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Dropbox killing public folders, makes sharing both more and less convenient

Dropbox killing public folders, makes sharing both more and less convenient

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From July 31st Dropbox will no longer issue "public" folders to new users, according to German site Mobiflip.

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dropbox getlinkwrapper
dropbox getlinkwrapper

In April we brought you news that Dropbox was introducing the ability to create public links for any files in your Dropbox folder. Now, German site Mobiflip is reporting that, from July 31st, the cloud storage service will no longer issue "public" folders to new users. It's not clear if Dropbox will keep existing users' public folders going or if they will revert to being regular folders.

While sharing links from any folder may be more convenient for many, the new Get Link feature doesn't generate a direct link to the file, whereas the public folder does. Instead, Get Link URLs are wrappers which, just like those found in Google Drive, take you to a webpage to download the file. This adds another layer between you and your file, and also makes it hard to embed images and other media saved in Dropbox on a website or blog. We've reached out to Dropbox for comment on the matter and will update this article when we hear back.

Update: Dropbox says that "public folders in existing accounts will continue to function as before."