Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

khromov.se

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 72 posts

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#51

Post by foobarchu »

stevage wrote: post #47
Larrikin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies that offer things for free, I fully expect for them to keep them free forever. If the pay solution is worth it I'll pay. When they start changing the contract, I find an alternative and use the service as much as I can. My Dropbox is fully backed up but has been full for years and it doesn't matter to me any more.

My rule of thuwb is no tech company's consumer level promise is good for more than 2 years. That is, if they promise X, I believe they will keep it for 2 years. Anything after that is a bonus.

Yes, but, we still get to dunk on that company and refuse to use them for going back on the guarantees.

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#52

Post by Brajeshwar »

I've been a Dropbox user for a long time with the 2TB option.

However, this is a different story and is of Flickr. I have been on Flickr since its early days and had many photos with a pro account. Quite a few apps on Flickr used to use my collection as a way to stress test their applications. My collections were also popular; I had 11+ million views before I abandoned it. I have done my take-out, backup, and downgraded.

The thing is, I found no option to easily delete all the photos while keeping the account for posterity. There is no mass-delete option. So, I was hoping that by violating their usage, they would delete my photos. Hell No, they have kept threatening me for the past many years but haven't deleted it yet.

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#53

Post by ryandrake »

southernplaces7 wrote: post #26

The simple solution here is to simply not use Dropbox, or for that matter any service with bad customer service and the asserted right to scan through your files stored with them (looking at you too Google). Why even bother trusting them with that terabyte of data? Edit: What a shit show of passive aggressive dark patterns from the company. This is grossly common among today's tech giants, and laughably absurd, espec…

Are they still demanding "accessibility" permission on macOS computers, giving them broad powers to run roughshod over your system? That's the thing I most remember about trying Dropbox, their belligerent installer.

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#54

Post by Dylan16807 »

neilv wrote: post #27

Is Dropbox this tacky with all users, or only with users who started it (by dumping 1TB on them, because "why wouldn't I")?

These are just people that cancelled, no shenanigans. Dropbox doesn't let you add huge amounts, if there's 1TB there is was almost always legitimate data.

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#55

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

aborsy wrote: post #48

The post is strange (even if not serious). Like, what do you expect? If the provider deletes data in this situation, people complain. If the provider hosts data for free, there are people who still complain (even accuse the provider with dark patterns). Perhaps that’s why the focus is becoming enterprise customers.

Who is complaining that their storage provider kept a promise to not delete customer data?

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#56

Post by Dylan16807 »

aborsy wrote: post #48

The post is strange (even if not serious). Like, what do you expect? If the provider deletes data in this situation, people complain. If the provider hosts data for free, there are people who still complain (even accuse the provider with dark patterns). Perhaps that’s why the focus is becoming enterprise customers.

> Like, what do you expect?

Fewer empty threats. A lot fewer.

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#57

Post by charlie0 »

I remember the days when Dropbox was good. It worked exactly as advertised. Syncing data to the cloud and between my machines. All was well.

Then things changed. Their client got really heavy, constant pushes to use other functionality like docs, etc. CPU usage went up and it would slow down my computer. I eventually ended up uninstalling the whole thing.

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#58

Post by laluser »

ddtaylor wrote: post #50
laluser wrote: post #13

What do you expect to happen? Continue to host your data for free? This is such an odd thing to write about.

Should the company not be expected to uphold their promise that they sold him and charged him for?

What promise? You know agreements change all the time right? Google photos, gmail, etc all used to be unlimited until recently. They’re running a business on money not promises from some forum reply.

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#59

Post by laluser »

ventegus wrote: post #25
laluser wrote: post #13

What do you expect to happen? Continue to host your data for free? This is such an odd thing to write about.

Why not? Many of us host terabytes of opaque data on platforms like GitHub without ever paying or facing deletion threats.

Different businesses. GitHub moat is nothing like Dropbox. Most content on GitHub is extremely small. Terabytes there is an outlier.

Re: Dropbox keeps threatening to delete my files

#60

Post by zinodaur »

ryandrake wrote: post #53
southernplaces7 wrote: post #26

The simple solution here is to simply not use Dropbox, or for that matter any service with bad customer service and the asserted right to scan through your files stored with them (looking at you too Google). Why even bother trusting them with that terabyte of data? Edit: What a shit show of passive aggressive dark patterns from the company. This is grossly common among today's tech giants, and laughably absurd, espec…

Are they still demanding "accessibility" permission on macOS computers, giving them broad powers to run roughshod over your system? That's the thing I most remember about trying Dropbox, their belligerent installer.

Apple is still rolling out File Provider which I think will fix that
Post reply on HN