

The Coming Dropbox Apocalypse - betageek
https://medium.com/tech-talk/8682c686a795

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bkanber
If Dropbox has acknowledged the problem and they're working to fix it, I don't
really see the problem here. It's impossible to make perfect software, and
it's probably true that not too many people have >300k files (I only have 30k
in mine), so I can see why this isn't at the top of their list.

~~~
danaw
Dropbox has know about it for quite some time. I complained about the same
issue over a year and a half ago and I regularly have to kill Dropbox.

Obviously they are some tough technological problems, but that's only an
excuse for so long.

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Angostura
> Is 300,000 files really “unusually large” these days?

Yes, I suspect popping 300,000 in your dropbox really is unusual. It would be
interesting to see a distribution curve of number of files that people put in
there.

~~~
bambax
63 GB in 170 000 files. I had no idea there was a "limit" of 300 000 files.

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sosuke
Using dropbox like a code version control system caused problems? I'm not
surprised at all. Use the right tool for the job.

~~~
jonahx
I read it as the files were a result of his normal web development. I'd assume
he also uses git and the two things are orthogonal problems.

~~~
eli
Sure, but if the .git directory is part of the folder in Dropbox (which is not
a good idea anyway, btw) then git's internal data files are probably
responsible for a huge number of those files.

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progx
I think your main problem is the misunderstanding of dropbox.

Dropbox was developed for a simple share of few files between different
devices or with different people.

It is not a mass file backup system. But many people use it exactly that way.
And it is definitely not a code repository.

I prefer bitbucket for private repos. Fast and easy.

~~~
alistairjcbrown
> It is not a mass file backup system.

You say that, but then why do they sell personal plans for 100, 200 or 500Gb
storage? That sounds like it's targeted for mass file backup to me.

~~~
progx
Yes for big files your are right.

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netcraft
OT, but "I’ve got a folder with 20 node projects that contains over 100,000
files." \- seriously? I'm haven't played much with node - is 5000 files in a
project normal?

~~~
apidoc
Yes thats not much. Node modules use other modules, that mean you have many
many files.

For my small apidoc-Tool (apidocjs.com) i have over 2.000 Files, the project
itself has only 50 Files ;-)

Another node project (only a small API-Server) has 20.000 files.

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rdez6173
So, dropbox hasn't optimized for what they consider a corner case. I hardly
think this warrants the sensationalized, apocalyptic, headline.

Should they address this issue? Yes, and it sounds like it's on their radar.
Do we need to sharpen our pitchforks? Not likely.

~~~
sp332
I think the business tier could reasonably have a problem with it right now.
That's a lot of storage, and having 300,000 files might not be a "corner
case".

~~~
stayoffliner
I can think of many other ways there may well be a coming Dropbox Apocalypse.

Lets see: OS vendors wake up from their slumber, and start putting the OS back
where it needs to be: beyond Web 2.0. Fact is kiddies, dropbox and the like
are a hacky solution to a problem that should have been solved, properly,
decades ago .. if only the OS vendors had not sold their souls, rested on
their laurels, etc.

Another apocalypse: someone targets Dropbox and does the big `rm -rf /* ´ ..
its not impossible, although like most Apocalypses, not likely to be a problem
until it happens.

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exodust
Points for the click bait headline, but no substance to the article.

Something about "300,000 files broke my dropbox".

Not an issue for 99.999% of normal people with less than 300,000 files on
their whole computer never-mind their cloud storage.

~~~
Fourplealis
Except, those 0.001% of users are responsible for very big chunk of DropBox's
revenue.

~~~
korg250
Source?

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nextw33k
To be fair on Dropbox the issue is more than likely to do with the file system
watchers.

The initial indexing of 300,000 files is going to take some time on a standard
desktop PC, then you have to ask the OS to let you know of any changes on
those files.

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herbig
Yeah guy, I'd look into something like github. The best thing to come out of
this article was learning the term Dropboxen.

