Dropbox to Roll Out Update With Full Support for macOS 12.5 by End of May

[MacRumors]

Dropbox today announced that it is expanding support for macOS 12.5 and later, with all users set to receive the update by May 2023.

Dropbox users that have not already got the update with support for macOS 12.5 can expect to receive it between now and the end of May. Anyone interested in early access to the version of Dropbox with support for macOS 12.5 can join the beta now.

Basic, Plus, Professional, and Family plan customers simply need to turn on early releases and keep watch for a notification to opt-in to get the beta, while Standard, Advanced, Enterprise, and Education customers need to contact the Account Team or Customer Support.

Dropbox added that it is also working directly with a small subset of customers with complex configurations to ensure their migration to the new system is as smooth as possible.

With the release of macOS Monterey 12.3 in March 2022, Apple deprecated kernel extensions used by cloud storage services like Dropbox and OneDrive, resulting in users being unable to open online-only files stored on Dropbox or OneDrive in third-party apps after updating.

Dropbox previously said it would begin rolling out an updated version of its Mac app to beta testers in March 2022, followed by an announcement in August that said the public beta was coming in the early fourth quarter of 2022. Development has evidently taken much longer than expected, leading to complaints from some users.

Article Link: Dropbox to Roll Out Update With Full Support for macOS 12.5 by End of May

 

[ackmondual]

I keep forgetting that despite having access to Apple's services (iCloud, paying for it via iCloud+), 3rd party options are still options none of the less. I take it the tradeoffs between the 2 are standard?... Apple's has excellent and seamless integration between Apple devices, while Drop Box has support for non-Apple devices and platforms?

 

[FightTheFuture]

Apple's has excellent and seamless integration between Apple devices, while Drop Box has support for non-Apple devices and platforms?

I wouldn’t call iCloud Drive seamless from my experience, unless it’s a lot better than before. And for how much I rely on Dropbox I stay clear of it’s native app. Try Maestral if you’re a heavy Dropbox user.

 

[tomnavratil]

I keep forgetting that despite having access to Apple's services (iCloud, paying for it via iCloud+), 3rd party options are still options none of the less. I take it the tradeoffs between the 2 are standard?... Apple's has excellent and seamless integration between Apple devices, while Drop Box has support for non-Apple devices and platforms?

Integrations to other services is a huge thing, especially in a business setting and iCloud is quite lacking there. You can do quite a bit via Dropbox's API plus a lot of people use Dropbox Sign (HelloSign previously) to e-sign paperwork.

 

[saudor]

I wouldn’t call iCloud Drive seamless from my experience, unless it’s a lot better than before. And for how much I rely on Dropbox I stay clear of it’s native app. Try Maestral if you’re a heavy Dropbox user.

yeah it was pretty bad and had small stuck files syncing over and over again and eating tens of GBs of bandwidth. Often times, the delta sync would also screw up and download/upload the entire file every so often. Hopefully it's better now.

Dropbox has got this part down really well. I can edit say a layer of a massive PSD file and it would sync only the changed parts whereas onedrive/icloud will still do delta but a much bigger file transfer happens and often times, the entire file.

 

[avkills]

Dropbox seems to work right now on 12.x; But they should really be targeting 13.x, right!?

 

[enterthemerdaverse]

I don't bother with the app or syncing so I can save local disc space. Uploading and downloading in the browser is all I need, but I'm not doing collaborations only sharing and archiving.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

The only thing Dropbox dropped was the ball. Laziest ‘support’ update I can remember.

 

[munpip214]

Dropbox was great back in the day…

 

[MauiPa]

wow, took em this long? Not very good in the programming area. would cause me some concern about security and privacy too. Glad I don't use DropBox

 

[Cameront9]

Too little too late. I moved all my files to iCloud Drive over a year ago now. Used them for years but the space was expensive, and the support was outdated. Good riddance.

 

[Nermal]

Dropbox seems to work right now on 12.x; But they should really be targeting 13.x, right!?

