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Dropbox Now Limits Free Users To 3 Devices (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the PSA dept.

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.

105 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Bye bye by enriquevagu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That was the exact same point I stopped using Evernote. Time to find an alternative cloud storage.

    1. Re:Bye bye by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      I had already stopped using it for several reasons but this restriction is bonkers.

    2. Re: Bye bye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sure we do.
      -The NSA

    3. Re:Bye bye by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

      Between Google, Microsoft, and Apple, it's easy to find alternatives that offer free tiers with more storage than Dropbox. Alternatively, those of us around here should probably be switching to things like ownCloud or NextCloud*.

      *Without stepping into the politics and history of what's gone on between the two, the short version is that NextCloud is a fork of ownCloud after ownCloud decided to switch to offering a free, open source version for personal use and a closed, paid version with more features for enterprise. Some of the ownCloud people didn't like that, so they forked it and started NextCloud. Both are regularly updated, and I have yet to actually use either so I can't recommend one, but I'm guessing I'll eventually set up NextCloud for myself.

    4. Re:Bye bye by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Between Google, Microsoft, and Apple, it's easy to find alternatives that offer free tiers with more storage

      Among these three, how many offer a GNU/Linux client? Or are GNU/Linux users instead expected to either A. lease a VPS on which to run NextCloud or B. pay the ISP to upgrade to a plan that allows forwarding ports and leave a PC at home turned on all the time?

    5. Re:Bye bye by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      They're not getting any money from you though. And presumably never will. I think it's a mutual separation.

    6. Re:Bye bye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why would you want some closed source client? You're running GNU/Linux, wouldn't you want to use something that's open source? Both Google and Microsoft supply API access.

      https://github.com/ncw/rclone/https://github.com/ncw/rclone Supports over 40 providers including things you can run yourself.

    7. Re:Bye bye by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      That was the exact same point I stopped using Evernote. Time to find an alternative cloud storage.

      I'm sure they will be devastated to lose your ... er ... uh ... use of their resources without paying them anything?

      Was there something else they were supposed to be devastated about?

    8. Re:Bye bye by CruisinAdam · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you're interested in alternatives, I've been really happy with this OneDrive client for Linux. It even supports syncing SharePoint Sites and Office 365 groups. https://github.com/abraunegg/o...

    9. Re:Bye bye by Voyager529 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or are GNU/Linux users instead expected to either A. lease a VPS on which to run NextCloud or B. pay the ISP to upgrade to a plan that allows forwarding ports and leave a PC at home turned on all the time?

      Privacy comes at a cost. This shouldn't be news. That being said, while I can't speak for every ISP, the consumer ISPs in my area only block 80 and 25; 443 is open even on consumer connections. You should be able to get it working that way. If not, Nextcloud does work over a custom port; I can speak from personal experience on that one.

      As for leaving a storage server at home turned on, I mean...if it's that much of an imposition, both Synology and QNAP have appliances which can handle this, and either run Nextcloud or their own first party plugins and applications which have Dropbox-like functions. If that's still too much and you're willing to put up with a performance dip, Nextcloud works on a Raspberry Pi; the DietPi distro has an auto installer for it. Or, Resilio Sync is pretty good and simply requires devices to be on at the same time to replicate data.

      Or, you could simply pony up for a paid Dropbox subscription, or pick which three devices you actually-need to have syncing regularly and use the WebUI to download/upload on subsequent ones.

      Or, there's Seafile, Pydio, S3/Wasabi buckets with rsync, or for the price of the higher tier Dropbox individual plan, seedboxes.cc will do a one-click install of Nextcloud with 2TB of storage *and* a VPN *and*...y'know...a seedbox.

      This is a solved problem, in several ways. Don't sit there being pedantic about calling it "GNU/Linux" twice in a one-line post and then try to argue that web-based folder syncing is so hard to do that you're reliant on a free service to do it for you.

    10. Re:Bye bye by kalpol · · Score: 1

      It's kinda hard to beat Crashplan Small Business. While the Linux client is a little buggy, I haven't found anything else yet that matches the functionality and storage space for the price.

