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Dropbox Now Limits Free Users To 3 Devices (venturebeat.com)
Dropbox has quietly removed unlimited device linking for free accounts, meaning that unless you upgrade to one of its paid plans, which start at $8.25 per month, you will be restricted to three devices for a single account. From a report: The change was rolled out earlier this month, though it's worth noting that those who had linked more than three devices prior to March 2019 won't be directly affected. However, anyone who already exceeds the new limit will be impacted at some point, as they won't be able to add any more devices to their account in the future, and if they upgrade to a new phone, tablet, or computer, the three device limit will catch up with them.
That was the exact same point I stopped using Evernote. Time to find an alternative cloud storage.
Now I have asymmetric internet speeds I'll be moving off a few cloud services.
I recommend syncthing (https://syncthing.net) if you want to self host, or Google drive if you want a reliable cloud provider. Apple and Microsoft have cloud solutions too, and there are a myriad of other alternatives.
I understand it was one of the first of its kind (certainly not bringing any new feature to us being used to having our own FTP server for years). But why would someone use dropbox today?
If I choose Google, I get the integration with Email and Google Docs/Sheets which allow easy editing of documents by multiple different people, and pictures get hosted for free on google photos. And the basic storage of 15 GB is much more than dropbox 2GB.
If I choose Microsoft, I get the integration with Windows, office 365, and the 5TB plan cost less than dropbox' 2TB.
Dropbox doesn't integrate well with anything, so it's one more account to manage, plus the pricing isn't very interesting.
What's the advantage of Dropbox? Why are people still using it?
Looks like I finished setting up my personal Nextcloud instance just in time.
c-ya.
Dropbox couldn't do this if their clients and protocol were open.
That was the exact same point I stopped using Evernote. Time to find an alternative cloud storage.
Ditto.
"The more you tighten your grip, Dropbox, the more customers will slip through your fingers."
~ Former Dropbox user ORGANAL6689
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
Dropbox doesn't integrate well with anything
Dropbox integrates with GNU/Linux bettter than Google Drive and OneDrive do. Consider what happens when I visit each of three major cloud storage services' sync client download page using Firefox on Linux:
Dropbox Success. The site offers aYou were just a user... Not sure they will miss you all that much :-(
Give unlimited "free" usage for a while, and then pull back and start charging. There will be some people who will pay because they don't want to move their shit for one reason or another.
And as far as their management is concerned, they don't give a shit to see you go. You're not who they want.
Yes, I have to pay a provider for the storage, but I can control who can see my data. Guests do not need to have a dropbox account or get logged etc.And the data is stored in the EU which makes it compliant with local law.
Google Drive's desktop client requires Windows or macOS. Google does not offer a client for GNU/Linux. Users of GNU/Linux will need to use a different solution.
Syncthing apparently has a public relay pool in case both devices are behind carrier-grade NAT.[1] But how well does Syncthing work if both devices aren't turned on at the same time? And what's the recommended way to copy Syncthing's 56-character friend codes across machines? Some IM network?
[1] "Carrier-grade NAT" is a network address translation layer that an ISP applies across an entire neighborhood to conserve IPv4 addresses. ISPs generally refuse requests to forward ports to a customer behind carrier-grade NAT.
Access it from anywhere they say.
I really only use Dropbox to share files with other people and I'm very interested in Mozilla's new file sharing service: https://send.firefox.com/
Like others have mentioned, I basically gave up on Dropbox a long time ago. One of the main reasons for me was that they don't encrypt the files. I have an account with Box that offers me 50GB of storage for free. I get around the encryption issue by creating a Veracrypt container in Box and adding my files to the container. I consider it more like archival storage just in case my local backups get corrupted.
For day to day file sharing I use a combination of OneDrive and OneNote. Mostly work related stuff so using Microsoft tools works quite well. I used to use Evernote but gave up on it when they started putting restrictions on how many devices I could use and tried to push me towards a paid plan. OneNote, in my opinion, is the best thing Microsoft makes and they are giving it away for free these days. You don't even have to buy MS Office. The Android client that I use works flawlessly and as near as I can tell there isn't any real limit on how much you can store in it. If there is I haven't come close to reaching it.
Been waiting for an excuse to set up this extra Synology server. Cloudstation it is.
If I choose Google, I get the integration with Email and Google Docs/Sheets which allow easy editing of documents by multiple different people, and pictures get hosted for free on google photos.
Well obviously, the primal answer is FUCK GOOGLE.
To clarify further I have heard about Google locking people out of files they deem "bad", like either copyright infringement or porn (ask a cosplayer). So what happens to documents I have synced on Googles doc cloud...
Not to mention, what if I have some photos I want no risk of being shared on Google? I do photographic sessions with clients at times who do not want images to be public ever.
There is just way, way too much risk exposure to put any file on Google, and from an ethical standpoint I do not want to give Google more material to scan.
The second answer is, Dropbox is really, really stable. It works super well, and Dropbox has thought through the use cases really well. Delete a shared folder locally and be able to easily choose if that is permient or just local? Check. Easily share with outside users via web? Sure. Syncing? Always, always works as expected.
Dropbox is simply put the gold standard for web storage, you can use options that may seem cheaper but you will pay eventually, oh how you will pay.
On a side note I also use Apple iCloud, which does sync pretty well - but it's not as flexible as Dropbox in terms of how I can use it on multiple devices, or how I can choose to share with others...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've noticed this word popping up in summaries lately. It carries the implication they're trying to be sneaky about it. But who advertises an additional restriction on a service? It's nothing nefarious, they just changed their business model. They're aren't trying to put one past someone, in fact they are probably going to be in peoples face about it because they want to be paid for the service they provide.
