Apple Confirms macOS 12.3 Deprecates Kernel Extensions Used by Dropbox and OneDrive

[Solve4X]

does it tho. i still have plenty of folders that won't download. i click "download now" and nothing happens. they show up on different computers. i tried turning off iCloud, logging out, etc.

I cannot get iCloud Drive to sync reliably. And the lack of visible indicators drives me crazy. How it works, if it's working, what exactly it is doing at any specific time… all those things are completely opaque. It's too bad. I wish it "just worked".

Dropbox is not perfect. But it lets you know at any time what exactly is happening to your file, and I can force-sync, view online, etc. at any time without having to guess or wonder what happened to the file. So I'll be sticking with Dropbox for Business.

 

[Maxis]

What version of Dropbox are you running? I haven't seen any problems yet with version v141.4.3299.

Beta Build 142.3.4155. _I hope_ that it is not showing the future path.

 

[svenmany]

Beta Build 142.3.4155. _I hope_ that it is not showing the future path.

This is very worrying. I depend much more on Dropbox than OneDrive. I always want every file to show up on my Mac. My wife's work documents are very important and she works on a different machine. I count on her documents showing up on my Mac so that they included in all my backups.

I'm starting to get really pissed at Apple for forcing an inferior/complex solution on their competitors. But, I'll reserve final judgement till after my Dropbox application updates and I see if I have problems.

 

[svenmany]

I went ahead and ran

launchctl disable gui/501/com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent

My user id is 501. I believe this will stop Dropbox from updating. I also upgraded my LittleSnitch license and blocked that agent from accessing the internet. Unfortunately, I suspect Dropbox will stop my old version from working in short order.

I'll be interested to hear how this plays out when Dropbox releases that beta. If it stops working well, there will be an uproar, since Dropbox is so popular. I fear my wife and I will end up sharing documents through iCloud.

Hmm. I'd better disable the update on my wife's Mac.

 

[Alameda]

So now you believe Apple has a duty to make sure that every time they do an OS update it can run all previous software?

I think Apple has a duty to inform the user if well-known software used on the machine will be incompatible with an update. I remember once, years ago, an OS update wouldn't work with MS Office. They really should have warned us, especially because the only way to remove the update was a full reformat and restore.

 

[cmaier]

I think Apple has a duty to inform the user if well-known software used on the machine will be incompatible with an update. I remember once, years ago, an OS update wouldn't work with MS Office. They really should have warned us, especially because the only way to remove the update was a full reformat and restore.

Actually, the software vendor has the duty to inform the user. That’s why apple provides us developers with betas.

 

[svenmany]

I went ahead and ran

launchctl disable gui/501/com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent

My user id is 501. I believe this will stop Dropbox from updating. I also upgraded my LittleSnitch license and blocked that agent from accessing the internet. Unfortunately, I suspect Dropbox will stop my old version from working in short order.

I'll be interested to hear how this plays out when Dropbox releases that beta. If it stops working well, there will be an uproar, since Dropbox is so popular. I fear my wife and I will end up sharing documents through iCloud.

Hmm. I'd better disable the update on my wife's Mac.

I see that my DropboxMacUpdate service is still disabled, but overnight the DropboxMacUpdate process attempted to access the internet 45 times. LittleSnitch blocked it. I'm now trying

launchctl unload -w com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist

run while the current directory is ~/Library/LaunchAgents. I have to admit that I don't understand the difference. I studied launchctl years and years ago, before "disable" was even a command.

@Maxis, I see you're posting to the Dropbox forum. Will you post any developments here?

 

[Maxis]

Hi, nice attempt to block it! I haven't played with launchctl but only years ago somethiong.

Maybe this works? https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dro...ns/Disable-automatic-updates/td-p/2835/page/7

A new beta came out. No difference. However, this works also for DropBox: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-demand-feature-updated.2333594/post-30847486

The cloud icon must be pressed to force the start of downloading. (I think it is not thought to be for crowd use)

 

[svenmany]

Hi, nice attempt to block it! I haven't played with launchctl but only years ago somethiong.

Maybe this works? https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dro...ns/Disable-automatic-updates/td-p/2835/page/7

A new beta came out. No difference. However, this works also for DropBox: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-demand-feature-updated.2333594/post-30847486

The cloud icon must be pressed to force the start of downloading. (I think it is not thought to be for crowd use)

Thanks for those links.

I should have reported that the second command I tried, "launchctl unload", worked. LittleSnitch reports that Dropbox hasn't tried to update since I ran it; that's about 48 hours now. I've never considered "launchctl remove" before. I'm not quite sure what it does.

This is a losing battle. Eventually the server code will upgrade and not support the older client. My only goal at this point is to delay the update until I understand the implications. I have a spare computer that I'll test with.

 

[Maxis]

I wouldn't worry too much. The current app should work for a _long_ time, and I think there must be a way to update the files with a command also if there is a UI function for that already existing.

 

[Maxis]

I noticed that on ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/
you can find "download now" from the menu. It forces to download all (and also delete all in a sec.. ).

