[shinratdr]

Poor performance, broken in Windows when using roaming profiles, storing binaries in the user's roaming AppData folder on Windows, DLL injection in Windows and god-knows-what in OS X to alter Explorer & Finder icons, low base storage.

The only thing Dropbox has going for it is that somehow, everyone else is worse. Core syncing and client reliability is just trash across the board for all the other providers. But Dropbox is still infuriating.

[_jsn]

They were injecting code in to the Finder too. No doubt this is why Finder Sync Extensions[1] were created, because it's a support nightmare. (Well, and also because that code injection vector was eliminated in El Capitan.)

[1] https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Genera...

[voltagex_]

Interesting!

https://codeinsecurity.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/installing-d...

https://0b4af6cdc2f0c5998459-c0245c5c937c5dedcca3f1764ecc9b2...

[zzleeper]

What bothers me about Dropbox is that many of the complaints I had 7 years ago are still there...

For instance, I can't exclude folders and extensions, which messes up my workflow a lot (e.g. I can't exclude .git folders)

[shinratdr]

> What bothers me about Dropbox is that many of the complaints I had 7 years ago are still there...

People have been complaining about the AppData binary thing and the roaming profiles issue since Dropbox launched.

I thought that FINALLY, after they had launched Dropbox for Business, it would come with an announcement that they had fixed Dropbox on roaming profiles and started storing the binary properly.

Nope. Just a branding initiative. I managed to screw around with it enough to get it working on my profile, but I've been unable to repeat that success, even with admin access. So, so annoying. iTunes works better in a corporate environment than Dropbox does.

[pimlottc]

As a workaround, you can tell git to use a different git-dir folder that's not within the working copy:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/505467/can-i-store-the-gi...

[addandsubtract]

You can ignore .git folders before initializing your repository [0]

[0] http://aditya.vaidya.info/blog/2013/08/25/using-dropbox-and-...

[hyperknot]

About using the selective sync dialog: it takes me about 5 minutes to just load the folder list in the GUI, and it's on a quad-core Macbook Pro with 120 Mbps internet.

I believe a perfect solution for power-users would be a support for '.nodropbox' files, which would disable selective sync for a given directory and it's subfolders.

An even better idea would be '.dropboxignore' files, using the same syntax as '.gitignore'.

[blakeyrat]

Years ago I tried to buy a gift subscription of Dropbox for a friend so we could collaborate.

Still impossible.

These guys can't even manage GIFT CERTIFICATES, I'm not surprised they have trouble with actual technical issues.

[lazy_lizard]

https://www.dropbox.com/gift

[vox_mollis]

Why do you take the punishment? There are tons of other storage+sync providers available.

[lazy_lizard]

https://www.dropbox.com/gift

[WillKirkby]

"Sorry! Gifting isn’t available in your country yet. Sign up for notifications, and we’ll email you once it’s available."

[shinratdr]

I got the same message in Canada.

[blakeyrat]

Wow, that must be brand-new. I was looking for it a couple months ago, and all I found was a million support posts about "why don't you offer gift accounts?" and a few promises that it was coming soon, really, posted back in like 2009.

[free2rhyme214]

I think Google is faster at file sync than Dropbox. "Best in class sync" may have been true a few years ago.

Then again no one is perfect. I've seen the green check mark missing from all my files in Google Drive at different times.

Most of us are complaining about services we use for free.

[shinratdr]

> I think Google is faster at file sync than Dropbox.

Speed of sync isn't much of a concern to me personally, I don't use Dropbox for big files. Reliability of sync is key for me, and for that I have never had an issue. Everything is everywhere, without exception. No conflicts or corruptions, period.

> Most of us are complaining about services we use for free.

I'll complain about a browser too. "Free" isn't an excuse to offer a crappy product. You're still making money off your userbase somehow.

It's also worth noting that the problems that exist with Dropbox, permiate all tiers. I'll use it, but I'd never pay for a service with so many issues unless I had a very good specific reason. For example, iCloud Sync is way worse but I'll pay for the privilege of being able to dump my iPhone photos online automatically.

[free2rhyme214]

I agree with your free comment, but you'll pay for iCloud when Google Photos is essentially free?

[shinratdr]

Yep, because it's built into iOS at the system-level. I also don't like Google and I generally avoid all their services except Search & Maps.