      --
      12:50 - press return.
    11. Re:Bye bye by kalpol · · Score: 1

      for backups, that is. I don't know about collaboration or file syncing except Nextcloud which is awesome.

      --
      12:50 - press return.
    12. Re:Bye bye by Tom · · Score: 1

      My first thought as well.

      Then my second thought was that that's the whole point. They don't want us freebooters on their services anymore.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    13. Re:Bye bye by Mal-2 · · Score: 2

      I dropped Dropbox when they put Condi on the board of directors, which was pretty much the biggest "We're in bed with the Feds" canary I've ever seen.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    14. Re:Bye bye by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Informative

      Between Google, Microsoft, and Apple, it's easy to find alternatives that offer free tiers with more storage

      Among these three, how many offer a GNU/Linux client? Or are GNU/Linux users instead expected to either A. lease a VPS on which to run NextCloud or B. pay the ISP to upgrade to a plan that allows forwarding ports and leave a PC at home turned on all the time?

      I don't know if Google has a separate storage system besides Google Drive, but KDE's Dolphin file manager supports Google Drive.

    15. Re:Bye bye by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Informative

      You do realise that they didn't do what you suggested, right? The original claim was that the security dialog was fake, but it was quickly proven to be a proper OS supplied one - the issue was rather that OSX had something like 10 different styles for the same dialog, and people made the assumption that the one Dropbox used was faked.

    16. Re:Bye bye by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      Yes, It's time to bail. If they don't want people to take advantage of their free services they shouldn't offer them for free. I'll be moving all my crap over to OneDrive, I guess, since I have 1 TB of space there.

      The best option would be to set up my own cloud storage system. I think Window 10 has something like that built in but I think I would be better off going with something that runs on a penguin. Any suggestions?

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    17. Re:Bye bye by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      No, if you hit “cancel” on the first one (during the initial install request, which was a system pop up), then subsequently with every Dropbox restart you’d get another one with text along the lines of “Dropbox needs to fix permissions in order to function properly”. That was a Dropbox-generated pop up message styled to look like a system pop up.

      And Dropbox would still work just fine if you cancelled out that dialog each time, which is what I did while exploring alternatives.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    18. Re:Bye bye by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you are still misremembering - the original outrage was over Dropboxes use of the Accessibility APIs, which it needed for some of its functionality. When people bitched about that, and the level of access that gave apps, Apple hid them behind admin permissions, so Dropbox started requiring admin privileges to add itself to the Accessibility list.

      You may not have noticed it, but if you denied Dropbox the Accessibility rights, things did actually break - I can't remember exactly what it was as it was so long ago, but the requirement was legitimate (as Apple didn't offer the functionality any other way, and nor did they offer the ability to grant apps a limited set of Accessibility rights - it was all or nothing, so Dropbox had to go for all).

      The dialogs that Dropbox used in all cases during this were 100% proper OS level ones, they were never fake, and they were never Dropbox generated, nor were they app dialogs styled to look like OS ones.

      The reason people cried "fake dialog" was because Apple was using an older set of Cocoa or Carbon APIs, which generated a dialog which looked different to the ones people were used to seeing, but it was still a legitimate OS level dialog for requesting permissions.

    19. Re:Bye bye by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Hilariously, Onedrive seems to be easier to use with Linux as the client than Google Drive, too.

      That's... funny?

    20. Re:Bye bye by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Been looking for one of those, thanks. If you want to host your own storage, you can't beat the price at time4vps. They have great storage vps's. I'm using a TB one as a backup server and running calibre on it as well.

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
  2. That's OK by segedunum · · Score: 1

    Now I have asymmetric internet speeds I'll be moving off a few cloud services.

  3. Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re: Why use dropbox? by davide+marney · · Score: 1

      Support for any file type.

      --
      "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    2. Re: Why use dropbox? by bickerdyke · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't a cloud storage just support any type of binary blob?

      --
      bickerdyke
    3. Re: Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      Is there any competitor which doesn't support any file type?

    4. Re:Why use dropbox? by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      I mostly use it for legacy reasons and personal storage, as my “real” Microsoft and google accounts are for work.

      But, I will be migrating off of them now as they add no real value to me, and I currently have 7-8 devices linked up with occasional use on most.

