I’ve been a Linux user for about 12 years. Not long after getting into Linux, I discovered that Dropbox was actively working on a Linux version. They seemed to care!
Since then, it seems to me that Dropbox has been the main option for cross-platform Linux-friendly file storage and syncing. Until now.
They have changed their system requirements so that they require ext4. Their reasons are bogus.
Hi everyone, on Nov. 7, 2018, we’re ending support for Dropbox syncing to drives with certain uncommon file systems. The supported file systems are NTFS for Windows, HFS+ or APFS for Mac, and Ext4 for Linux. We’ve updated our desktop requirements accordingly here.
A supported file system is required as Dropbox relies on extended attributes (X-attrs) to identify files in the Dropbox folder and keep them in sync. We will keep supporting only the most common file systems that support X-attrs, so we can ensure stability and a consistent experience.
If you received a notification, but are running one of the supported file systems, it’s possible that you may have recently had a computer linked that was running an unsupported file system but have been since upgraded, or that computer is no longer being used.
Hope this helps to clarify matters!
openSUSE uses Btrfs and XFS as defaults (I think I’ve got that right). So Dropbox is saying that they don’t want their app to be useful for openSUSE users. I’m a paying Dropbox customer but I don’t want to regress my openSUSE system - I like having my Home folder (including Dropbox) on an XFS partition.
I hope it’s okay for me to say:
If you’re a Dropbox user, make a protest! Social media perhaps. Or join the growing thread in the Dropbox forums. Perhaps they’ll reverse their decision. Perhaps they’ll be Linux-friendly again
What alternatives are there to Dropbox? I want my files synchronised and backed up, and access to them when I’m out and about (e.g. from my phone or from another computer). I want photos on my phone to be backed up and appear on my Linux computer. Any good ideas?
It may be worth asking Dropbox for a clarification.
Because I don’t usually program extended filesystem attributes, I did a quick read and suggest the following on my possibly superficial understanding…
Although there might be an API somewhere, I’m going to guess that Dropbox code likely uses the xattr utility to utilize filesystem extended attributes like most other apps (The major well known apps are listed in the Wikipedia source below)… All listed apps likely do this the same way.
Extended Filesystems Attributes is a kind of standard which if supported by one, will work the same way in all supported filesystems.
All filesystems set up by openSUSE by default support extended filesystem attributes including BTRFS and XFS.
Current EXT2, EXT3 and EXT4 Extended Filesystem Attribute support has size limitations where XFS and BTRFS do not(Does this make sense? Or maybe there is a size limitation but is so large that practically there is no limit?)
The bottom line from what I read is that for any application that uses Extended Filesystem Attributes that would be supported on a EXT4 filesystem, there should be no issue on BTRFS or XFS filesystems because the latter filesystms have much less compliance requirementes and the method for utilizing Extended Filesystem Attributes is the same for all filesystems.
So,
It seems to me that Dropbox should clarify their reason for supporting only EXT4, and perhaps even review their dependency test as to whether that may be faulty disqualifying Linux filesystems unnecessarily (Of course such a test would be more accurate if it actually attempted to set and read a test attribute rather than simply query for the filesystem name)
I have been receiving the notifications about this every time I start up my system. I have tried to move the dropbox file to another hard drive but I am having problems. Can anyone guide me through the process.
I was about to try it, I see they maintain several OpenSUSE versions too.
I’ve used it in Debian, Windows and Android phones in the past, and liked it more than DB, but it depends on your needs and workflow I guess.
Some time ago, there was some concern about a big share holder with a dark past and a government both taking control of mega.nz. But if it’s still encrypting client-side, I guess it should still be “safe” S:-^)9.
I really have no idea how dropbox depends on the underlying file system
imo it doesn’t matter if the file system is xfs ext4 or even fat32/ntfs if the OS can reed/write files on it dropbox will support it
mega have a nice free package of 50 GiB of encrypted storage but they’ve limited bandwidth to I believe to 5 GiB per 4 hours or so
I have a couple of Disk images stored there in split archives and I couldn’t get all of the parts had to wait a few hours to get them all
but you get what you pay for I only have 2 GiB on dropbox and use none of it I have over 200 GiB on mega (I have multiple accounts) and use 90% of it
I am also curious, but did not dare to ask because it would show that I know almost nothing about how Dropbox functions rotfl!.
And it would be a bit off-topic to ask for teachings in Dropbox.
They’re probably limiting support to ext4 file system simply due to manpower limitations. I don’t know what’s involved in maintaining their code, but it doesn’t make sense to spend a large portion of their resources maintaining support for multiple file systems for users that constitute probably less than 1% of their total, whereas the other 99+% are using three file systems. Is ext4 the most commonly used file system on linux? It’s what I use, on both my root and home partitions. If it’s important, just use ext4. There is no practical difference between ext4 and xfs for the vast majority of desktop/laptop users.
Here’s what you get from relying on companies like dropbox, mega ( yes ). The moment you sign up, you agree to any future changes they’ll make. Simple. Dropbox is not a free service, it’s a commercial company. Ditto for Box, Mega and whatever others there are out there. The alternative? Here it comes:
An openSUSE Leap 15 install with LAMP server and Nextcloud.
That way you can even move your calendaring, contacts etc. away from Google e.a.
Did that a couple of years ago, never regretted, specially not on previous occasions like this one. If it wasn’t for community members getting in trouble, I wouldn’t care less.
