that almost no cloud service is offering native support at the moment. Not Dropbox, not Microsoft, not Sync, nor any other provider.
Microsoft recently committed to offer full native support in the future:
Microsoft works to ensure a great OneDrive experience on Apple products
We’re excited to share some of the updates and improvements we’re in the process of making to OneDrive running on Apple products Redirect your important Mac..
techcommunity.microsoft.com
The important thing is, that it is using the new "File Provider" framework from Apple. No other service is doing that at the moment. Only Expandrive Strongsync offers a (expensive) third party sync client.
Google just now transitioned to the new "Drive for Desktop" client: https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/10309431?hl=en — but it requires users to allow kernel extensions in recovery mode and stuff like that (https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/10444081). It is not based on the new File Provider Framework and I doubt they will rewrite their newly launched app.
So for now (besides iCloud that is missing too many features for me) Microsoft OneDrive seems to be the best bet for the future.
Same here. I use DropBox for my M1 MacBook Air, and my iOS devices and it is working fine.
I agree. I was initially concerned and didn't want to use it as it caused problems on my older iMac. Turned out I was wrong. Can't even tell Dropbox isn't Universal/AS.
Will that stop OneDrive from going crazy? On my M1, it's all manageable because the processor is heat efficient. But my 16" goes nuts every time OneDrive notices a few changes.
I switched to Seafile now (self hosted in Kubernetes) and it works great! It's incredibly fast, possibly faster than Dropbox even! It synced in just three hours some data that with Dropbox took several more hours and with Nextcloud 1.5 days. It's really, really fast at syncing even if it's not yet a native M1 client. Seafile is easy to self host even with just Docker on some VPS. I am mentioning it just in case anyone might be interested in a self hosted alternative.
Looks like a good sync tool indeed. With DropBox, OneDrive and the like, there's the possibility of not syncing a file until you really open it. This saves a lot of disk space. I have around 1TB of files, which forces me to buy a 2TB SSD in my Mac if I want to have it all local. But with OneDrive, I can work fine with just 512GB, saving me almost €700. I don't get the impression SeaFiles can do this. Is that right?
Yes you can do that with Seafile too using the SeaDrive client, which adds a virtual drive instead of syncing everything locally. I know it's nice to be able to save disk space and use a virtual drive but for performance reasons I prefer to keep a full copy locally on an external drive.
Thanks for the link.I'm planning to upgrade to Apple Silicon as well and did some research on it.
You can use https://isapplesiliconready.com to see that almost no cloud service is offering native support at the moment. Not Dropbox, not Microsoft, not Sync, nor any other provider.
Microsoft recently committed to offer full native support in the future:
Microsoft works to ensure a great OneDrive experience on Apple products
We’re excited to share some of the updates and improvements we’re in the process of making to OneDrive running on Apple products Redirect your important Mac..techcommunity.microsoft.com
The important thing is, that it is using the new "File Provider" framework from Apple. No other service is doing that at the moment. Only Expandrive Strongsync offers a (expensive) third party sync client.
Google just now transitioned to the new "Drive for Desktop" client: https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/10309431?hl=en — but it requires users to allow kernel extensions in recovery mode and stuff like that (https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/10444081). It is not based on the new File Provider Framework and I doubt they will rewrite their newly launched app.
So for now (besides iCloud that is missing too many features for me) Microsoft OneDrive seems to be the best bet for the future.
Wow, none of the major cloud services offer proper native clients yet?
This is kinda sad, considering we are half-way though the transition.That's the main reason why i still use my M1 mac as a novelty item and not yet as my main machine. Hope is around the corner for users of Google Drive because the business client (Google Drive for Desktiop) is already native and will be rolled out to consumer accounts very soon.Wow, none of the major cloud services offer proper native clients yet?
Despite all the posts saying people are using Dropbox, I can't get past the account sign in.
I installed the Dropbox app and as soon as it asks for my account (that is, my Dropbox account), it fails and reports the issue to Apple. Relaunches and the same thing happens again. No matter how many times I try uninstall and reinstall of Dropbox, or restart the M1 mini, or even, as of this morning, update Big Sur.
I have been using Dropbox on Windows for many years. My partner uses it on her Macs (none is an M1, nor on Big Sur).
I only have a small requirement to keep using it - but that is important to me. (Happy enough with OneDrive and iCloud for most things.)
Just adding: Still the same issue depite having updated to Big Sur 11.5.1.
I installed the Dropbox app and as soon as it asks for my account (that is, my Dropbox account), it fails and reports the issue to Apple. Relaunches and the same thing happens again. No matter how many times I try uninstall and reinstall of Dropbox, or restart the M1 mini, or even, as of this morning, update Big Sur.
I have been using Dropbox on Windows for many years. My partner uses it on her Macs (none is an M1, nor on Big Sur).
I only have a small requirement to keep using it - but that is important to me. (Happy enough with OneDrive and iCloud for most things.)
Just adding: Still the same issue depite having updated to Big Sur 11.5.1.
Last edited:
Regardless of the performance issues or not - it shows a considerable lack of client focus from Dropbox that this is not a native application - how difficult can it be? Particularly as I suspect there has to be on-going development to ensure finder and other app integration.