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How can I keep my files secure without Dropbox Vault? Any alternatives?

Hi to all the community!

I have just received an e-mail from Dropbox telling that the "Vault" folder/service is going to be discontinued from March the xxth (can't remember the exact date).

Hate this, because my tranquility depends on it. My proceeding:

-Upload a folder every week with my works. Open Vault, move the uploaded folder to it, close DB. So the folders with my works are (were) protected from any kind of attack (like encrypting my local PCs). My thoughts were that if my PCs suffer an encrypting attack, dropbox files would be updated with the encrypted version so they would be useless. Am I right?

After the Vault disabling I have thought an alternative: To make read only (and "unable to delete") the folders I want to prevent any kind of attack. Is there any way to achieve this?

TIA!

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Accepted answers

Hannah

Hey @Impronta, thanks for taking the time to reach out to the Dropbox Community.

I want to start by saying that we really appreciate your feedback on this.

Indeed, starting March 4th, 2025, Dropbox Vault will no longer be available. However, Dropbox is steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding your data.

Our applications and infrastructure are regularly tested for security vulnerabilities, and hardened to enhance security and protect against attacks.

If your files ever do get corrupted by ransomware, there are ways to help with that. You can take a look at this article for more info.

PS. There are also steps that you can take to enhance the security of your account. These steps include:

Setting up 2-step authentication
Creating a strong password
Conducting a security checkup
Protecting shared files and folders with passwords

Let me know if you have any other questions.

All comments

Hannah

Hey @Impronta, thanks for taking the time to reach out to the Dropbox Community.

I want to start by saying that we really appreciate your feedback on this.

Indeed, starting March 4th, 2025, Dropbox Vault will no longer be available. However, Dropbox is steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding your data.

Our applications and infrastructure are regularly tested for security vulnerabilities, and hardened to enhance security and protect against attacks.

If your files ever do get corrupted by ransomware, there are ways to help with that. You can take a look at this article for more info.

PS. There are also steps that you can take to enhance the security of your account. These steps include:

Setting up 2-step authentication
Creating a strong password
Conducting a security checkup
Protecting shared files and folders with passwords

Let me know if you have any other questions.

WilfriedR

What a horrible reply. Vault is there for a reason. My customers demand it. I process PII and GDPR rules are strict. I assure them by showing how I secure their data. What is the alternative to the vault? I now need to use other location with encryption to secure data like Veracrypt. It defeats the purpose of Dropbox.
I also do not see the rationale other than a downright cost cutting exercise.

Impronta

More than this, the topic has been changed. That's not what I wrote.

KeepVault

I am so DONE with DropBox even though sadly I paid for a whole year for the vault feature that is being taken away !

Researching alternatives. Maybe pcloud, koofr, icedrive ?

Thank you Dropbox for not caring about your customers !

Travelman

I agree. This is terrible news and I am now searching for Dropbox alternatives despite loving the platform and having used it for so long I cannot even recall when I started. The Vault functionality was perfect and worked so well for what I needed. I want to be able to have an extra layer of security for certain folders for a variety of reasons. No decent explanation as to why this is happening. Very unhappy. But I am off as soon as I find something that ticks the boxes. It is not Dropbox anymore.

KeepVault

SO MAD !!!

WilfriedR

Did they edit your original text? Wow, so much for trust. It comes crawling and leaves on horseback. The logic is very simple. They did the math: How many are using Vault? How many would churn over this? How much does it cost to maintain? Bingo, you got your spreadsheet showing up red. So, kill it!

SilviaAg

Hi, I am also considering alternatives to Dropbox because Vault is too important to me. I'm sorry because I've been using paid Dropbox since 2009 and, although it still has several problems, I was fine with it.

Travelman

Wow, that is insane. I think they might get a little surprise when the churn reality does not meet the spreadsheet prediction. Very poor.

WilfriedR

I'm using good old Veracrypt, the successor of Truecrypt. I'm sure there are other alternatives. Veracrypt takes a little learning.

Art I

This was a useful feature. Dropbox is not complete without Vault. Please consider bringing it back.

Keribeal

I’ve attempted on numerous occasion to raise a formal complaint with DB around exactly the things mention in this thread but they simply don’t care and offer no means to do so. I too paid for the year (recently) and feel the removal of the key functionality should warrant a rethink and also compensation - they refuse and only offer a full refund - I have 3Tb of data and moving is not going to be easy but with their inability to listen or care about customers it is something I need to plan and action.
The worst part from my is the standard PR noise about security - the simply don’t understand they have made this system less secure by removing Vault - they are so blind to reality it is untrue, I would bet good money that this decision to remove functionality has been made by the spreadsheet brigade for financial reason. It by any product team or engineering team and certainly not by any team conducting user research - UCD is definitely not a thing at DB!

bvmobileapps

I hated the removal of the Vault feature. They should have at least offered a partial refund to users that were using the feature.

MADabout

I agree, it was an incredible piece of mind for me to have some files under an extra level of protection, but also easily accesible from multiple devices and online, wtf were they thinking! I also paid for the year in December and am now trying to figure out what to do as an alternative!