      At current price points, it seems like a pretty dumb move.

    5. Re: Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      9GB is still less than Google's 15 GB but Linux support can be a point. Although there are third party tools which work quite well. Google drive support is built-in to Gnome since 3.18, and there is a KDE KIO plugin too as well a fuse implementations.

    6. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      and you are using the Drop box client from their web site or some tool built-in to your distro?

    7. Re:Why use dropbox? by Somervillain · · Score: 1

      I pay for them because their client works on desktop linux.

    8. Re:Why use dropbox? by tepples · · Score: 1

      The Dropbox website offers downloadable client applications for Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux. Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive both omit GNU/Linux.

    9. Re:Why use dropbox? by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      No, not for GNU/Linux. From their website:

      If you’re computer is running Linux, and you want to run the Dropbox app, you need to use:

      *Operating system Ubuntu 14.04 or higher, Fedora 21 or higher
      *Glibc 2.19 or higher
      *The latest Dropbox app for Linux
      *A Dropbox folder on an ext4-formatted hard drive or partition
      **Note: ecryptfs is not supported, but Dropbox will continue to sync with supported file systems that are encrypted via full disk encryption (e.g. LUKS)

      Their limitations are asinine. In particular, not being able to use an encrypted FS is ridiculous.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    10. Re:Why use dropbox? by Moskit · · Score: 2

      Dropbox was integrated as "remote/cloud drive" with Android phones. Samsung had promotions on extra storage. A number of applications support this integration (like KeyPass). It was used as a file-sharing service, not colaboration, while FTP could be great there, it doesn't handle gracefully variants of blocked ports and NAT (and no easy interface for shared file permissions). Short: people used it and got used to it.

      A (probably) more important reason would be that Dropbox is a single service company. Unlike Google or Microsoft they will not be able to easily corelate EVERYTHING you do with the additional file sharing/coediting activities, especially between users (as opposed to between devices of the same user).

    11. Re:Why use dropbox? by supremebob · · Score: 1

      Let me get this straight... Dropbox already offers only about 10% of the free storage of the other competing services like Google Drive or Onedrive, and now they are trying to restrict you to just 3 devices for synching? Wow.

      It seems like they've basically given up on getting new users with the free tier that might migrate to the paid tier later.

    12. Re:Why use dropbox? by tepples · · Score: 1

      How does "compatible with GNU/Linux, provided the shared folder is on a partition that uses ext4 and not ecryptfs" imply "not compatible with GNU/Linux" in practice?

    13. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      because they support only 2 distros

    14. Re:Why use dropbox? by tepples · · Score: 1

      I have some Sandisk USB drive [...] It works seamlessly on my Linux home computer, my Windows work machine, and my Android phone.

      Plugging a flash drive with a USB A plug into the USB micro-B or C receptacle on a phone needs an adapter. Furthermore, several unrooted Android devices cannot mount a USB flash drive. My Nexus 7 tablet, for example, could not.

      I still don't get the allure of cloud storage

      I can think of at least seven:

      • Not occupying one of your device's USB A receptacles (and not needing to carry a hub to multiplex)
      • Working on devices with no USB A receptacles in the first place, such as phones, tablets, and recent MacBooks
      • Not needing to be unmounted manually (with attendant game of "what app has a file handle open?") in order to avoid file system corruption
      • Off-site, in case disaster strikes the building containing your USB flash drive
      • Sharing files with another user is not delayed by half a week or more
      • Sharing files with another user does not require paying the post office or a courier to ship a USB flash drive across the country or across the planet
      • Sharing files with another user does not depend on the goodwill of the to mail your USB flash drive back
    15. Re:Why use dropbox? by AntEater · · Score: 2

      Dropbox doesn't integrate well with anything,

      I use it precisely because it doesn't drag along integration with anyone else's cloud services.

      --
      Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
    16. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      Dropbox was integrated as "remote/cloud drive" with Android phones. Samsung had promotions on extra storage. A number of applications support this integration (like KeyPass). It was used as a file-sharing service, not colaboration, while FTP could be great there, it doesn't handle gracefully variants of blocked ports and NAT (and no easy interface for shared file permissions). Short: people used it and got used to it.

