Dropbox - is it safe to upgrade macOS past 12.1 now?

[vel0city]

Still running 12.1 here as I'm a heavy Dropbox user and was warned off upgrading to 12.6 because of compatibility issues. That was a while ago and I wondered if things had changed.

Mostly use Dropbox for delivering files to clients and make a lot of use of "Make Online Only" to save on storage space. That feature is essential to me and keeps me on Dropbox.

Is it safe to update to macOS 12.6 yet? Any pointers gratefully received, thanks.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I have been on the Dropbox betas which address the macOS12.3 changes since Feb/March, and it is all working fine for me including Ventura. Apple extension fileproviderd working, Dropbox folder in ~/Library/CloudStorage etc.

However I am still on the beta channel and not sure what is being delivered on the Release channel. Also I am a lone user with a Personal account, I am not sure what the situation for Business and Teams accounts is.

You have probably seen this confusing announcement which was released six months after I had started using the betas successfully. I suspect it is referring to Business and Teams but Dropbox don't say that. That announcement was no more than one post by a Dropbox staffer in one of the many threads on the subject in the Dropbox forums. Dropbox communication on the whole subject is shambolic.

One factor which is a brick wall for many is that the change of location to ~/Library/CloudStorage rules out having your Dropbox folder on an external drive. Therefore you are limited by the size of your internal drive. I have not seen any answers to this. Symlink might work but I haven't tried it and suspect it would not be officially supported.

 

[Mike Boreham]

One factor which is a brick wall for many is that the change of location to ~/Library/CloudStorage rules out having your Dropbox folder on an external drive. Therefore you are limited by the size of your internal drive. I have not seen any answers to this. Symlink might work but I haven't tried it and suspect it would not be officially supported.

I see Onedrive (which is also forced to ~/Library/CloudStorage by macOS12.3) addresses this issue (see here)

"Sometimes, users choose a path on another volume to set up OneDrive. A typical use case for this happens when a user has a small internal drive on their Mac, but also has a larger external drive attached.

This configuration is still supported in the new Files On-Demand experience if an external drive is selected during the first-run experience. A few things change as a result:

• The sync root remains in ~/Library/CloudStorage, on the user’s home volume. As noted above, this path cannot be moved from this location.
• The cache path is on the volume that was selected during the first-run experience. This is located in a hidden folder that’s a sibling of the location that was chosen.
  
  • This folder begins with the name “.ODContainer”.
• A symlink is created from the chosen location to ~/Library/CloudStorage."

So I expect Dropbox will do it too.

 

[svenmany]

I don't run any betas. Dropbox is fully updated on my system to v158.4.4564. My mac is running 12.6.

Dropbox has not yet been moved to ~/Library/CloudStorage; I still have the ~/Dropbox folder. Everything works well except that I no longer get the file icons indicating sync status.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I don't run any betas. Dropbox is fully updated on my system to v158.4.4564. My mac is running 12.6.

Dropbox has not yet been moved to ~/Library/CloudStorage; I still have the ~/Dropbox folder. Everything works well except that I no longer get the file icons indicating sync status.

And presumably on-line only files can't be opened by third party apps but have to be downloaded first?

 

[svenmany]

And presumably on-line only files can't be opened by third party apps but have to be downloaded first?

You're probably right. I don't use on-line only files.

 

[vel0city]

Thanks for the replies, still a bit unsure whether to pull the trigger on 12.6 - are offline syncs working correctly? Can I still set files as online only to save disc space? Does that still work?

 

[bnumerick]

And presumably on-line only files can't be opened by third party apps but have to be downloaded first?

Yes that is the case.

 

[bnumerick]

Thanks for the replies, still a bit unsure whether to pull the trigger on 12.6 - are offline syncs working correctly? Can I still set files as online only to save disc space? Does that still work?

Yes that works but if you try to open the file in an app without downloading it first it will not work. Just mark it as available offline and it'll open as normal once it downloads. Once you're done with it you can make it as online only again.

 

[svenmany]

One slightly off-topic point...

Dropbox Plus only preserves old versions and deleted files for 30 days. You can subscribe to pricier plans or pay for longer retention, but it's expensive. If, like me, you have a backup strategy that includes Time Machine, clones or your disk, or other things centered around backups of your local machine, Dropbox's online-only files are at risk.

So, my thinking is that if a file is current (worked on and not just archived) then it shouldn't be online-only. If a file is stored away and rarely touched, then online-only is OK and I wouldn't find it inconvenient to not have the functionality of applications triggering downloads.

 

[posguy99]

Depending on your use case, dump the ridiculous first-party Dropbox app and just use Maestral .

 

[posguy99]

Dropbox Plus only preserves old versions and deleted files for 30 days. You can subscribe to pricier plans or pay for longer retention, but it's expensive. If, like me, you have a backup strategy that includes Time Machine, clones or your disk, or other things centered around backups of your local machine, Dropbox's online-only files are at risk.

I back Dropbox up via my Synology. The Synology software supports most of the major players in cloud storage, but does not support iCloud.