 

[GraXXoR]

If I’m reading it right, Dropbox should sue Apple.

Luckily, you're not.

 

[tie23]

Today, on MacOS 12.2.1, I had to migrate from one MBP 14" to another (needed more RAM so bought an entirely new MBP - same 500GB SSD). This is how much space I was using:

But when I used Migration Assistant, this is what it told me:

~/Library is 467.42GB in size? No way.

After a ton of searching for this issue I couldn't really find anything solid. Terminal tools like `du` and freeware tool GrandPerspective both said "Nah, bro, ~/Library only has like 30GB of stuff in it.

It was only on a hunch that I thought "huh... you know what is about 400GB? My OneDrive account!"

So. To try this out I unlinked my MacBook from OneDrive. Deleted the OneDrive directory. Uninstalled OneDrive. And even, out of an abundance of caution, deleted a 12GB directory I found within ~/Library that had OneDrive's name on it.

Started up Migration Assistant again. And while the calculated account was still inflated, it was far less inflated (165GB vs 467GB) and I was able to Migrate to the new MacBook!

And yes, even that 165GB was a gross over-calculation. The new MacBook's used SSD was just about identical after Migration.

This is a really scary issue because I tried using my TimeMachine backup as a migration vector. To restore from TimeMachine would've been impossible with this inflated size. And I'll say that I only have 500GB of space for my TimeMachine hard drive backup - so these ghost files aren't actually taking up space on the TimeMachine backup. MacOS is simply scaring itself out of migrating/restoring from inflated Measurements.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Today, on MacOS 12.2.1, I had to migrate from one MBP 14" to another (needed more RAM so bought an entirely new MBP - same 500GB SSD). This is how much space I was using:
View attachment 1963816

But when I used Migration Assistant, this is what it told me:
View attachment 1963818

~/Library is 467.42GB in size? No way.

After a ton of searching for this issue I couldn't really find anything solid. Terminal tools like `du` and freeware tool GrandPerspective both said "Nah, bro, ~/Library only has like 30GB of stuff in it.

It was only on a hunch that I thought "huh... you know what is about 400GB? My OneDrive account!"
View attachment 1963822
So. To try this out I unlinked my MacBook from OneDrive. Deleted the OneDrive directory. Uninstalled OneDrive. And even, out of an abundance of caution, deleted a 12GB directory I found within ~/Library that had OneDrive's name on it.

View attachment 1963827

Started up Migration Assistant again. And while the calculated account was still inflated, it was far less inflated (165GB vs 467GB) and I was able to Migrate to the new MacBook!
View attachment 1963830

And yes, even that 165GB was a gross over-calculation. The new MacBook's used SSD was just about identical after Migration. View attachment 1963831
This is a really scary issue because I tried using my TimeMachine backup as a migration vector. To restore from TimeMachine would've been impossible with this inflated size. And I'll say that I only have 500GB of space for my TimeMachine hard drive backup - so these ghost files aren't actually taking up space on the TimeMachine backup. MacOS is simply scaring itself out of migrating/restoring from inflated Measurements.

Migrations from Time Machine backups which include cloud-only docs have done this for years. I routinely exclude Dropbox from the list of folders to be restored, and sign in later to restore them. So I guess with Dropbox/OneDrive moved to the new location in the ~/Library the TM selection process doesn't allow you to deselect it? Did you try excluding it?

If it isn't possible that is a real backward step.

 

[Maxis]

Dropbox and Onedrive are having no change of status with new updates. No auto download..

 

[Maxis]

I gave up with Dropbox. It simply doesn't sync offline without manual request for every single file and time. Google Drive seems to work. I go there then..

fcnk iptnu

 

[0414562]

Dropbox beta is a disaster at the moment. And they keep on putting out updates that don't seem to change a thing. Will most definitely not pay them again when my sub is up if they haven't managed to get this working. And frankly it's ridiculous that it's taking this long. Somehow Google Drive manages to do the streaming thing without the need for the file provider api. but it also shows up in Volumes, not as a folder.

 

[Maxis]

Now at least on beta (v153.2.2900) file sync works when the Mac has a folder set for "offline use" under Dropbox-main folder. Tested with two macs on the same lan.

ping @svenmany

 

[Mike Boreham]

Now at least on beta (v153.2.2900) file sync works when the Mac has a folder set for "offline use" under Dropbox-main folder. Tested with two macs on the same lan.

ping @svenmany

View attachment 2026401

Yes working on two Macs for me as well, for several weeks, since I completely reinstalled Dropbox forcing it to create the new Dropbox folder in ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox.

But the Dropbox forums are full of unhappy people for who it is not working.

Dropbox help there is minimal and they are not preparing users for the fact that any app that uses Dropbox will need to be re-pointed at the new location.

 

[George Dawes]

iCloud is so beautifully transparent I forgot about the options

I’ve got loads of stuff stored on Dropbox but hardly ever access it ( wedding stuff from ten years ago )