      Well Google Drive integrates with Android phones as well. I get that you had a promotion for temporary storage, so perhaps you have more than 2GB. But it still doesn't explain why a new user would choose Dropbox today. Or why won't you switch out of Dropbox after your promo expires.
      Especially with the new restrictions on the number of devices, it seems they are pushing users away.

      A (probably) more important reason would be that Dropbox is a single service company. Unlike Google or Microsoft they will not be able to easily corelate EVERYTHING you do with the additional file sharing/coediting activities, especially between users (as opposed to between devices of the same user).

      I bet 99% of Dropbox users either don't care about that and/or also use Google and/or Microsoft services all the time.

      The 0.01% of the users who care about privacy don't use any of these cloud storage solution and self-host instead.

    17. Re:Why use dropbox? by tepples · · Score: 1

      I have used the Dropbox client on Debian and Ubuntu. The website mentions Fedora. That's more than two. In addition, the install page states that the updater can also be compiled from source code.

    18. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      So you prefer not being able to collaborate on a document using Google Docs? You prefer having to create 2 accounts instead of one for email and cloud storage?

    19. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      if it's open sourced, why don't they seek integration in Debian and other distros?

    20. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      wait, is it only the installer/updater or the Dropbox client itself which is open source?

    21. Re:Why use dropbox? by tepples · · Score: 2

      The Dropbox client is proprietary. Only the installer is free software, and its dependency on the proprietary software that it downloads is why it cannot be included in Debian main or in Fedora.

    22. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      OK well then you have no warranty it's going to work well with the other distros than the two officially supported. And it could break anytime in the future even if it works now.

    23. Re:Why use dropbox? by Tom · · Score: 2

      Dropbox doesn't integrate well with anything,

      Yes, it does. It integrates well with all operating systems I'm running plus has a web interface. It doesn't try to be more than a cloud file storage, and that's wonderful. It does its job and does it well, but I guess we are again regressing backwards in development and the Unix philosophy of actually doing your fucking job instead of trying to be a kitchen sink isn't trendy anymore.

      I'll be setting up my own cloud service now, because using Dropbox was just the most convenient way, but damn it was convenient.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    24. Re: Why use dropbox? by Mal-2 · · Score: 1

      Yes. Box.com, for example, will not allow the sharing of .exe files. You can easily roll them into an archive and post them that way, but you can't post raw executables. at least ones the system is designed to flag.

      --
      How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    25. Re:Why use dropbox? by Bill+Hayden · · Score: 1

      Their limitations are asinine. In particular, not being able to use an encrypted FS is ridiculous.

      Doubly so, because it has worked on Linux encrypted filesystems since day 1, and continued to work until they enforced their requirement. They simply chose to not support it anymore, with no good explanation.

      --
      Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
    26. Re:Why use dropbox? by BadDreamer · · Score: 1

      Dropbox integrates very well with several applications. I use it to share my Scrivener documents across platforms, including Linux/Wine, Windows, iOS and MacOS. Support is built into Scrivener to handle this seamlessly and with minimal fuss.

      I also have several document viewers for iOS and Android which hook right into Dropbox to view documents of various kinds. Very handy for manuals and reference documents.

      That, and the fact that it has excellent selective syncing allowing me to get the files I need onto my mobile devices without having to replicate the whole structure, while I can keep the full content on my file server together with scripts to manage it, makes it a great fit for my travel photography workflow.

      I have no use what so ever for sharing or managing bloated office files, or having my photos overcompressed and stripped from metadata when uploaded. And the few times I need to collaboratively edit a document (twice ever so far) I can use the free Google Documents. But generally, if I need to share something, it's some form of text file or image, and then Dropbox will do nicely.

      In short, it scratches a lot of itches that no other solution does.

    27. Re:Why use dropbox? by msevior · · Score: 1

      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?

      Dropbox has really nice gnome integration. I drop files in on one machine or on my phone and I get them on my desktop at work, my laptop and my phone. I'm happy to pay Dropbox $100 per year for 1 TB of cloud storage.

