Please explain the new Dropbox photo folders to me

June 23, 2017 5:37 PM

Dropbox has been sending out a notice that says after June 30 "2) You’ll no longer be able to view, create, or share photo albums on the web after this date." AND "4) You can continue to share your photos through Dropbox via shared folders or shared links." What does that mean?!

I'm not trying to be funny, it seems to say I can't share an album but then I can share an album. I am stumped.

posted by cda to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Best answer: I think they are talking about the type of folder and the sharing experience. I think "photo albums" have a display that allows you to easily scroll through the photos instead of seeing a list view of files. Looks like they are getting rid of the "photo album" feature that makes it easy to go through the photos. You'll just have to start using normal folders instead of "albums," as I understand it.
posted by AppleTurnover at 5:45 PM on June 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You'll be able to share folders with photos in them - with individual people by putting in their dropbox email address. You won't be able to share files publicly, or share albums with the internet in general.

Dropbox is removing the features that allow it to be used as an anonymous filesharing service. It's shifting to a format where nobody can say, "I have no idea who I got that from" or "I didn't know who had access to download it." (Well, they can say it, but it won't hold up in the case of a copyright infringement lawsuit.)

The real nuisance is that you won't be able to host a handful of images in Dropbox and make them public in order to use them for your website. Imgur still works for that, and to some extent, so does Tumblr.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:58 AM on June 24, 2017