Dropbox Planning to Add Native Apple Silicon Support to Mac App in First Half of 2022 [Updated]

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I switched to the Maestral Dropbox client which runs natively on Silicon, and it’s been great: https://maestral.app/

Looks pretty interesting but their website says that it does NOT support "the management of shared folder settings" which- in my experience- is the most important use of Dropbox or similar. Share and manage a folder with clients/peers/employees or they with me. Once that is cut out of the mix, I don't personally have much use for any of these types of services. For me, next most important use would be sharing a single file (too big to email) with someone(s) else. And then the rest of the benefits become pretty small (for my own purposes anyway).

Now they are recommending using the Dropbox website for that feature, so while it is apparently not something handled by this app, the app doesn't impede that feature either.

Thanks for sharing it though. Options are always good for us consumers.

 

[Just sayin...]

It appears that Dropbox is following Evernote into the graveyard of computing history. I hope their employees all find good jobs elsewhere…

 

[Daveoc64]

Dropbox is the only cloud storage (that I am aware of) that support block level changes. So if you have a 500mb file and you change a few words, Dropbox will only sync the difference versus Google Drive and One Drive which will be forced to resync the entire file. This really sucks when working on large files with frequent changes on slow upload speeds.

OneDrive added support for that last year. It works in the Mac and Windows clients.

 

[FNH15]

Onedrive is still on Rosetta, too

And it’s awful, even on Intel Macs. I only use it because work forces me to.
Honestly the best solution is iCloud Drive...

 

[lazyrighteye]

This certainly sounds more likely.
Still doesn’t change the fact that I do not, nor will ever, use Dropbox.

 

[tmmacops]

It appears that Dropbox is following Evernote into the graveyard of computing history. I hope their employees all find good jobs elsewhere…

Evernote was something a decade ago. I used it all the time. But the continued increase in pricing and really no additional functionality I dropped it.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Seriously...I think he's a liar, they had plenty of time to update and support Apple silicon, they still need half a year or even more (1H 2022)...for such a big company.

Fishy, just saying.

If you feel that way, you should call out everyone else too. There are countless apps not yet evolved for Apple Silicon. Else, Apple could drop Rosetta 2 now. Why don't they? Because even Apple knows that new Macs NEED Rosetta 2 vs. trying to "force" apps to get converted and leaving users without lots of working apps until they are.

Rosetta 1 had to hang around for YEARS until even some mainstream apps could make the conversion. I've still got one active Mac running Snow Leopard because a key app did not make the conversion and still hasn't. I don't have ANY expectations that it will be different this time. Apple Silicon is a fraction of the whole Mac base which is a fraction of all systems apps like Dropbox serves. Like any company, they prioritize where they utilize resources.

Them getting to it in about a year's time seems pretty good to me. In the meantime, existing Dropbox app continues to work exactly as it always has on Intel and M-series Macs... just like countless other apps not yet native.

We seem to believe the nonsense about "just one compiler switch" (to make apps native). It's not that easy or they would ALL have been M-series native the first week or so.

 

[tmmacops]

So where is this fabled OneDrive for Apple Silicon they mentioned? I have never seen it anywhere outside of this article.

As for Dropbox, can't believe the lack of communication about Apple Silicon from them. I pay them all this money every year, and they are completely quiet about it. There are third party Dropbox apps from much smaller dev teams that offer a native app, but they can't even pull together a beta? Very disappointed.

Blech. MS is hot garbage. I hate that I have to use it for work. I have a beautiful new MBP 14”, and have to taint it with MS Office and OD <cringe>.

 

[Pro Apple Silicon]

This company still exists?

It's not a company, it's a feature.

 

[oriz]

The Dropbox client is too bloated. The service was once great and simple. Now they want to achieve too much.

This year is the last year I pay for Dropbox.

 

[Pro Apple Silicon]

Dropbox will cave in due time.

They already have.

 

[Pro Apple Silicon]

And it’s awful, even on Intel Macs. I only use it because work forces me to.
Honestly the best solution is iCloud Drive...

OneDrive syncing works infinitely better than iCloud Drive, and it isn't even close.

 

[mannyvel]

Blech. MS is hot garbage. I hate that I have to use it for work. I have a beautiful new MBP 14”, and have to taint it with MS Office and OD <cringe>.