If 12.5 has the APIs they need, then why not target it?

 

[edrozenberg]

Dropbox was great years ago on the Mac before they turned it into a bloated montrous web-app that slows down your entire machine when file activity is happening.

All anyone ever wanted was a folder that syncs, and this is what Dropbox provided in the early days.

Now it's all about what Dropbox wants to get from you, how Dropbox wants to tell you to work, features they want to push you to use, "enterprise" features even many enterprises don't want.

I abandoned the Dropbox apps years ago. All I do now is use Transmit (Panic) to occasionally copy to Dropbox some files I want to share, and grab the sharing link via a right-click on the files in Transmit. For everything else I want to sync, iCloud drive has been working pretty well for me for some time.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Already moved over to OneDrive (already included with my Microsoft 365 subscription) and iCloud (already included with my subscription).

 

[midkay]

wow, took em this long? Not very good in the programming area. would cause me some concern about security and privacy too. Glad I don't use DropBox

I dunno, I take this the opposite way, that they are being particularly cautious and careful, knowing that any missteps on this could cause catastrophic data loss for many people. I'd much rather they take their time than "move fast and break things".

 

[code-m]

As others have mentioned DropBox has dropped the ball, too little too late and it has been eroding on its business over the years compared to many others offering free, included with subscription or more affordable options. Cryptomator and any other free or more affordable cloud storage option for the win.

 

[AnamanFan]

When the news first came out about Dropbox not even planning for this upgrade, that's when I decided to leave Dropbox. Box was my choice and works great for my needs, your milage my very.

The reason for leaving Dropbox was not so much because of the one feature set, but the lack of foresight to adapt to the modern needs of customers. Not only for macOS, but other devices as well. In fact, implementing File Provider ends up less maintenance work long term as it places more responsibility on Apple. Just how implementing PassKit meant that the moment Apple announces a new product like Watch, the passes Just Worked™ without any effort on development. So too will the future of File Provider.

This news confirmed my choice to move away from Dropbox. I'm under no illusion that development is a simple hand wave and it happens. But this long to develop the core functionality of the service when competitors have long since released really doesn't instill confidence in the Dropbox product for me.

 

[NufSaid]

The only thing Dropbox dropped was the ball. Laziest ‘support’ update I can remember.

100% agree.

They pretend to be business-friendly and have taken this long for the update. We likely will not renew after nearly 10 year (I think) with them. $1000 a year for this?

 

[Gudi]

I do nothing with Dropbox and yet it always wants 400 MB of my memory. So I had to delete the app from AutoStart.

 

[ghanwani]

Does this mean they will no longer require the system password?

 

[ghanwani]

I do nothing with Dropbox and yet it always wants 400 GB of my memory. So I had to delete the app from AutoStart.

Wow. You have a cool system with 400+GB of memory. Did you mean 400MB?

 

[Cristim74]

I don't know what problems you have with Dropbox, but it's working just fine on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro.
I don't use any app, it's integrated in the Finder app.
It uses about 300Mb of RAM on my machine, but who cares.

 

[SW3029]

Now that iCloud Drive offers full end-to-end encryption I would never go back to any other cloud storage solution that does not offer E2E.

Dropbox's lack of E2E makes the service feel like it's stuck in 2009.

 

[polyphenol]

I wouldn’t call iCloud Drive seamless from my experience, unless it’s a lot better than before. And for how much I rely on Dropbox I stay clear of it’s native app. Try Maestral if you’re a heavy Dropbox user.

I use Maestral and it is pretty good (Ventura on M1 mini and Mi MBP). Rarely even remember it's there - it really does just work almost all the time.

I'd be happy to give it up entirely, but I can't see a way of using Apple iCloud sharing anonymously. That is, anyone with the link can download the file but doesn't see my name in any way.

 

[klemsaba]

Will support of other volumes besides the boot drive return with the Dropbox update? This is a major issue for those with small internal boot drives who want to keep files downloaded for offline access and use secondary storage options.