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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

DropBox ... FAIL!

    For the last few weeks I have been in a battle, with DropBox.com. The problem started after the latest upgrade, and I have yet to be able to find a way to correct it. After three e-mails to their customer support, I have yet to hear from them. The thing is, it seems to be a more complex problem than it should, or needs to be.

    I have been using DropBox for a few years now, and until recently it has served me well. I even link to files from a "public" directory on this very bog. I also use it as a way to give access to co-workers to basic files and templates that are work related that I have created. DropBox had, until lately, become rather ubiquitous in my daily life.

    When setting up the DropBox application on a Mac, it seems fairly strait forward. Copy the app to the "Applications" folder. Run the app. Follow the setup wizard. Wait for the magic to happen. That's it. Done. I wish it were still that simple.

    After you setup and install DropBox, you can go into "Preferences" and tell DropBox to Sync other folders, or exclude others from Syncing. By default, I always deselect my "Photos" folder. I have a lot of photos, and thanks to Apple's iCould service I have had no reason to double the files to DropBox. Besides, DropBox was supposed to be the folder that I used for sharing files, even with myself. It was a great way to get access to files from work. Was.

    However, the "issue" reared its head and I can't seem to get rid of it. So, after all of this, what is the problem?

    DropBox has decided to start indexing and trying to sync my entire hard drive. At least, I hope that is what is trying to do. So far it hasn't managed to get passed my "Developer" folder. I am not saying DropBox is trying to steal my source code for my projects, but it does make me wonder why it chose to start with that folder. I have around 12 Gigs of data in that folder, so DropBox filled up rather quickly since I am using the 2 Gig free account.

    Now here is the kicker. When I log into the DropBox web access via DropBox.com, only the files that are located in my DropBox folder show up. I have no access to the data it is currently holding hostage on its servers. I cannot delete the data. I cannot copy the data. I cannot do anything with the data. So now my DropBox is 100% full, and I have no way of removing the data.

    I have used the application AppCleaner (great app by the way) to completely remove the DropBox application. I have re-installed from scratch. The problem still persists. It is accessing folders it has no business or permission to access. It is not even listed in the options for folders to access, yet they are copying my data.

    As I have stated before, I have already contacted customer support, but I guess they only support paying customers. Of course, thanks to this EPIC FAIL on their part, I will never be a paying customer of DropBox.com. I have an Ubuntu One account, with gives me 5 Gigs for free, and I have had it for a while now, without using it much. Now might be a time to revisit that decision.

    While I do some more research into this problem, I will also be checking out Ubuntu One. If I choose to go that route or find another solution remains to be seen. Whatever service I choose, I will make sure I let you all know and transition all of my download links from this blog to the new service.

    Until next time ... 

1 comment:

  1. Quite a hassle. It's almost unbelievable that something like this could happen in Dropbox, but it did. Seems like removing your account completely from Dropbox is near impossible. Maybe you can look at other data storage services, not just online as well, for reliable backups?

    Williams Data Management

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