OSX Software to use Dropbox as a network share
October 3, 2017 9:09 PM   Subscribe

My laptop has a 256GB drive. I have a 1TB Dropbox account. This is obviously less than idea. In the past I've used selective sync, but really I would just like Dropbox to exist as a network share, rather than locally synced folders. There are a number of solutions on offer for this (Mountain Duck, Expandrive) but as they all cost a reasonable amount of money - can anyone recommend the best?
posted by Jimbob to Computers & Internet (8 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Since you say this is OSX, is your laptop able to run Sierra? If so, it should automatically store files in iCloud, and iCloud storage is relatively cheap ($1.49 for 50GB).

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25224?locale=en_US
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:19 PM on October 3, 2017


Dropbox can be used as you desire. It doesn't have to be a syncronized mirror. It can just be a network folder. This can be done with the desktop app, or just by pointing a browser at dropbox.com and logging in. You can then create folders on your dropbox "cloud" and drag files into those folders.
posted by at at 10:59 PM on October 3, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's not exposed as a network share, but I use Transmit for this problem - it's by Panic, so it's fancy Mac software with a moderate (though one-time) price tag of $45. It does a solid job of making Dropbox (and a number of other options) accessible as a drag-and-droppable list - as well as can synchronize certain folders if you so wish. The thing is - though it's a little less magic as a network drive abstraction, it's clearer when it comes to network issues or knowing what's 'real' and stored on your drive, versus what's not yet synced or downloaded.
posted by tmcw at 11:27 PM on October 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


This can be done with the desktop app, or just by pointing a browser at dropbox.com and logging in.

The OP is asking for a way to mount their Dropbox share as a network volume so that applications can access the files directly. Uploading & downloading via a web browser is not the same thing.

Expandrive caused a lot of Finder crashes for me (The reviews on MacUpdate seem to agree). I also had issues with Mountain Duck although in that case it wasn’t with Dropbox as the data store, it was AWS & Google Drive. Personally if I were doing this again I would use Transmit.
posted by bcwinters at 3:52 AM on October 4, 2017


Nthing Transmit. Plus, you get to look at that cute truck!
posted by daisy55 at 6:16 AM on October 4, 2017


Response by poster: Hmm, yeah Transmit doesn't seem to do much that the Dropbox website (or for that matter, the scp command for remote servers) can't do. Copying files to the local drive to work on then copying them back is sort of exactly what I want to avoid. But, this is still useful since people have highlighted that Expandrive and Mountain Duck are less than perfect...
posted by Jimbob at 3:43 PM on October 4, 2017


Sorry, Jimbob, I didn't realize that Transmit Disk wouldn't mount Dropbox shares. According to their support library it can mount the following as "drives":

Amazon S3 (V3)
FTP
FTP with Implicit SSL
FTP with TLS/SSL
SFTP
WebDAV
WebDAV HTTPS
posted by bcwinters at 7:04 PM on October 4, 2017


We had a similar problem and moved to Synology NAS which has a nifty cloud sync feature that might be what you are looking for!
posted by LongDrive at 1:20 AM on October 7, 2017


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