5 ms·

Dropbox always feels like it peaked early and has steadily gotten worse as they try to add more and more features to it. > I feel like they are missing the mar

Dropbox always feels like it peaked early and has steadily gotten worse as they try to add more and more features to it. > I feel like they are missing the mark when it comes to marketing to consumers here. I get the impression they're relying on name recognition and first mover advantage to keep the simple users flowing in, while all of the extra features and GUI fluff are built out to attract some other audience that makes decisions by counting up how many different features are listed on each product page. These days, I'm just happy that I haven't had to force-kill the Dropbox client in many months. I wish there was some way to go back to the days where they just synced my files for me, let me share a few things, and I didn't have to fight with their GUI all the time.

Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
In my impression, they are removing useful features and adding unnecessary ones. Since I joined over a decade ago, they have removed an extremely useful Public folder with the capability to generate direct links, limited the number of devices, and added a ton of features I never wanted from them, like Paper.
- baby 5y ago
  Yeah agree, public folders were great. I’m still a user of dropbox since early days but: - I’m stupid and I kept a git repo in there, it became corrupt. Doesn’t surprise me but wondering what else is fragile in dropbox. - Uploading pictures on mobile is really really slow. For some reason google photos on iOS is so much faster, like incomparably faster. - Google photos also allows you to quickly get to all your pictures. Dropbox is… at best cumbersome, at worst really slow at fetching lots of pictures. - make public folders a thing again for paying users. I’m sure this would create an awesome ecosystem of websites.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
    I think that they removed public folders because some people started storing static files for their websites in it. As for why google photos are faster... I think it is because Photos resize images on device, while Dropbox uploads them in original size.
    - skocznymroczny 5y ago
      In the past it was even possible to host static websites from the Public folder
  - SilverRed 5y ago
    The speed of Google photos is actually breathtaking. The fact that you can instantly lag free scroll through tens of thousands of images and it all just loads instantly is quite impressive imo. The problem with some of the competitors is they do not treat photos as its own thing separate from files. I think google did a great job understanding that photos are not just a folder of files but that they require their own dedicated software.
    - kccqzy 5y ago
      A lot of people had that realization early on. Google had Picasa and Apple had iPhoto, both of which were pretty good photo management software even before the mobile revolution.
      - mjcohen 5y ago
        We still use Picasa wherever possible.
    - yojo 5y ago
      Dropbox had Carousel, a mobile first photos product that was decently well regarded. They killed it, presumably for cost/benefit reasons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_Carousel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_Carousel
- skinkestek 5y ago
  > In my impression, they are removing useful features and adding unnecessary ones. Also they took away the extra storage I had gotten from various deals. Saved them 3.8 GB or something, lost them an unpaid sales representative and got them a few posts like this on the internet.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
    Well, my extra free storage is with me, currently I have ~14,83 GB.
  - planb 5y ago
    I‘m still at 52gb free Storage. But I just need 2. I’d even pay 2-3 bucks a month to get rid of the device limit. But I won’t pay for a terabyte I don’t need…
- nonbirithm 5y ago
  My belief is that they're trying to find a way to remain profitable. VCs expect returns, and with Dropbox's main feature now included by many other services like O365 and Drive, I would think that they're finding themselves forced to make such changes whether or not they want to.
temp8964 5y ago
My impression is that they totally gave up the customer market and focused on the business market long ago. So I gave up on them too.
- hparadiz 5y ago
  If they were smart they would use their customer market as a loss lead. Years ago I'd use Dropbox for work because it was so easy to make a new folder and add some emails to it. Now a lot of people don't even have the client installed.
sieabah 5y ago
I feel like they stopped being relevant when their scavenger hunts ended.
swiley 5y ago
This. It used to be really great, you just have an "ender chest" folder that shows up on all your computers with a public folder that shows up on their web server. They screwed up the public folder pretty badly and I left after that. Now we have syncthing anyway which is better anyway for a number of reasons and most people know git which works better on mobile devices.
nolok 5y ago
> and I didn't have to fight with their GUI all the time. I don't even know how to make it open my folder for me in the file explorer any more. I just ignore their thingy and go to the folder by myself now.
_hyn3 5y ago
Just use syncthing. It's open source and works great.

Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago

In my impression, they are removing useful features and adding unnecessary ones. Since I joined over a decade ago, they have removed an extremely useful Public folder with the capability to generate direct links, limited the number of devices, and added a ton of features I never wanted from them, like Paper.

baby 5y ago
Yeah agree, public folders were great. I’m still a user of dropbox since early days but: - I’m stupid and I kept a git repo in there, it became corrupt. Doesn’t surprise me but wondering what else is fragile in dropbox. - Uploading pictures on mobile is really really slow. For some reason google photos on iOS is so much faster, like incomparably faster. - Google photos also allows you to quickly get to all your pictures. Dropbox is… at best cumbersome, at worst really slow at fetching lots of pictures. - make public folders a thing again for paying users. I’m sure this would create an awesome ecosystem of websites.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  I think that they removed public folders because some people started storing static files for their websites in it. As for why google photos are faster... I think it is because Photos resize images on device, while Dropbox uploads them in original size.
  - skocznymroczny 5y ago
    In the past it was even possible to host static websites from the Public folder
- SilverRed 5y ago
  The speed of Google photos is actually breathtaking. The fact that you can instantly lag free scroll through tens of thousands of images and it all just loads instantly is quite impressive imo. The problem with some of the competitors is they do not treat photos as its own thing separate from files. I think google did a great job understanding that photos are not just a folder of files but that they require their own dedicated software.
  - kccqzy 5y ago
    A lot of people had that realization early on. Google had Picasa and Apple had iPhoto, both of which were pretty good photo management software even before the mobile revolution.
    - mjcohen 5y ago
      We still use Picasa wherever possible.
  - yojo 5y ago
    Dropbox had Carousel, a mobile first photos product that was decently well regarded. They killed it, presumably for cost/benefit reasons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_Carousel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_Carousel
skinkestek 5y ago
> In my impression, they are removing useful features and adding unnecessary ones. Also they took away the extra storage I had gotten from various deals. Saved them 3.8 GB or something, lost them an unpaid sales representative and got them a few posts like this on the internet.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  Well, my extra free storage is with me, currently I have ~14,83 GB.
- planb 5y ago
  I‘m still at 52gb free Storage. But I just need 2. I’d even pay 2-3 bucks a month to get rid of the device limit. But I won’t pay for a terabyte I don’t need…
nonbirithm 5y ago
My belief is that they're trying to find a way to remain profitable. VCs expect returns, and with Dropbox's main feature now included by many other services like O365 and Drive, I would think that they're finding themselves forced to make such changes whether or not they want to.

temp8964 5y ago

My impression is that they totally gave up the customer market and focused on the business market long ago. So I gave up on them too.

hparadiz 5y ago
If they were smart they would use their customer market as a loss lead. Years ago I'd use Dropbox for work because it was so easy to make a new folder and add some emails to it. Now a lot of people don't even have the client installed.

sieabah 5y ago

I feel like they stopped being relevant when their scavenger hunts ended.

swiley 5y ago

This. It used to be really great, you just have an "ender chest" folder that shows up on all your computers with a public folder that shows up on their web server. They screwed up the public folder pretty badly and I left after that. Now we have syncthing anyway which is better anyway for a number of reasons and most people know git which works better on mobile devices.

nolok 5y ago

> and I didn't have to fight with their GUI all the time. I don't even know how to make it open my folder for me in the file explorer any more. I just ignore their thingy and go to the folder by myself now.

_hyn3 5y ago

Just use syncthing. It's open source and works great.