The client will know how to do this.
But, in the case of supported Linux FS,
For those who understood my previous post, although there is nothing definitive it’s easy to make various assumptions because alternatives would be immensely more difficult, and if those assumptions are true then other FS should work.
That said, just because something works doesn’t mean it’s officially supported,
And it’s also possible that as part of the installation, the FS can be checked and installation blocked because the FS didn’t identify itself as EXT4. In this case, even if there might not be a problem with the FS, if the installation is blocked, then you can’t use that Dropbox client.
My hopes that Dropbox might reverse its decision have quickly faded. So I’ve been scoping out alternatives before cancelling my paid Dropbox subscription (having first contacted Support and asked for a pro-rata refund).
I’m trying two alternatives.
pCloud
pCloud has a Linux client, an android app, a good-sized free version (10GB plus 4GB easily obtained) and reasonably priced paid versions (including a pretty good deal on one-off-payment for a lifetime account).
If you are trying out pCloud here’s an important tip:
Don’t shove all your files within the pCloud folder, as you used to shove your files inside the Dropbox folder.
Have all your files within a folder, called ‘Documents’ or something. Then - within the pCloud interface - set up a Sync.
Sync /home/user/Documents (LOCAL) with /Documents (DRIVE)
That way, everything in your home/user/Documents folder is saved locally AND backed up to pCloud. Use your Documents folder in the same way you would use a Dropbox folder.
Why?
Files stored within the pCloud folder (without a sync set up) are stored online but not locally. This could be an advantage: you could have a huge Photos folder within pCloud that you want to access but don’t want it to fill up your laptop harddrive, say. That is a significant way pCloud sells itself - as effectively a large storage system that doesn’t take up your computer’s precious space.
This way you could have a ‘Documents’ folder within pCloud, which is saved locally (via the sync I mention above) and a ‘Videos’ folder within pCloud which is online access but not stored locally. Both can be accessed on other devices. If you wanted Documents stored on another device, just create a Sync as above.
If you want to try pCloud and earn me some space (thanks) then use this link. https://www.pcloud.com/welcome-to-pcloud/?discountcode=Ay0qFliJzihW5KXvJKHBLuZV
2. NextCloud
While pCloud works, I think I might opt for getting a VPS and installing NextCloud on it. I’m currently testing NextCloud via a relatively cheap single-user account at https://cyanspace.net/ Once I get used to it I’ll get a VPS instead. I’m a complete newbie to servers and so on, so I’ll call it an educational process!
Dropbox has long supported “smart sync” for Windows and Mac, for years, all the while promising that Linux users would see the feature ‘sometime in the future’. Two weeks ago I got tired of waiting and switched to a pCloud set up just as you describe, i.e. remote only storage of photos and sync’d storage of documents etc. It’s only been two weeks so far, but I could not be happier. pCloud was so easy to set up that I kept thinking I’d missed something. I hadn’t. The first Leap 15 setup took abut 20 minutes, largely because I kept double checking to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. The second setup took about 3 minutes.
I really loved Dropbox support. Their support staff only took three days to recover some lost folders for me. BUT, when I carelessly deleted some files the day after loading them on pCloud I was able to recover them myself in minutes using the online selective roll back feature baked into the pCloud drive.
I switched to pCloud too, and I’m quite happy BUT for the fact that they do not have good integration with Dolphin/KDE.
I cannot say if my files are syncing and I do not have an easy right-click menu to set up a Sync. I wrote to their customer support and they said they may consider it for the future… I’m not holding my breath though.
I use Dropbox for work and it’s the only one with the features that I meet my specific use-case scenario:
I rely on the RSS feeds from Dropbox via an IFTTT connector to send me push announcements on my cell phone when new files are downloaded into a Dropbox folder
I’ve looked into a lot of different OS-side solutions, like inotifywait scripts, and different cloud services (I use a handful of them at any given time each for different reasons) and nothing really worked for me the way the Dropbox/IFTTT combination has been. So when the notifications started coming that my Dropbox folder on my Opensuse Leap BTRFS-vol VM would stop syncing files, I was definitely concerned.
Quick and dirty (and best?) solution for those who still have to use Dropbox and like using Opensuse with BTRFS/XFS OS/Home default (because, who doesn’t, right?)
gparted is your friend if you are not fdisk/parted/mkfs savvy
Shrink your home partition and make a new partition just for Dropbox (deleting the original Dropbox folder is a good way to free up room, but make sure you turn OFF syncing before you delete everything !!!)
Make a new partition in the free space using fdisk, parted, etc. and make the partition ext4 via #mkfs.ext4 -b 4096 /dev/sdxx (using your preferred block size and correct /dev/sdxx for your new partition, of course)
Make a new folder named Dropbox in your home folder, mount the new partition to it and lsblk -f for the partition UUID
Copy the Dropbox partition’s UUID and add a line in /etc/fstab to mount the partition to your /home/username/Dropbox folder (or in my case, /home/DOMAIN/username/Dropbox folder)
umount your new Dropbox partition and mount -a to see if the fstab config made the mount persistent - or reboot your computer/VM
Seems to be working fine. Yay, now I still have Opensuse for all its rad default snapshot features and full Dropbox compatibility on my work-downloading VM. It’s the best of both worlds!
I considered migrating to Ubuntu or Debian or something, but this was far easier and, let’s face it, Opensuse rules. It RULES ALL!