Really though, drop the "quietly" bit in these articles. It adds nothing and makes it look like you're trying to stir up drama where there is none.
I don't want to say it's a dumb move by DropBox, because ultimately why should they - from a business point of view - care about free users? If people want to walk away instead of upgrading to the paid plans, they aren't really losing out.
But avoiding the three device limit isn't enough to get people to jump from £0 to £8/month. Certainly not if they were happy with 2GB and don't need 1TB.
If they want to retain users, with the prospect of them upgrading to the higher plans later, then they really needed to offer something at much lower cost.
Maybe £1/month for 10GB - 50GB with unlimited devices - or rather £12/year billed annually. But certainly something much cheaper than is currently on offer.
Electronics/computing is supposed to get cheaper all the time. Not cloud storage?
That was the exact same point I stopped using Evernote.
And nothing of value was lost (to Dropbox).
I stopped using Evernote because it sucked, not because of how much I could mooch off them for free (or not).
I think a limit of three devices for free cloud syncing is pretty reasonable, to get a sense of if dropbox will work for what you are trying to do.
The device limits seems especially reasonable given than number of connections are almost worse than amount of data stored...
The thing is, Dropbox works really well. Good luck finding an alternative that does everything Dropbox does and works as well for free across more than three devices!!!
Maybe it's worth a few dollars a month for reliability and sanity? Just sayin'
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
But who advertises an additional restriction on a service?
Responsible service providers give 30 days' notice to allow users to migrate their processes away from depending on a service feature that will stop working.
"What's the advantage of Dropbox? Why are people still using it?"
Because it comes preinstalled with windows & people are too dumb/lazy to install something else.
I already have Owncloud running on a leased vps, and it does a "backup" of my dropbox, along with "dropbox" style use by the family. I use Dropbox between my home workstation and my laptop and phone, so I guess I'm cool (for now).
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Been using that and prefer it to Dropbox, however my team at work insists on using it even though we have a "bottomless" One Drive. Maybe this will get the team and, therefore, me away from it.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
They reserve a lot of useful features for Business accounts (such as remotely wiping a Dropbox client). This is really, really stupid on their part. No doubt Dropbox has been a leader in this industry, but there are alternatives cropping up, such as "pcloud". Dropbox needs to add more value, more space and features -- then I might be willing to pay for it.
A three device limit is seriously petty, considering the storage is local to the computer vs. on cloud based storage.
*nm*
The official Dropbox client includes an automatic updater. Which service's client comes with major desktop Linux distributions?
Are you downloading Libreoffice and Firefox from their web sites?
Some people do this in order to benefit from bug fixes and new features that haven't been upstreamed into the distro yet. For example, I was told that Firefox 66 fixed a problem that was causing the "Upload Emoji" button in Discordapp.com not to work. But Ubuntu's repository carries only the release version, and at the time, Firefox 66 was beta, and Firefox 65 was release. So in order to test whether Firefox 66 actually fixed the problem, I had to download the beta from Mozilla's website.
I moved to OwnCloud when Dropbox screwed up their Linux support last Fall.
Owncloud is not difficult to set up on your own server. Tedious, maybe, but not difficult. The worst of it is that you will probably need a dynamic DNS solution. Then you have your data on your own hardware - not someone else's. Combine with a sensible backup plan, and you're all set.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
This would really suck if there weren't a bunch of alternatives.
I forget who said this, but Dropbox should be a FEATURE of a product, not a standalone product itself. Hits the nail on the head, imho.
BORING FAGGOT KENDALL YOU WILL NEVER MATTER KILL YOURSELF
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Great, you moved from "Dropbox can see my files" to "my cloud provider can see my files". It's a step forward because now you are the customer and not the product, but still you must trust someone.
are always free
I bought a Synology NAS after this: https://www.techspot.com/news/.... Which is not directly related to Google Drive, but if Google had the power to do that it has the power to look into my files and determine that anything there is not appropriate. Once I purchased the NAS, everything came off the cloud including Dropbox. Minimal maintenance. I'm still figuring out how I can have a third backup option so the data in the NAS is stored offsite, but other than that I'm a satisfied customer.
the future is but past forgotten
Having two accounts helps if you don't want Google feeding your Docs activity to its other divisions to help AdWords and DoubleClick personalize ads presented to you.
4TB USB drives and a cheap old server are so damn cheap nowadays there's no point using someone else's cloud. :)
Just be sure you whip up some backup scripts and keep one physically elsewhere in storage in between
This proves that the push to get users to use "apps" instead of a general purpose web browser is to control, control, and control.
- We don't want you to zoom ....blah blah blah
- We don't allow screen shots
- We don't want you to copy or save text
Of course there is the little problem of limited storage space on cell phones, so maybe things will come full circle, and we will end up with an "app browser". Only this 'browser' will be a fully locked down, 100% corporate controlled steaming pile of user hostile shit. Remember, everybody is the enemy and a potential "hacker". Sieg Heil
They start out with noble intentions, do no evil, etc..... ....but sooner or later they become the desperate 5$ crack whore who steals everything that's not nailed down, and smashes up the floor with a sledgehammer to get stuff that is, just to get their next hit (the drug being big bags of money).
Always remember this before drinking any of the Kool-aid the 'benevolent' companies serve you.
First they take away Linux support, now they take away devices
I noticed that the 3rd party tool CloudMounter allows using Dropbox storage without these limitations, I don't need to pay more to use Dropbox as usual, connecting all of my devices.
They deserve it! You give for free something, then you are asking for money? F----k off!