Dropbox's Free Storage Plan Now Limited to Three Devices

[ignatius345]

I moved almost everything I had in Dropbox over to iCloud Drive (where I have 2 TB for $10/mo). I’m generally happy with the switch, though Dropbox is a lot better about letting you control selective sync — with iCloud, you just have to sort of let it decide for itself what to cache.

Basically the only other thing Dropbox does that iCloud Drive doesn’t is allow folder-level collaboration. That’s a key feature and I’ve used it a lot when working on projects. I guess Google Drive could be adapted to this use, but I find it kludgy and I don’t trust Google much.

Sad to see this change because I’ve been using Dropbox for a long time and back when it came out it really was a miraculous “magic folder” you could effortlessly share with others.

 

[velocityg4]

Considering Office 365 Home is the same $99/year as the cheapest Dropbox plan, but offers 1TB for 6 people instead of 1, plus Office apps for those 6 people and a bunch of other things, including smart syncing (they call it files on demand) which dropbox doesn't offer unless you double up to the pro plan at $199/year, guess it's time to move on from Dropbox.

All of that is what made me choose Office 365 over all the other online storage services. It's a lot cheaper than buying Office for all those computers. It would take quite a few years to break even on all those copies. You never would if you also needed to pay for something like Dropbox or Google Drive.

These companies act like 1TB is expensive still. I doubt most with 1TB are even using more than 20GB.

 

[SigEp265]

Yikes. Not good. I'd be livid if I lost some files like that.

Ive learned to use two cloud services to back up now

 

[aimbdd]

Six months ago I switched from Dropbox.com to Sync.com and I've been very happy with the change. Sync uses end-to-end encryption on everything they store (Dropbox doesn't) and Sync has no knowledge of what they're storing for you (Dropbox does). Their free plan is 5GB with unlimited devices. Plus all Sync's servers are in Canada so they're beyond the reach of US government snooping. To be clear I'm just a casual user and I'm not storing anything bad, but companies are either serious about protecting the privacy of their customers or they're not. Sync definitely is.

I hate to be that person, but Canada is part of the “ five eyes “ and as such if that company can read your files, so can the us gov if they wanted to.

 

[JosephAW]

Hard to believe that someday Dropbox will be no more.
It starts to decline when they dropped support for Power PC and Windows XP with no options. Just cut us off.

 

[canadianreader]

I didn't know about sync, but having been a Paying Dropbox user for years, can you guys chime in on what I should do? my main reason for using dropbox is to control permissions to files, and editing rights to files for my work.

Sync seems really good, but is the usability same as Dropbox?

It may not have the bells and whistles dropbox has but it’s very reliable and secure. They have the option of zero knowledge protocol meaning if you don’t enable email password reset in the settings they don’t have access to your stored files but if you forget your password you’re completely locked out forever. I’d suggest using a password manager like MacPass it’s a fork of keepass for mac to store your sync.com password.

 

[SteveW928]

The file out be there but the size would be 0.0kb ... in other words, corrupt. Perhaps it was a sync issue between multiple devices on multiple operating systems...

That's the thing, Dropbox actually works. I've used it since near it started, and have friends who have used it heavily (ie: business plan with many TB of files), and I've yet to see any issues outside a small outage several years back. I've not heard (or experienced) the same with other services.

My main issue with Dropbox in the last few years is in the main functionality of having a central storage location on my main internal storage... which has increasingly become small SSDs. You can exclude folders out of that to not sync on more limited devices, but now even my primary device doesn't have a ton of internal SSD storage (so I had to move a bunch of stuff off from being sync'd).

They have a plan that includes more flexible storage location and sync'ing, but it's more money... and then the complexity goes way up.

That said, many of the other services (besides above reliability concerns) also come from companies with dubious privacy records (hello Google, etc.), or lack of functionality and competence (hello Apple), so I don't really see them as solutions either.

The Dropbox fee is getting a bit harder to justify each year, but we're also talking about changes to the FREE plan here.

 

[RevTEG]

I only have Dropbox on 3 devices so this will not bother me. However, for those that need extra devices can’t you just log in directly from their site instead of using their app?

