Dropbox Broken on Sequoia M4? Alternatives for cloud hard drives?

[whyrichard]

Hello,

I just upgraded from an intel to an M4 Mini, and I love the speed!

However it seems dropbox is broken on Sequoia. I am trying the dropbox transfer to the new system (?), and will see if this fixes my issues... but I couldn't do a proper selective sync in dropbox, and I couldn't even see my keynote files at all on my local hard drive, only on the dropbox website. I had to manually download to work on my keynote files!

Question. Is dropbox broken on Mac?

Question... should I switch to google drive? I use google drive for work, and it's clunky on Mac.... is it getting better? Better than dropbox?

Question... should I switch to iCloud primarily? The only downside is that I do use google docs for work, and sometimes collaborate across platforms, so iCloud wouldn't work well for those purposes... (even though I currently have iCloud2tb for my photos...)

What is the status of cloud hard drives for Mac presently? Is dropbox in the gutter? It's been reliable for years...!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

If it is broken, I'm confident they'll update it soon enough to work again... much like many apple broken things after new macOS updates. Patience should yield a functional Dropbox again if it is actually broken. I never upgrade until about .4 or .5 upgrades but I know Dropbox is fine in the latest version of Sequoia on Silicon.

In the meantime, I suggest using Dropbox access through Safari until it is fixed. That shouldn't care what kind of computer or OS one is using.

You might also consider uninstalling Dropbox entirely and reinstalling it... especially if Dropbox was migrated from the Intel Mac to the Silicon Mac... instead of a fresh install.

And all of the above assume you've tried basic stuff like logging out and logging back into Dropbox, being sure you have latest version of Dropbox installed, etc.

See also this firewall discovery on their website and then check to see if the same applies in your situation.

Fans WILL encourage you to switch to iCloud because that's Apple's version and Apple's version is always pushed in all things. If Apple canned air, fans would advise people smother to death vs. breathing inferior, "plasticy", "wobbly" regular air.

If you want to switch to a cloud option that avoids cloud as a "forever rent" service, I suggest buying yourself one of the major NAS boxes like a Synology and owning & using your own cloud at $0 rent. Those can scale to any amount of storage you ever need... and a NAS can do all kinds of other useful things too. Big storage is dirt cheap and trending towards cheaper over time. Owning your own cloud is a great way to dodge the digital "landlord."

 

[gilby101]

Question. Is dropbox broken on Mac?

Not for me. Works as before. My version is v212.4.5767. I prefer Dropbox (over other personal cloud sync) for its speed.

Question... should I switch to google drive?

Google Drive app does have the advantage that you can have the local copy in an external disk. This is personal Google Drive. Your "work" Google Drive may be different - e.g. for teams.

should I switch to iCloud primarily

Only if you actively want to - not as a last resort.

Nothing wrong with having multiple cloud services. I have free Dropbox for fast sync, 50GB iCloud for its convenience with Apple devices, and 2TB Google Drive mostly for backup (I don't use the Google Drive app).

 

[MacGizmo]

I've got Dropbox running on a dozen Sequoia Macs with no issues.

The only time I ever hear of people having problems with it is when they try to outsmart it by setting up symlinks and other such hackery to have the Dropbox folder located somewhere other than where the installer wants to put it.

Regarding Google Drive on Mac: I've heard nothing but horror stories about using Google Drive, but to be honest, I only use it once in a great while and find the app to be more trouble than it's worth (it's easier just to use the web browser). I'm sure some people use it more frequently and have it running just fine.