Dropbox Finally Begins Testing Mac App With Native Apple Silicon Support

[polyphenol]

Dropbox has always been the most reliable cloud service since as far as I've known. Better than Apple and Microsoft, no wonder why Jobs wanted to put his hands on it. It's still true today.

Also, not going to be fun to move all the stuff back...? Did you ever copy/paste files from a folder to another? That's basically all you'd need to do...

But hey, in the end, just pick whatever floats your boat.

Was not my experience on a site which used it across something like forty/fifty PCs.

LAN sync killed their network with their particular working practices. But not using LAN sync killed their internet connection. With individual machines spluttering at the effort of maintaining sync.

And when they were using machines at different locations, such as the owner's home, and a small secondary office, it became totally unusable.

 

[NightFox]

I'm still a paid Dropbox user (14 years now!), but I'm disappointed by the direction that the developers have taken. The app no longer has a native look-and-feel on Mac. Let's hope this new focus on M1 will also bring some attention to adhering more closely to Mac interface guidelines. That's not optional.

That's a developer's quandary when it comes to cross-platform apps. Do you design your app to look the same, irrespective of platform to ensure a consistent user experience, or do you comply with each platform's design guidelines which leaves users having a fragmented experience as they move between platforms?

Or you do both like MS has done with Office on the Mac, so you get some commands at the top of the screen on the Mac's Menu Bar but others (sometimes with the same name!) on the toolbar at the top of the app window in a Windows style.

 

[jonnysods]

That would be great - the more optimization of it the better.

Dropbox a fantastic product - this is good news.

 

[calstanford]

Pathetic. I stopped paying these customer hating idiots 9 months ago and went with a 2TB iCloud sub. Couldn't be happier.

 

[aevan]

It's still in beta (an "Insider" build) but OneDrive is available now for Apple silicon. You can move to it from the bottom of the About box in Preferences.

View attachment 1940166

I know, but I’ve read here people saying to avoid it because it’s very buggy. So I’m waiting for the actual release.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Does this company stuff exist?

I have no idea how. Worse. UX. Ever. Seriously, such a frustrating experience. Dropped that box years ago.

 

[splitpea]

A bit off topic, but was disappointed to see TurboTax 2021 still isn’t native.

Intuit will make TurboTax web-only before they bother with a truly native Mac client. The ROI isn’t there. In fact, I’m pretty sure web-only is in the near future for TurboTax for Mac; and every year that I check and find there’s still a download available, I breathe a big sigh of relief.

 

[lkrupp]

OneDrive, which I’m waiting for, is still testing the Apple Silicon version a year since M1 launch. Dropbox is just starting testing.

Seriously, they are taking their time.

IMHO, I think it’s intentional foot dragging.

 

[aevan]

IMHO, I think it’s intentional foot dragging.

Why? It doesn’t seem like a big investment and it makes their customers happy.

I think they just don’t care enough.

 

[Neurobit]

Too late. Moved all my data to iCloud.

Same here. You know what? Much better experience amd seamless integration.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

It's still in beta (an "Insider" build) but OneDrive is available now for Apple silicon. You can move to it from the bottom of the About box in Preferences.

View attachment 1940166

Tried using the AS version of OneDrive but had problems, not with OneDrive, but with apps that integrate with OneDrive. For instance, Snag-IT 2022 supports storing snag files in your OneDrive but when using the AS version of OneDrive, the app crashes when viewing your library. The Intel version works as expected. So the switch to AS versions of OneDrive and Dropbox aren't as simple as it seems. Apps that integrate with OD or DB also may need to be fixed.

 

[Neurobit]

Why? It doesn’t seem like a big investment and it makes their customers happy.

I think they just don’t care enough.

You’re both right.
Intentional foot dragging because they don’t care enough.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I have already voted. Maestral. Can't see me bothering to switch back to an official client unless it both offers something extra and uses no more resources.

(Admittedly, my needs are extremely modest. Largely because I moved almost everything from Dropbox when they ramped up costs so spectacularly.)

The Maestral site says nothing about encryption of data. Is it secure?

 

[aevan]

Tried using the AS version of OneDrive but had problems, not with OneDrive, but with apps that integrate with OneDrive. For instance, Snag-IT 2022 supports storing snag files in your OneDrive but when using the AS version of OneDrive, the app crashes when viewing your library. The Intel version works as expected. So the switch to AS versions of OneDrive and Dropbox aren't as simple as it seems. Apps that integrate with OD or DB also may need to be fixed.

I think this is more due to other changes in the app (I read they are adding some new features) rather then just recompiling for Apple Silicon.

The best course of action (for us) would be to deploy the same app but with Apple Silicon support and then add the new features in a new release, but that is probably less cost effective (QA testing, for example) for Microsoft so they bundled both changes into one release.

Of course, I don’t know this for a fact, it’s just my guess.

 

[aevan]

Too late. Moved all my data to iCloud.

I have 2Tb iCloud, and I like it, but I still need OneDrive (I previously used Dropbox) for certain features like version history, better sharing with non-Apple people, etc.

But for personal use, iCloud Drive is great. It’s built-in and reliable.

 

[aevan]

Or you do both like MS has done with Office on the Mac, so you get some commands at the top of the screen on the Mac's Menu Bar but others (sometimes with the same name!) on the toolbar at the top of the app window in a Windows style.

Haven’t seen Dropbox in a while but OneDrive integration looks nice in Finder. However, their Menu Bar mini app has a completely different style. So does the share window. Still, I don’t see these very often.

 

[dlondon]

I keep meaning to sort out what I'm doing with my files. Dropbox is my main provider which I keep personal and work files on. A few of my team have shared folders which works fairly well for us. I also have the lower tiers of Google One (for photos mainly) and iCloud (for iDevice backups mainly). I tried moving to OneDrive (1TB with Office 365) a while back but my filenames/paths were too long.

 

[polyphenol]

The Maestral site says nothing about encryption of data. Is it secure?

Now, I only use Dropbox in order to make some files/documents readily available to a small section of the public. Thus, I care not a jot about encryption.

Obviously, though, when it hits Dropbox' servers and is stored there, it will be encrypted just the same as everything else. Otherwise, it would not be compatible, and for a brief period I had both Maestral and Dropbox' own client working at the same tine.

 

[Rafterman]

Too late. I already left after a decade with Dropbox. It’s iCloud for me nowadays!

I tried to use iCloud, but its still has stupid bugs - like iCloud will download 90 percent of each file, then suddenly stop, requiring a reboot.

 

[araadt]

Ping me when Dropbox doesn't consistently ask for 150% of CPU.

 

[dgdosen]

Business Dropbox user here (small org with Mac/Windows/Linux users - and intensive file sharing). I checked and my mac is already (automagically?) running the beta. Seems fine by me... Way down on CPU utilization, but still the biggest memory hog.

 

[doolar]

I tried to use iCloud, but its still has stupid bugs - like iCloud will download 90 percent of each file, then suddenly stop, requiring a reboot.

Now iCloud is not without its faults, but this is one issue I’ve yet to stumble across with the service.

 

[jonnysods]

I’m assuming the people who say they dropped Dropbox for iCloud don’t use it for business?

 

[mxrider88]

I tried to use iCloud, but its still has stupid bugs - like iCloud will download 90 percent of each file, then suddenly stop, requiring a reboot.

That’s true! It’s integrated and that’s why I love it but the user experience is bad. Downloads stopping, uploads ultra slow.

 

[Bustycat]

I know, but I’ve read here people saying to avoid it because it’s very buggy. So I’m waiting for the actual release.

Too little gains but much more sacrifices. It’s a disaster that normal users should avoid.