That’s how I got around Evernote’s device limits... before I left them.

I use iCloud but MANY of the organizations, schools and people I work with share files cross platform through Dropbox.

 

[chabig]

I didn't know about sync, but having been a Paying Dropbox user for years, can you guys chime in on what I should do? my main reason for using dropbox is to control permissions to files, and editing rights to files for my work.

Sync seems really good, but is the usability same as Dropbox?

If you’re happy with DropBox, stick with DropBox. This change doesn’t affect you.

 

[pdaholic]

Well, they will miss the revenue they thought they would get from you, but it will never materialize.

If there was a $1 or $2 / month plan, many would sign up.
Not so with $10.

Essentially, they will not get any new paying customers with this move.

-t

I don’t disagree that they need to work on their pricing structure, but if you’re not paying for their service and usurping their free storage and bandwidth, they won’t miss you.

Not that I really care, I have no ties to any of these companies.

 

[adrianlondon]

The thing I like about Dropbox is that, on MacOS, it works with links. You can link a file or directory into the Dropbox folder and those files get backed up. OneDrive just backs up the link/shortcut name - not so useful.

 

[Dimwhit]

I mean... I have that 1TB OneDrive as well... guess I’ll just double down on actually using it.

Yeah, I thought the same thing. Works very similar on a Mac, so I might as well use it like I've been using Dropbox.

 

[G5isAlive]

That's the thing, Dropbox actually works. I've used it since near it started, and have friends who have used it heavily (ie: business plan with many TB of files), and I've yet to see any issues outside a small outage several years back. I've not heard (or experienced) the same with other services.

My main issue with Dropbox in the last few years is in the main functionality of having a central storage location on my main internal storage... which has increasingly become small SSDs. You can exclude folders out of that to not sync on more limited devices, but now even my primary device doesn't have a ton of internal SSD storage (so I had to move a bunch of stuff off from being sync'd).

They have a plan that includes more flexible storage location and sync'ing, but it's more money... and then the complexity goes way up.

That said, many of the other services (besides above reliability concerns) also come from companies with dubious privacy records (hello Google, etc.), or lack of functionality and competence (hello Apple), so I don't really see them as solutions either.

The Dropbox fee is getting a bit harder to justify each year, but we're also talking about changes to the FREE plan here.

I have the same problem, that my allowed dropbox storage is actually larger than my laptop SSD (and as large as my whole iMac SSD), but not quite sure how to selectively sync so that it shows up on my desktop as an available file, but only resides in the cloud. What DropBox plan allows for that? Not sure I want to give them more money but....

This thread made me think of alternatives to dropbox, but almost every major program directly incorporates DB, its really easy to use, and I am not too worried about what my government may find there. So I am likely to stick, especially if I resolve this issue.

 

[Ken Linger]

If there was a $1 or $2 / month plan, many would sign up.
Not so with $10.

A true statement for many, I'm sure. However, the business problem here is: how many of their $10/month users would switch down to the $1-2 plan? That is, there are probably a significant number of people paying for 1 TB today that only need 100G but decided to pay for the then-lowest priced option.

 

[SigEp265]

That's the thing, Dropbox actually works. I've used it since near it started, and have friends who have used it heavily (ie: business plan with many TB of files), and I've yet to see any issues outside a small outage several years back. I've not heard (or experienced) the same with other services.

My main issue with Dropbox in the last few years is in the main functionality of having a central storage location on my main internal storage... which has increasingly become small SSDs. You can exclude folders out of that to not sync on more limited devices, but now even my primary device doesn't have a ton of internal SSD storage (so I had to move a bunch of stuff off from being sync'd).

They have a plan that includes more flexible storage location and sync'ing, but it's more money... and then the complexity goes way up.

That said, many of the other services (besides above reliability concerns) also come from companies with dubious privacy records (hello Google, etc.), or lack of functionality and competence (hello Apple), so I don't really see them as solutions either.

The Dropbox fee is getting a bit harder to justify each year, but we're also talking about changes to the FREE plan here.

