I know most of us remember all the headaches when Apple moved cloud folders like Dropbox under /Users/name/Library/CloudStorage. Then we updated our paths and got on with our lives.
Today, I’m setting up a new M4 Mac mini with Sequoia 15.1
When I installed Dropbox, it put the Dropbox folder directly under my username (alongside Downloads, Documents, & Desktop).
Did I miss something. Has Apple relented on putting clouds right under the username?
Is there a “best” place to put my Dropbox folder. I want it to be the same on both systems.
I also have my OneDrive folder there (still on Sonoma) — but that’s just a user-accessible folder handled by the cloud storage app, the actual stuff still lives and has to live in the Library/CloudStorage folder. Don’t you still have that folder?
If you look closely, there is a little arrow in the Dropbox icon in the home folder. This means it is an Alias. It links to the real location in Library/CloudStorage. The alias is there for convenience and compatibility with older applications accessing Dropbox that haven’t been revised since the change.
You will most likely get notification from Dropbox to shift your folder to Cloud Storage
I have had too many issues after turning on cloud storage. Despite having 150+ GB free space, my hard disk would fill up and I would continuously get low storage space messages.
Turning it off solved all problems.
It never offers the Library/CloudStorage folder when it asks you where you want it (other cloud services like OneDrive behave the same since the change), as that location in the home directory is the user-visible folder that’s always been there, but that’s just an alias or a symlink to the CloudStorage folder.
I don’t think it will offer to move anything anymore, as using any other method to sync cloud storage to the Mac was deprecated with macOS 13, while the change was introduced in 12.5, which is almost three years ago. Cloud services now need to use the File Provider API and store their caches in the CloudStorage folder. Any support for any other sync methods will likely have been removed from the Dropbox app by now.
At least in my case (had to reinstall), DropBox does the initial installation in your home folder. Then, after installation, go to your sync settings and it will offer to move the folder under the library/CloudStorage. I have not found any advantage to doing that. I do have one application that will not allow its data storage to go there. Others may know the advantages. I still might move my folder in the future.
I’m going to be that guy and say that I’ve been using Dropbox for well over a decade, and had the CloudStorage location for a couple years. It has not worsened my improvement of Dropbox in any way, and has actually improved it thanks to seemingly better interoperability with the Files app on iOS after I enabled the feature, which comes in surprisingly handy.
That has nothing to do with this mystery, so apologies for derailing the thread, but just wanted to say that Dropbox has been totally reliable for me since the change (and before the change too).
That being said, I just store everything in Dropbox on my computer’s drive and don’t rely at all on the cloud-only stuff, which might be a reason things are fine.
I’m in a similar camp to you. And I don’t currently care where it’s stored as long as I can find it - but not being able to move it somewhere else precludes moving it to an external drive. So I always need to get an internal drive that’s big enough to hold it.
Similar story here @KirkS. I had to restore Sequoia 15.1 on my MacMini with CCC a week ago. Dropbox was not woking after the restore so I reinstalled the app. To my surprise I still had the Library/Cloud Storage Folder with the most recent files several weeks old due to the backup being that old but I also had a folder at /Users/Valdy/Dropbox with up to date files after syncing.
This folder has continued to sync. The one at Library/Cloud Storage does not sync. There is an option in the menubar under Preferences/Sync to change the location of my Dropbox Folder. I have not chosen to change the location.
The Dropbox folder in my home folder is not an alias and I have confirmed this with the @karinyhus terminal prompt suggestion.
That being said, I just store everything in Dropbox on my computer’s drive and don’t rely at all on the cloud-only stuff, which might be a reason things are fine.
I have few folders kept as online only in Dropbox. This could be the reason when I enabled CloudStorage (File Provider) last time (earlier this year) I had issues with hard disk getting filled up to the point of computer becoming unusable
I’ve been with Dropbox since their beginning. I know there are naysayers, but for me it has been rock solid. So, I have no complaints with the service.
But I was confused to see the change of location. And just to be clear, I wasn’t blaming or shaming Dropbox – I assumed it was change in macOS.
Yeah, the location thing is very odd, and half the reason I added my two cents was so I’d keep seeing updates on this thread as you learned more. Would love to know what happened here. If it were a macOS change, I feel we would have heard about it.