Excel is one of the greatest software program ever made. It's the swiss army knife of software. It's the only part of office I use anymore (besides 1drive, which I use mainly for backups).

 

[tmmacops]

Excel is one of the greatest software program ever made. It's the swiss army knife of software. It's the only part of office I use anymore (besides 1drive, which I use mainly for backups).

I use Excel rarely, some budget stuff I share. Beyond that it’s useless to me. I use it solely because our org uses it to share files. All the MS apps are slow, bloated junk (IMO). If the files are basic enough I do them in iWork and save as MS.

Everyone’s Mileage Varies I guess…

 

[R3k]

And it’s awful, even on Intel Macs. I only use it because work forces me to.
Honestly the best solution is iCloud Drive...

They’re not really comparable Tbh. iCloud is about backups and syncing your devices. Dropbox goes way beyond this- collaboration, versioning, team environment with permissions, etc. You can have multiple people using the same account, so not tied to an Apple ID.

Even sharing gold download links with iCloud is a convoluted profess compared to Dropbox.

I use both

 

[xraydoc]

I just installed this - seems to be good so far. While I would love to kick dropbox to the curb, it will take me a lot of work to do this that I really don't want to do right now so this solution will do for now. Dropbox is really starting to emulate logmein with all their ********.

Going to try this today. If it's not great, I'm going to seriously consider dropping Dropbox.

 

[Cameront9]

How has it taken them over a year to address this? It should have been ready to go day one.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

Dropbox has never been the best on Macs. always a decent thing, but I prefer box.com. Which already does have apple silicon support.

 

[posguy99]

Also, what's wrong with iCloud Drive?

You can't back it up. That's enough. Apple will inevitably screw it up, not that you shouldn't always be backing up your data no matter the service.

 

[el-John-o]

I don't have or have immediate plans for an Apple Silicon Mac but given how important cloud storage is, it's concerning when the pace of development is this poor. Especially with regards to security.

I've been thinking about switching for a while. For a while I had the free Dropbox but when they started limiting the number of devices and stuff like that; I went ahead and subscribed. To be honest, at this point; I should just switch to iCloud.

 

[posguy99]

... local synchronisation (p2p when multiple people sit in the same office) ...

Whatever else negative you want to say about Dropbox, they have been doing this for *years*.

 

[dgdosen]

This certainly sounds more likely.
Still doesn’t change the fact that I do not, nor will never, use Dropbox.View attachment 1882155

Exactly what they'd say if they never plan to support Apple Silicon

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I don't have or have immediate plans for an Apple Silicon Mac but given how important cloud storage is, it's concerning when the pace of development is this poor. Especially with regards to security.

I've been thinking about switching for a while. For a while I had the free Dropbox but when they started limiting the number of devices and stuff like that; I went ahead and subscribed. To be honest, at this point; I should just switch to iCloud.

I wouldn't worry about this. Remember, Dropbox and many other apps not yet converted "just work" as they always have. By the time that Rosetta 2 is no more, those that find the Mac segment profitable enough will have converted their apps. Those that don't, won't.

By that time, you'll probably be on your next M-series Mac and you can keep the old one around for Rosetta 2 needs. Again, I've still got a Snow Leopard Mac running for Rosetta 1 needs for apps that never converted.

This is likely just business. Mac Silicon is the future but the bulk of the Mac market is still Intel Macs. Rosetta lets just about everything that works on Intel work on Silicon. So companies can take their time evolving their apps while Rosetta 2 is available. Looking back at the Rosetta 1 transition, they have upwards of a few YEARS before they need to either work natively or not. I doubt something as important as Dropbox won't be there long before it gets to that. If they do as their leader said in the Tweet and roll out native in Q1, they will have likely beat the BULK of all such developers to being native.

Looking back at Rosetta 1, the biggest casualty will be some favorite games that have already made the bulk of their money. Some of them will definitely NOT be evolved. So if you have some favorites that seem to be towards the end of their popularity (as in new sales) cycle, plan to keep a Mac with Rosetta 2 or hang on to at least 1 Intel Mac.

 

[MonkeyT]

"The directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked, wish it to be known that they have just been sacked.

The credits have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute."

 

[anshuvorty]

...and this is the result when you build an app that uses non-native frameworks...it takes forever to optimize it for AS...