I understand that the current sharing functionality of the Public folder will change on or about March 15, 2017; my question is: will the NAME of the Public folder change on or about March 15, or will it still be called Public?
I work in Public Safety with many different agencies. I have used the public folder to share files without much input from the user. A QR code was issued during an incident and daily maps were placed in this folder for the user to retrieve. Will this function still exist?
Shame on you, Dropbox, for letting down your loyal paying base of users in such cavalier fashion.
Terry, UK
I have problem. My public folder can not share to all people. Earth logo on folder disappear. I have to fix this? // Thank you
Their use of the word applies because the Public folder was deprecated in October 2012 when Share Links replaced the functionality. From that point forward, new accounts no longer received Public folder, and only Pro or Business accounts could still create one. The feature was deprecated.
As of March 15, 2017, the feature is no longer deprecated; it's simply gone for Basic users. It will be gone for Plus and Business users in September of this year.
I was apalled to have the public folder taken out from under me. I had numerous important photos posted inside threads on many forums which I belong too. I was just about ready to subscribe to Dropbox for all my storage needs when I received notice they made this terrible decision. I decided against doing so because this set off an uncomfortable signal that the company is making irrational moves which to me questions their business longevity.
<snip>
Bad move Dropbox because you lost my business. I've moved to OneDrive!
Mark,
There was nothing "grotesque" about my post that you censored as I substantiated it with a definition per Merriam Webster Dictionary beside it.
You are wrong about a subscribing user having privileges because they are yanking that out from them also soon. I don't want to hear about some feel good 'shared link' substitute.
My prediction is Dropbox is on it's way out. If it can't handle the freebies it gave out then it shouldn't have done so. Hopefully, you don't censor this too!
Hi
I currently use the Public folder a lot for putting information in there so all can see, I link people to it so they can read this information....
I gather Public Folder is going off line as of Sept 2017.... What do I use instead?
Regards
Southy
Southy wrote: I gather Public Folder is going off line as of Sept 2017.... What do I use instead?
Share links replaced the Public folder functionality several years ago.
Hi I just made this account and have a file of photos i want to make public. Ive heard free accounts cant do that anymore. I dont have the money to make a pro account so is there any other way i can make it public. i dont want to have to send these photos to the 100+ people that want to see these photos. please help. thanks!
The Public Folder feature is being removed for all accounts, not just Basic/Free, but it is an old feature that was replaced long ago. The new method is to use a Share Link to the file or folder that you wish to share.
i hate you!
put it back the way it was
I want to make a folder public and apparently have to drag it to the Public folder in order to do this. However, I can't see the Public folder. Where is it? I'm a Drobox Plus user so should still have the Public folder. Thanks
I don't understand exactly what's happening on September 1 when the Public Folder ends. I understand that material in the folder will stay there, but how will I access afterwards and how will people I have shared with access the materials? Will I have to redo all the sharing links in my dropbox? I've shared a lot of stuff with people by creating individual folders for each of them. How do I continue those collaborations? New links emailed for every file and folder or is there some other way? I am so confused. I pay for a 2T account (I think). Thank you.
I love Dropbox and it is critical to my business.
But you keep writing "Share Link, which replaced the Public folder functionality in 2012 (with emphasis)."
Maybe it "replaced" Public Folders in your mind, but if people aren't using "Shared Links" (whatever that is) and we've been using Public folders this whole time, then they haven't really replaced anything, have they?
If you could explain WHY you are removing Public folders, maybe I can get my head around this.
I have been a Pro/Premium user (with Ratpack) since 2011, and Public folders is the only Dropbox function that I use. THAT is what Dropbox is, in my mind.
I think that you may have gotten out ahead of your customers here, and haven't communicated what and why you are doing this.
I am just another user, but I'll have a go at this.
In the beginning you could not share folders with other users or non-users. Only create links to individual files to share. For me this was a big limitation. As a work around a DropBox user could place many files in the Public folder. The Public folder could be shared. For me this was handy for sharing photos and videos to friends and family. But I had a file system for my photos that was outside the Public Folder. So I had two sets of data.
Later the option was created to allow for the sharing (creating a link) to any folder in your DropBox. For some users this solved things. Others may not have noticed because they were using a workflow revolving around the Public Folder.
I use the links to folders now. But I do share an HTML text/markdown file with my client that uses the Shared Folder. I am now on the hunt for a easy place to share this list. I don't think that it will render the same using a DropBox shared link.
Hopefully this will help explain the how. We'll all have to wait for an official reason why this change is necessary.
Remove feature without real replacement is stupid, i will think about Google driver..
With the loss of the Public folder's benefits (I pay for Dropbox Pro!) I have a major problem. I use the Public oder to upload score sheets from car shows I run. I then publish links to these score sheets on my web site for attendees to see their's and other's sheets. Obviously I can't name hundreds of people to each individual file for sharing so how dos I set a folder and it's contents so that a simple link to any file will allow anyone to see it, in other words like it was the Public folder.
This loss of the public folder is a very bad thing by the way, why not just prevent people from using it to host web sites and leave the rest alone?