    28. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      Dropbox integrates very well with several applications. I use it to share my Scrivener documents across platforms, including Linux/Wine, Windows, iOS and MacOS. Support is built into Scrivener to handle this seamlessly and with minimal fuss.

      Sounds to me this is the wrong way of doing it. The integration should be at the OS/Virtual filesystem level. This way, any application could save a document to your cloud storage. You wouldn't need all your applications to integrate support for all cloud storage providers. Your document application shouldn't even need Internet access to begin with.

      I also have several document viewers for iOS and Android which hook right into Dropbox to view documents of various kinds. Very handy for manuals and reference documents.

      you mean as opposed to launching your cloud storage application and clicking the document you want to view, which will launch the associated viewer (in this case likely PDF viewer) automatically?

      the fact that it has excellent selective syncing

      Aren't they all doing it?

      or having my photos overcompressed and stripped from metadata when uploaded

      Is there a single competing cloud storage solution doing that? OK Google Photos overcompress (if you choose the unlimited free option) but doesn't strip meta data. Uploading to Google Drive or One Drive definitely don't overcompress and strip any metadata.

    29. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      It seems since Gnome 3.18 they support various cloud providers equally (at least google drive).

      From what I understand you could either save money or get more storage with Google.

    30. Re:Why use dropbox? by BadDreamer · · Score: 1

      My document application of choice (Scrivener) only needs Internet access to synchronize documents I have decided to share between my various systems. Editing is done completely offline. It works very well, and Scrivener documents are very complex, so relying on the OS to handle syncing is not reliable (yes, it's been tested, and it causes endless problems; Scrivener managing syncing is the only way to get reliable functionality).

      And this is the point of having Dropbox. I keep the data synced, offline. I can open my browser to reach the files, but I keep them on disk, offline, on all systems (except iOS systems).

      Clicking documents to view them is all well and good when you already know document to look at. Since I keep the documents on disk, I can search them and immediately view my search results. Clicking in an application is such a trivial use case, and very far from what I do with my documents. They contain reference information and data, and I need to be able to do a lot more complex tasks with them.

      Dropbox simply scratches a different itch than the other solutions. It is clear from your comments you do not have this itch. Fair enough, don't use Dropbox!

    31. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      Scrivener managing syncing is the only way to get reliable functionality

      I doubt this claim. The OS could manage having the file off line plus syncing it reliably.

    32. Re:Why use dropbox? by BadDreamer · · Score: 1

      It's not "the file". It is "the directory of files, all of which have to be in the correct state at the same time".

      But feel free to go to the developers of Scrivener, tell them how wrong they are, and teach them how it's done.

    33. Re:Why use dropbox? by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      Again there is nothing preventing that from being done at the OS level, but of course, it's not Scrivener developers who are going to do it.
      Also they could put all their directory in a single archive much like Word is doing.

    34. Re:Why use dropbox? by BadDreamer · · Score: 1

      No, they could not put all files in a single archive and retain expected functionality. You betray a complete lack of knowledge about what Scrivener does, and why.

      But sure. You know better what the limitations of software you have no idea how it works are. Seriously.

  4. Nextcloud by dnaumov · · Score: 1

    Looks like I finished setting up my personal Nextcloud instance just in time.

  5. Time to drop-kick dropbox by lusid1 · · Score: 1

    c-ya.

  6. I second this. by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 1

    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.
  7. Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    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 a .deb file to install. Google Drive Failure. "There is no Drive app for Linux at this time. Please use Drive on the web and on your mobile devices." Microsoft OneDrive Failure. Firefox begins to download a Windows executable, and the program's page on AppDB rates it "Garbage".
    1. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by paulatz · · Score: 1

      Dropbox used to integrate well with Linux, but now it refuses to sync if the filesystem isn't unencrypted ext4, which is not even the ubuntu's default.For google drive there are third-party solutions which work quite reliably, some are not free, but still cheaper than Dropbox if you arre happy with 10-100GB storage

      --
      this post contain no useful information, no need to mod it down
    2. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by tepples · · Score: 1

      It's much better to use whatever comes with your distro.

      Which Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive clients in the Debian or Ubuntu repository are any good?

    3. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by tepples · · Score: 1

      Dropbox works with disk-level encryption, just not file-level encryption.