I moved my dropbox folder to a 2nd HDD on my computer to save space on my SSD. I am not sure if that is possible with the free plan?

 

[BigMcGuire]

I've gotten burned out on cloud services/subscriptions. I can't be the only one doing this --- I just said screw it, bought a super cheap 1-2TB external and I have Arq with BackBlaze backing it up every hour to B2 cloud. I pay less than $1/mo for 300+GB.

 

[manu chao]

Biggest gripe I have with iCloud - no selective syncing, no shared folders... several others.
OneDrive is not bad but few people I know use it.

My wife uses Dropbox because a lot of colleges still use it / require it. Sucks when professors share large folders because it counts against her storage. Not a fan of how Dropbox counts that storage.

Does this new limit affect the use of shared folders? Meaning does sharing a folder with another Dropbox account count as another linked device?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Does this new limit affect the use of shared folders? Meaning does sharing a folder with another Dropbox account count as another linked device?

Doesn't look like it. My wife has a TON of shared folders on her free Dropbox account. Like dozens and dozens. But all that storage in every folder counts against her free storage.

 

[StellarVixen]

I like the Dropbox for the reason that "it just works". So seamlessly. It has been like that for years. But they are really more expensive than competition.

And now this makes matters even worse.

 

[Doctor Q]

If you're a Basic user and you linked more than three devices prior to March 2019, all of your previously linked devices will remain linked, but you can’t link additional devices.

What if you subsequently replace your device with a new one? Can you switch Dropbox to it, or will you be unable to add Dropbox to the new device even if you drop it from the old device? If you can't switch it, then by attrition everyone will eventually lose Dropbox on their additional devices from prior to March 2019.

 

[Bustycat]

Dropbox remains the easiest to use for me, but their ridiculous pricing model really discourages me to pay. Their new design motif (https://dropbox.design) also disgusts me.

 

[mollyc]

Six months ago I switched from Dropbox.com to Sync.com and I've been very happy with the change. Sync uses end-to-end encryption on everything they store (Dropbox doesn't) and Sync has no knowledge of what they're storing for you (Dropbox does). Their free plan is 5GB with unlimited devices. Plus all Sync's servers are in Canada so they're beyond the reach of US government snooping. To be clear I'm just a casual user and I'm not storing anything bad, but companies are either serious about protecting the privacy of their customers or they're not. Sync definitely is.

My biggest use for Dropbox is the automatic camera upload, which I then sync (aka move) to my desktop. I never backup my phone because the only thing on it I really care about are my photos but I know they synced through Dropbox. I’ve been a long time user of Dropbox and also have more storage than I really need due to referring people early on. I do currently use three devices but see how this could become a major limitation in the future.

Does Sync have a camera upload feature like this?

 

[dukebound85]

this is pushing me away from dropbox. sync.com here i come

 

[Apple_Robert]

I wish iCloud offered selective syncing. I think more people would subscribed if that occurred.
[doublepost=1552689886][/doublepost]

Six months ago I switched from Dropbox.com to Sync.com and I've been very happy with the change. Sync uses end-to-end encryption on everything they store (Dropbox doesn't) and Sync has no knowledge of what they're storing for you (Dropbox does). Their free plan is 5GB with unlimited devices. Plus all Sync's servers are in Canada so they're beyond the reach of US government snooping. To be clear I'm just a casual user and I'm not storing anything bad, but companies are either serious about protecting the privacy of their customers or they're not. Sync definitely is.

It would be nice if 1Password worked with Sync.
[doublepost=1552690481][/doublepost]I see Sync offers 3TB of cloud storage for $120 a year versus iCloud with 2TB at $9.99 a month. The former offers end to end encryption with selective sync and 2FA etc. and the latter does not offer selective sync or end to end encryption. I just created a free account without the email based password recovery.

 

[jimthing]

It seems obvious that DB is moving as far as possible to being a B2B cloud company, as they want the decent spending companies are willing to pay.

That's why they only offer 1TB on the consumer plan, or a whopping 2TB (big deal) on their consumer plus plan for double the price again.