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Dropbox/Boxifier Integration - New Question

This is a technical question based on research I've been doing related to the recent issue with Boxifier no longer working with the latest version of Dropbox, and an inability to get a response from Boxifier support.

In my research I've come across information that Dropbox has, with version 243.4.6956, moved from a proprietary sync platform to Microsoft-based API that leverages their OneDrive sync engine. So my first question is whether that is true. If it is true, my experience with OneDrive is that it is not possible to sync content from a NAS, or in my case WD MyCloudHome, using a mapped network drive. OneDrive will only sync content that is stored directly on the hard drive of the laptop itself, and does not support mapped drives (IE Z:/MyCloudHome/MyPictures).

Previous to purchasing Dropbox and Boxifier, I had "tricked" OneDrive into syncing files from my drive mapped to MyCloudHome by using MKLink symbolic links to directories on the MyCloudHome. However, I discovered that after those directories grew to over about 100GB those symbolic links began to fail sporadically, so I had no idea which files were synced to OneDrive cloud, and which were not. After doing research on potential solutions I reached out to Dropbox and was told that the combination of Dropbox and Boxifier would meet my requirements. After testing and confirming that did work, I purchased Dropbox and a "lifetime" Boxifier license about 6 months ago. Unfortunately, "lifetime" appears to be about 6 months for Boxifier and I fear I may have thrown $350 out the window as it is probably not possible for Boxifier to continue to operate with Dropbox if indeed Dropbox is now running on the OneDrive sync engine.

So, my questions are whether Dropbox is now on the OneDrive platform, and based on that answer what my options are to continue to sync my content from MyCloudHome to Dropbox going forward. I appreciate official Dropbox guidance on this matter, as well as any advice other users in similar situations might have.

Thank you,

Dave

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Comments

Walter

Hey @Daveh839 - thanks for posting on our Community about this.

I'm going to run this by our team and we'll get back to you as soon as possible with further information.

Thank you for your patience and please let me know if you have anything else to add in the meantime.

Neal

Hi @Daveh839,

I followed up with our team and they clarified that we have adopted the Cloud Files API provided by Microsoft but that's not backed by the OneDrive sync engine. Instead the OneDrive sync engine also uses this Cloud Files API.

So just to confirm: we've adopted the Cloud Files API but it's not backed by OneDrive's sync engine.

I hope this clears things up!

Neal

Hi @Daveh839,

They also just wanted to clarify if theres been some confusion between network drives and mapped drives.

They're separate concepts:

A network drive can be mapped, but does not need to be
- For example, I can access my NAS network drive at \\nas.test1.net. I can do this regardless of whether I've also mapped it to Z:. (it's not mapped on my work laptop for example, but I could still access it).
A mapped drive can be a network drive, but does not need to be
- For example, I have the directory C:\Users\Test2\srv\. It's completely local and part of my primary drive. It is also mapped to .

Some other points we'd like to clarify is that:

Dropbox does not support unmapped network drives
Cloud Files doesn’t work correctly with subst drives
drives themselves can be mapped to folders without being accessible as a drive letter (though you can do both without subst too)

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to share all of the insights that I gathered!

mhinks

Thanks @Neal Thats interesting info.

Can you clear something up - You can sync files that are not located in your local DB folder? By saying you can sync from a network drive, that suggests you can? Its very confusing!

Rich

mhinks wrote:
You can sync files that are not located in your local DB folder?

With Dropbox, no, but this thread refers to a third-party application called Boxifier which allows that functionality. The issue, however, is that the recent updates to Dropbox which are required to use Microsoft's Cloud Files API changed how Dropbox syncs, and as a result have broken the Boxifier integration.

mhinks wrote:
By saying you can sync from a network drive, that suggests you can?

You can, or at least you could, using Boxifier; not Dropbox on its own.

mhinks

Yes we're using Boxifier already. Just confusing that the reply says DB can do it, makes me think it doesnt need an extra app.

Daveh839

Thanks for this info, Neal. I’m hopeful this means Boxifier will be able to fix the issue the change has caused. What would be awesome is if Dropbox allowed users to install the Dropbox folder to a mapped network drive rather than limiting to only the local drive. That would solve a lot of issues. Any chance of that?