      Is rclone the best third-party Google Drive solution that isn't paywalled?

    4. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      I don't know if they are good, but there are many. Which ones are any good for dropbox? If they are not better I don't see your point.
      Why would I want to manually download and install a dropbox client manually when I can use my distro's repository instead.

      I couldn't care less about the binary download of Libreoffice or Firefox for Linux. What I care about is the quality of the package which is part of my distro.

    5. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by tepples · · Score: 1

      Why would I want to manually download and install a dropbox client manually when I can use my distro's repository instead.

      Because the distro's repository doesn't include Dropbox, in turn because said repository's inclusion criteria reject Dropbox's client for its proprietary software license.

    6. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by Dragonslicer · · Score: 2

      It's much better to use whatever comes with your distro.

      Which Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive clients in the Debian or Ubuntu repository are any good?

      Dolphin (and other KDE applications) works well with Google Drive. There's a KIO slave for OneDrive here, but I haven't used it, nor do I know which distributions include it in their main repositories.

    7. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      there is a KIO for google drive in debian (kio-gdrive)

      The obvious downside is that it won't work for non-KDE applications, isn't it?

    8. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by stuff-n-things · · Score: 1

      Dropbox only works with ext4 file systems, refusing to install on my CentOS 7 system with xfs file systems. No idea what they're up to if the care what FS ~/Dropbox is on, but it was enough to say goodbye.

    9. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Yet on the system I'm typing this from, I can open a terminal and type "dnf install onedrive" and a nice, simple open source client will download and install.

      https://www.maketecheasier.com...

      Fedora 29, file comes from the base distro repo, not even an add on.

    10. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by samwichse · · Score: 1

      It works for any application launchable as a GUI. CLI is a little... different.

      When you right click->open any file with a non-KDE app, it's downloaded into /home/username/.cache/kioexec then the program opens that file. When you save, the file is monitored for changes and the changed file is auto reuploaded.

      You can hackishly make this work with say... plain text and the CLI by just telling it to open with some arbitrary executable, which will leave the file cached and you can do whatever with it, and Dolphin will ask you to resync automagically with changes, but it's a kludge.

    11. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by samwichse · · Score: 1

      Of the three of those, Dropbox is the only one you won't be able to use on any filesystem except ext4.

      Why, Dropbox???

    12. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      you mean KDE takes over the file->open menu to offer opening via KIO?

    13. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by samwichse · · Score: 1

      No, the Dolphin KIO downloads a file to the cache directory and launches whatever process... for instance, LibreOffice Calc. Then when you save that cached file, that triggers the KIOslave to upload the updated copy.

      If you go to file->open, you'll get LibreOffice's picker and you would have to navigate to the cache directory yourself.

    14. Re:Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive runs on Linux by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      OK it makes more sense. And of course the file might not even be cached yet.

  8. Re:NextcloudGreate tool by prefec2 · · Score: 1

    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.

  9. Copying Syncthing friend codes by tepples · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Copying Syncthing friend codes by Piranhaa · · Score: 1

      But how well does Syncthing work if both devices aren't turned on at the same time?

      If you only have two devices, then they won't be able to exchange any data with one another. Ideally you have a third node that can sync the data from the other two devices as they come on/off. You can easily run this on a Raspberry Pi.

      And what's the recommended way to copy Syncthing's 56-character friend codes across machines? Some IM network?

      Devices have QR codes that you can scan, at least from the mobile app. You can also set certain nodes to be "discovery" nodes so that devices you have can learn about other nodes in your nodes list.

    2. Re:Copying Syncthing friend codes by tepples · · Score: 1

      You can easily run [the sync master] on a Raspberry Pi.

      Is it worth buying a Raspberry Pi and enclosure solely to act as the always-on node for Syncthing? Before I buy one, does it run well on a Zero, or does it require a 3B+?

    3. Re:Copying Syncthing friend codes by Piranhaa · · Score: 1

      Is it worth buying a Raspberry Pi and enclosure solely to act as the always-on node for Syncthing? Before I buy one, does it run well on a Zero, or does it require a 3B+?