 

[svenmany]

I back Dropbox up via my Synology. The Synology software supports most of the major players in cloud storage, but does not support iCloud.

I'm very interested but I'm resisting hijacking the thread

 

[vel0city]

I'm very interested but I'm resisting hijacking the thread

Happy to read any Dropbox related tips in this thread, no problem!

Thanks for the replies so far, much appreciated.

 

[vel0city]

Yes that works but if you try to open the file in an app without downloading it first it will not work. Just mark it as available offline and it'll open as normal once it downloads. Once you're done with it you can make it as online only again.

Thank you, this is what I needed to know.

Hope this gets sorted properly in Ventura. My one regret with my 16" M1 Max was "only" getting 2TB storage, so I rely on Drobox's online only sync to save internal disk space.

 

[saudor]

Depending on your use case, dump the ridiculous first-party Dropbox app and just use Maestral .

Looks good at first but the following is a massive dealbreaker since I work with large files. Should be fine for basic stuff like smaller office files or files that don't change.

----
Maestral uses the public Dropbox API which, unlike the official client, does not support transferring only those parts of a file which changed (“binary diff”). Maestral may therefore use more bandwidth that the official client

 

[svenmany]

Happy to read any Dropbox related tips in this thread, no problem!

Thanks for the replies so far, much appreciated.

Thanks!

I back Dropbox up via my Synology. The Synology software supports most of the major players in cloud storage, but does not support iCloud.

I'm not sure if you meant to say this is a workaround to the problem of local backups missing offline-only files. I'll assume so.

If you were to add a file to dropbox on your iPhone, but your defaults set that file online-only, I assume that the file will not appear on your Mac. Does that mean it's not backed up to your NAS? Or, does the NAS backup access the Dropbox files in the cloud?

If it backup pulls files directly from the Dropbox servers, that would be a deal changer for me and I'd be happy to start using Dropbox's online-only feature.

I do use ARQ Backup with Dropbox as a destination. It never occurred to me that there might be a backup solution that used Dropbox as a source.

 

[posguy99]

If it backup pulls files directly from the Dropbox servers, that would be a deal changer for me and I'd be happy to start using Dropbox's online-only feature.

I do use ARQ Backup with Dropbox as a destination. It never occurred to me that there might be a backup solution that used Dropbox as a source.

Synology Cloud Sync talks directly to Dropbox.

 

[svenmany]

Synology Cloud Sync talks directly to Dropbox.

Thanks. I just looked it up at that name. It seems really great and I'll investigate it more. Their website says...

... can efficiently and easily back up data from or to public clouds.

Going in both directions is the ticket.

 

[svenmany]

Synology Cloud Sync talks directly to Dropbox.

I have an older NAS. The latest OS available is DSM 4.2. Cloud Sync doesn't seem to be supported.

 

[pc297]

For Mac Pro 1,1/2,1/El Capitan users who can't upgrade past El Cap: Dropbox has ended support for El Cap so the Dropbox app automatically updates itself and the latest version (165.4.4300 as of 16 January 2022) does't run on El Cap anymore in any sort of way afaik. Unfortunately putting Dropbox in /Applications/Utilities doesn't prevent it from updating anymore BUT there is a temporary fix as it does look like they haven't changed the hash tables yet:

1) download Dropbox 161.4.4923 from https://dropbox.en.uptodown.com/mac/download/86376729

2) Mount the disk image and install

3) go offline/very quickly copy the Dropbox app to another folder (e.g. /Applications/Utilities, make sure it's the 161.4.4923 app you're copying)

4) right-click on the Dropbox app, select "Show package contents", navigate to Contents and open Info.plist with a text editor

5) in the plist file navigate to:

<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
<string>161.4.4923</string>

(line 154)

6) Replace 161.4.4923 with 165.4.4300 (current version)

7) Copy back the modified Dropbox app back to /Applications

As of today 16 January 2023 this works, I am not sure how long for or how long it will be before the hash tables / encryptions are changed. It might work with the next version in which case the process will need to be repeated from 161.4.4923. The pics below are uploaded from my Dropbox on El Cap.

1st pic: the original 165.4.4300 app which doesn't launch (either by opening it or navigating to /Contents/MacOS/Dropbox - resulting in an traceback). Note the different file size from pic 2 (161.4.4923)

2nd pic: the original 161.4.4923 app next to the modified one (161.4.4923 in Info.plist changed to 165.4.4300). Note the identical file sizes.

3d pic: the modified 161.4.4923 app in /Applications

4th pic: Working dropbox folder with the modified 161.4.4923 app

5th pic: Dropbox drop-down options in menu bar (modified 161.4.4923 app)

6th pic: About dropbox which clearly shows version 161.4.4923

7th pic: Mac OS version (El Capitan 10.11.6)

Been running it for 12 hours straight, hasn't updated yet (it would within minutes if not seconds if already updated if one manually reinstalls 161.4.4923)
Enjoy,

Cheers,

EDIT: this might also work for later El Cap compatible Dropbox versions (e.g. 162.4.5419/163.3.5425/164.4.7914)