this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024
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AssholeDesign

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Dropbox now requires login to download a shared file (lemmy.today)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by LodeMike@lemmy.today to c/assholedesign@lemmy.world
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On mobile, it prompts you to either "get the app" or "open app" with no way to click past. Screenshot won't upload.

This is worse from several months ago https://lemmy.today/post/8935690

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[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Shared from a paid account or from a free account?

If shared from paid account, then tomorrow I'm going to cancel our company account as this is unacceptable, we use that for sharing files in emails (we tried to use a self hosted nextcloud but customers are too dumb to figure out how to press the download button)

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Paid. There may have been something that affected it but we don't know what. Can you do your own tests and report back?

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Both on mobile and desktop there's a "login wall" but it can be dismissed by pressing on the X.

Still, it's a dark pattern that I don't like, tomorrow at work we will discuss alternatives as we subscribed (one single account shared between everyone) just for sending attachments with filelink using thunderbird - and with a "login wall" it no longer fits the purpose

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What fucking X? Where is it?

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

On the top right. Maybe it's some a/b testing to see which one "converts" (=annoys) more. I don't have the "just take me to the download" link like in the other image, just the X to close the login popup

Unacceptable IMHO, I just want to give my clients an easy link to download the huge files I'm sending them without ads or tricks. With this wall many users will get confused and create a new account

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yeah it's gotta be A-B testing. Switching to dl=1 just returned a passive-aggressive "Hmm that doesn't look right" page. I didn't check the error code because mobile.

[–] subignition@fedia.io 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's pretty scummy. It doesn't require login on desktop view.

Two workarounds:

  1. enable desktop view, then you can close the login prompt and zoom way in to find the actual download button
  2. easier, change dl=0 to dl=1 at the end of the URL and it will bypass all of that and download directly.
[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I am on Desktop view

[–] subignition@fedia.io 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Then I would question whether the file was shared correctly by the uploader. I shared a file from my Dropbox, setting it so anyone with the link could view, and was able to download it from desktop view on mobile Firefox (in incognito mode)

There is an option to require a password to view the file, is there any possibility that that was set in your case?

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No possibility.

[–] subignition@fedia.io 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Only other thing I can think of is the specific mobile device/browser combo isn't properly requesting the desktop site. Or there is somehow an entirely separate sharing option that is functioning differently

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago

It is requesting it properly. Mobile site only gives me option to download or open app.

[–] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Dropdox and Mega,nz are the worst file sharing service ever made, I don't know why people still using their service and it's infuriating when I have to download from their shitty ass website

[–] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

I have used both for many years and everything has worked absolutely as intended and I’ve had no problems.

Maybe not everyone knows what they’re doing completely? Maybe many people do something wrong by mistake but don’t know it? Or do, but they’re impatient? Or they get frustrated because they don’t want to fix their problem on their own and expect the product to be totally idiot-proof?

As an IT professional for several decades, I can attest this is the problem like 80% of the time.

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Are you sure the person sharing the file didn't turn on a requirement for only logged in accounts?

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago

Yes

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Maybe I shouldn't have bought their stock a while ago... but it was so cheap 😅

I guess I'm stuck with it now 😑

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can sell it?

[–] nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 1 points 9 months ago

But only if you sell it to a logged in account.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

When something is free, you are the product.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Except the vast majority of Dropbox users pay for it.

Edit: adjusted to how much they use it/share files.

[–] mindlight@lemm.ee 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That's interesting. My experience is the exact opposite. Do you have any links to information on paying Dropbox customers?

[–] beefalo@fedia.io 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's in the earnings reports: https://dropbox.gcs-web.com/financial-information/earnings-reports 18.16M paying customers in Q2 2024

[–] Irremarkable@fedia.io 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Dropbox's own website claims they have >700M users.

18M paying customers is a lot (and I wouldn't be surprised if in terms of percentage of data stored paying customers are the majority), but nowhere near a vast majority.

[–] subignition@fedia.io 1 points 9 months ago

If you were to look at the average cloud storage usage per user, split by free or paid, I think you would find that free users are using rather less space in total than you'd expect

But I agree, I did some of their cute ARG stuff for extra space when they were still acting like a startup and otherwise haven't paid them a cent.

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 1 points 9 months ago

Free usage is still limited to 2gb unless you got a lot of referrals. It was a lot in 2008, but it's difficult to daily use that in 2024