New Dropbox issue?

[Tim R.]

I've been running Pro Tools Sessions from, as well as keeping my Pro Tools Prefs Settings folder in, Dropbox folders for many years. No issues. UNTIL, yesterday after booting up my Mac, Pro Tools was hanging when trying to load any session. The App launched OK, but sessions would just hang. On a hunch I went to the Pro Tools Settings folder (that is located in a Dropbox folder) and noticed that "Smart Sync" had all the contents in the cloud. I forced the folder to "Local" and everything started working fine again. I had not changed any Dropbox settings, or updated anything since the last time I launched Pro Tools, so not sure why Dropbox would change it's behavior. As I said, all is back to normal now, so just a curiosity/heads up for others I guess.

[_JJ_]

So you're saying the "local" dropbox folder on your Mac was empty and all your files had been moved to the cloud? Somehow the "save hard disk space" option in dropbox prefs got ticked? That's a weird one. I know DBox is one of those apps that updates itself now and then without asking (grrr) so maybe it just made that decision on its own. Thanks for the heads up.

[BScout]

If you want to disable Smart Sync (and return Dropbox to its "classic" method), the place to disable it is on your dropbox account accessed from the web. It is NOT in the settings located on your local computer.
(Pretty much Dropbox makes it more difficult than needed intentionally so people don't/can't disable that completely)

if you don't do it from your online account, you always run the risk of any changes Dropbox makes will remove your local files and make it "on demand" access.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by Tim R.

I've been running Pro Tools Sessions from...

Is the Pro Tools session folder in the cloud? Does it work?

Originally Posted by Tim R.

...not sure why Dropbox would change it's behavior...

Maybe a DB version change? I like GoogleDrive - good user interface.

[Tim R.]

Didn't mean to confuse people. My sessions all run locally, but only because Dropbox pushes them local as soon as they are accessed (as a function of smart sync). As I said, I have had zero issues running sessions from a (local) Dropbox folder. The Smart Sync dropbox function only downloads to your local drive when you access it, or when you tell a folder/file to be "Local". Otherwise you SEE everything, but it is only a proxy. You CAN individually force folders to be "Local" by (Mac) right clicking and selecting the smart sync contextual menu "Local". This is how I resolved my hanging issue, by forcing the Pro Tools settings folder to be "Local". Just weird that the issue arose without changing anything in either PTs OR Dropbox.

[dominicperry]

It’s a new version of Dropbox to comply with changes Apple has made.
The same thing has happened with OneDrive.

You can subscribe to beta versions of Dropbox (setting in the account pages online, not in the app itself for some reason) which allows keeping files local as a default.

Dominic

[_JJ_]

My version of Dropbox for Mac (currently v142.4.4197 via the auto update behavior) has not defaulted to cloud only. The option is clearly available locally from the menubar icon >> user's initials >> preferences >> and then the Sync tab. Under "Save hard drive space automatically" there is an ON and OFF choice. Plus "Files added on web default: Local".

I wouldn't be surprised though if a first time install of Dbox defaults to the settings you've described. Too clever by half, in my opinion.

I only use this service to share large files. And I never choose "Share" because the recipient is then asked to open their own account... Instead I prefer to "Copy Dropbox Link" and paste it into an email. I only need the service to do this basic thing and it has worked solidly for me for years. But I tend to ignore each new "feature" introduced.

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by _JJ_

My version of Dropbox for Mac (currently v142.4.4197 via the auto update behavior) has not defaulted to cloud only. The option is clearly available locally from the menubar icon >> user's initials >> preferences >> and then the Sync tab. Under "Save hard drive space automatically" there is an ON and OFF choice. Plus "Files added on web default: Local".

I wouldn't be surprised though if a first time install of Dbox defaults to the settings you've described. Too clever by half, in my opinion.

I only use this service to share large files. And I never choose "Share" because the recipient is then asked to open their own account... Instead I prefer to "Copy Dropbox Link" and paste it into an email. I only need the service to do this basic thing and it has worked solidly for me for years. But I tend to ignore each new "feature" introduced.

The change from Apple happened somewhere around Monterey 12.2 so unless you are running that or later, there is a strong possibility that Dropbox is not updated to a version which is enforcing the change. The version I have is v143.3.4157 on Monterey 12.3 beta 4 (21E5222a).

Apple have forced files managed by external cloud services to be placed in their own (APFS?) container for security. While that may be a good thing overall, it has resulted in the local files that you had before either being deleted (and needing re-syncing) or in the application having to move them to a new location in the background.
It's not clear to me why some of the cloud vendors have resorted to "online-only" as a default for new files, but it can be changed to local for both Dropbox and OneDrive.
The change also applies to GoogleDrive but I don't use that on my Mac so I'm not clear how it's been implemented.

Dominic

[daeron80]

That happened to me on Windows almost two years ago. All my local files got switched to cloud only and were removed from my local drive regardless of how they were set. I went around and around with Dropbox support and threatened to drop my sub. Thankfully, the next version allowed me to make files Local by default. I use Dropbox on Mac, too, and everything still looks normal on my Catalina machine. I sure hope it stays that way, or I'm gone.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

I have all kinds of sessions in Dropbox, One Drive and G Drive folders. Just checked one in Dropbox and it seems fine. I am on an older cheesegrater running Mojave for my main production but have a couple MacBooks running PT as well. PT is 2021.12 (Ultimate) and Dropbox is 143.4.4161. No issues opening or playing back. I have been diligent about Local vs Cloud in Dropbox. I have some SFX subscriptions on Dropbox that I keep as cloud only because it's several TB of content that I don't need locally (my main gig is SFX sound design). I have Dropbox on several computers and have different folder sync settings for each. But I did have an instance or two where making a change on one machine carried over to another but that was quite a while ago.

On their mobile app though you used to be able to upload data compressed files (AAC, mp3, etc) and have them playback without any problems but a couple years ago or so the app would further data compress already compressed files adding artifacts to bounces that play properly in Finder on a desktop. I complained but had no impact... Now I just upload waves as a result because I use Dropbox to listen to mixes in my car.