      I have one setup for that purpose and it works quite well. It also acts as my pxeboot server, UPS monitor, and CUPS print server. Never had any issues at all other than a memory card failing once.

      Also, since it has local network discovery, synchronizing locally doesn't touch the internet so it's very fast and efficient.

  10. Already moved on... by mr.dreadful · · Score: 1

    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/

    1. Re:Already moved on... by fred6666 · · Score: 2

      I agree it's interesting but it's not the same use case.
      There were many file transfer services similar to firefox send, such as wetransfer. But I agree I'd trust mozilla more than some random people.

  11. See Ya by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:See Ya by tepples · · Score: 1

      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.

      How do you get around the requirement of Windows or macOS to run Box Sync? (source)

    2. Re:See Ya by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      I use a script I run periodically to comb through my Documents folder and write it to a password protected 7-zip compressed file and write that file to the Box Sync folder. That file is what gets written to the Box cloud drive. Yes, I do have to run Box Sync to keep it all together though.

  12. Because it works really, really well by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    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
    1. Re:Because it works really, really well by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      I get that you hate Google, but other than that, I don't see the difference with the competition, even with what you explained. Are you saying Gdrive doesn'T sync well? Or that One drive doesn't allow you to share files with outsiders?

  13. Needs an easier on-ramp by grahamtriggs · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Needs an easier on-ramp by ecmcn · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I'd gladly pay them a couple of bucks a month because they're great at the basic job of replicating my files, and I'll occasionally check their site to see what the lowest paid tier is. But it's just not a unique enough service that I'll pay $8/mo. I like my toaster fine, but if it started demanding $8/mo I'd chuck it and make do with the oven or cold bagels. Well, not cold bagels, but at least I'd lose some weight.

    2. Re:Needs an easier on-ramp by LostMyAccount · · Score: 2

      My guess is they could keep the fee tier as-is, but add a cheap paid tier just above it, and then improve features in the tier above with a slight price increase.

      Say what you will, but I've been very happy with Dropbox as a paying customer. It's worked extremely reliably for me.

  14. Buh Bye Freeloader by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    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
  15. No 30 days' notice by tepples · · Score: 1

    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.

  16. Guess its time to switch... by LVSlushdat · · Score: 1

    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..)
  17. BT Sync by Chewbacon · · Score: 1

    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.
  18. Re:Dropbox need to add value by tepples · · Score: 1

    Dropbox storage is backed up in the cloud in order to support sync among devices that are A. not turned on at the same time or B. both behind firewalls that the user does not control, such as carrier-grade NAT imposed by an ISP.

  19. Dropbox includes auto-update by tepples · · Score: 1

    The official Dropbox client includes an automatic updater. Which service's client comes with major desktop Linux distributions?

    1. Re:Dropbox includes auto-update by tepples · · Score: 1

      Just like I am not changing my Email client or my web browser to suits my Email provider.

      Microsoft has in the past required users to change their email client in order to use Hotmail (now called Outlook.com) on free accounts. It refused IMAP in order to enforce ad views. The only desktop MUA compatible with the proprietary protocol that Hotmail used at the time was Outlook Express for Windows.

      Recently, Microsoft has required users of Skype for Web to switch from Safari or Firefox to Google Chrome, and I doubt that Outlook.com is far behind.

    2. Re:Dropbox includes auto-update by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      well, you are just giving me more reasons for not using hotmail/outlook.com

  20. Fixes not yet upstreamed by tepples · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Fixes not yet upstreamed by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      Well of course some people (mostly developers who need to compare with vanilla) do it, otherwise they wouldn't bother offering the binaries at all.
      I perfectly understand that. Some specific users might do it for a few specific programs.
      But I don't expect the average joe using a cloud drive to do that.

  21. OwnCloud by bradley13 · · Score: 2

    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.
  22. Went to a Synology NAS... by citizenklaw · · Score: 1

    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
  23. Information sharing among Google divisions by tepples · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Information sharing among Google divisions by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      If you value your privacy you don't use any of these cloud storage providers to begin with. You roll your own or at least keep the files encrypted.

  24. It's possible to bypass this limitation by Gray_E · · Score: 1

    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.