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My public links are no longer working

All my public links are suddenly not working. I noticed that the previously copied link URL that I've given to people to access the file had "https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com" as the first part of the url name. But now when I am copying the link, the first part of the url name is "https://www.dropbox.com"

I assume this is the issue, but why did this change?

I also noticed the selection option in the dropdown menu that appears when I right click on the file in my Public dropbox folder to be able to copy it has changed. It no longer has the dropbox symbol to the left and says "Copy dropbox link" whereas before I believe it said "Share dropbox link." And above that option, there is something with the dropbox symbol next to it that says "Share..." (that wasn't there before) and gives the option of entering an email address to send it to, or copying the link (also with the beginning url as ""https://www.dropbox.com"

Now not only do I have to recopy the URL's for all my active clients' files that they need to get to, but ALL the numerous "permanent files" that I have stored in Dropbox to access as clickable links on my several websites, in blog posts and online articles, in documents that people have downloaded, in my autoresponders are NOT WORKING. There's no way I can find and replace them all. What is going on?!!

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Jane

Hey @hypnocoach,

Thanks for getting in touch here!

Please note that public links will no longer function as of March 15, 2017 for Basic users and on September 1, 2017 for Plus and Dropbox for Business users. You can find more information here: https://www.dropbox.com/help/16.

Hope this helps you clarify! If there's anything else you need to ask, please let me know.

Kind regards,

JaneA

All comments

Jonathan H.1

@Rich - ridiculous. They advertised a feature promoting it as a way of hotlinking files without any warning that it may be taken away at a moment's notice and without providing any means of converting potentially thousands of broken links strewn across the internet. It would be trivial to find a way to avoid this link rot tragedy yet they don't care.

chatjokey

dropbox links are dead. and all usefull info for lots of internet users is lost.

as example

the forum threads have thousands of views. and i cant fix.

http://forum.toribash.com/showpost.php?s=aabdc6432a20bb2cb3bf982dd199ddcb&p=3820772&postcount=1

http://forum.toribash.com/showthread.php?t=382961

and i even cant remember all such threads.

Thanx a lot. and bye.

Matthew T.27

Your error for thinking Dropbox is a file hosting service. It's a file synchronization service with sharing capabilities. It has never advertised itself as a hosting service.

Controversial opinion to hold there buddy, didn't vote for Trump did ya? That one of those so-called "alternative facts"?

Oh, right, those darned Wikipedians aren't Dropbox. Just the fact it is labelled by virtually everybody is irrelevant Dropbox would never admit they host files now, would th-

FWIW the terms define "stuff" to include "files". Hosting your "files" = file hosting.

Warning: The above images will go dead when Dropbox decides to kill the public folder. Many such cases! Sad!

No, Mr Trump. It's not a "file syncronisation with sharing" service. Everyone calls it a file hosting service, including an encyclopedia, Dropbox, and an uncountable number of other sources if you care to Google. Which isn't surprising, given it hosts files.

It's a file hosting service.

And on top of that, even if it wasn't a file hosting service (which it is), this argument is still deflection off the key point, vis-a-vis link rot.

olivier w.1

Why has the public folder functionality permanently stopped for basic Dropbox users ?

Rich

@olivier w.1 wrote:
Why has the public folder functionality permanently stopped for basic Dropbox users ?

It's permanently stopping for all users. Basic first (which has already happened) and in September for Plus accounts. It's a deprecated feature, having been replaced by Share Links in October of 2012.

olivier w.1

The problem with share links is that you can't simply copy a link and paste/send it via your e-mail. You have to send the link via dropbox window. Right ?

Rich

olivier w.1 wrote:
The problem with share links is that you can't simply copy a link and paste/send it via your e-mail. You have to send the link via dropbox window. Right ?

Quite the opposite in fact. You have to copy the link and send it via your own email client. You can't send a share link through the Dropbox interface. When you invite a specific person to a file (sharing the file, not a link to the file) it will go through Dropbox, but a link is just copied and sent using any method you wish.

olivier w.1

When I copy/paste a Dropbox link in my e-mail client, and send it to someone who doesn't have Dropbox, the recipient always tells me the link doesn't work. Does the recipient have to be a dropbox user ? Or I don't do it properly ? When I want to send a file, I use right click then 6th option : copy dropbox link, then paste it in my e-mail.

Mark

It should work exactly like that Olivier, what error are they getting?

BensonX

So apparently DropBox is ahead of schedule with disabling this functionality for PAYING users as well. As of 45 minutes ago, ALL of my Public files and existing Links are now broken. All the links are still intact and correct, but no HTML page will display content from my 'Public/Shared' folder.

I am a paying Plus subscriber, and have paid almost $200 for this "sharing" service (as you so aptly title it, Rich) and now I have been forced to find an immediate alternative to accomplish what DropBox should be doing until September (as a Plus subscriber).

I truly hope your company loses a ton of high-paying Clients over this ordeal; what used to be an intuitive and user-friendly product has turned into nothing more than finger pointing game of who should be hosting this or that, whose bandwidth is supplying the content, yada-yada-yada.

thomas-garuda

When did you send out mail to notify your users about this major change - I just went through my mail AND spam-filter and no mail from Dropbox regarding this.

This has costed us at least two working days to change all our links in webpages, mails and stylesheet references.

And for all I know you may change this again tomorrow without notifying your users. We are looking for alternatives to dropbox as I write this.

olivier w.1

Mark,

some people without Dropbox told me my links weren't working, so i tried to test it by my self. It is actually working well, but the download link is not very obvious for everyone.

Jacqueline E.

the link you have as a solution comes up as an error message

Rich

Jacqueline E. wrote:
the link you have as a solution comes up as an error message

It just had an extra period at the end, likely because the link was at the end of the sentence. I've edited the post to correct. Here's the link again:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/16

Jacqueline E.

awesome!! thanks

billmoree

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, I can get my head around this. I have been a Pro or 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.

manathungearun1

I use two paid Dropbox accounts to store audio files for my web site. I have created thousands of links from the two Public folders to my website. All of my existing links have stopped working after, 1 September 2017. Now all of a sudden people cannot download or listen to the audio from my web site. This is a very major issue. I am now aware that Dropbox has stopped sharing the links even in paid accounts after the 01 September 2017.

So far I haven't received replies to my requests from the Dropbox Support.

I don't want to create new links to thousands of the audio files. Besides that will not help regarding the links already sent out to my clients through Newsletters, as those are the old existing links.

Could Dropbox kindly re-activate the existing links?

amitsinha

what is the solution

Mark

Hi manathungearun1 - no they wont reactivate them. The service is no longer available as was advised in Sept. 2016 that it would be removed. As of 1st Sept. those links are no longer working. This is for everybody.

You need to find another solution now I'm afraid.

To track your ticket, however, you can do so at http://dropbox.zendesk.com - but I'm afraid the answer will be the same.

@amitsinha - use the new sharing features at www.dropbox.com/help/167

Also. To keep things central I'm closing this thread. Please read and post follow ups, if necessary over at https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Sharing-and-collaboration/Ending-support-of-public-folder/m-p/197906#M11718