1. You must be 18 to use Dropbox. Previously, you had to be 13 if in the United States, or 16 if higher. Dropbox may use information "Dropbox may use and rely on information from third parties, including age signals from app stores, for the purpose of enforcing this restriction."
2. Your account may be terminated if you don't have a Paid account and haven't accessed for 6 months. Previously, it was 12 months.
3. If you have multiple accounts tied to the same email address, and one is banned, the others may also be banned.
4. "Refunds are only issued if required by law." -> "Refunds are only issued in limited circumstances or if required by law."
5. You automatically agree to the new terms if you continue to have an account. Previously, it was only if you continued to use the service.
6. Some terms covering Teams accounts.
rpozarickij 29 minutes ago [-]
> Your account may be terminated if you don't have a Paid account and haven't accessed for 6 months
I hope file sync is treated as "access", otherwise this would make me anxious.
applfanboysbgon 39 minutes ago [-]
> 5. You automatically agree to the new terms if you continue to have an account.
I would really love to see courts throw this BS out.
necovek 12 minutes ago [-]
I agree with you in principle.
It would also potentially invalidate clauses like the one in GPL license too: "this version or any later version" — how can anyone consent to yet-unknown terms?
In this particular case and going after the summary from big85, there's one case of legal compliance (like age restrictions — it applies in appropriate jurisdictions even if the ToS is not updated) or maybe two (banning per-account vs per-owner), some widening of the terms to the benefit of the customer (like refunds being permitted in "special circumstances" on top of "required by law, with only "reductionist" change being about lowering service window for unused free accounts (in some jurisdictions, even this could be about respecting data privacy laws — companies are obligated to remove any data which is not used after a certain time, though I think this is 12 months even under GDPR).
As such, I believe this would not be a good case where you can bring enough light how this type of clause is harming one side to the contract.
Gabrys1 10 minutes ago [-]
For "this or any later version", I have always read this line as you get to choose which version you want to follow, not the one granting you the licence.
pveierland 8 minutes ago [-]
Funny that this is the only Dropbox post I've seen on HN besides infamous references to their launch post. You'd think there would be plenty of interesting improvements to make.
Having been a paid user for the last decade my current experience is just getting error messages on my phone every week that something failed to sync, and that I have to re-enter the app every ~month to disable/enable syncing for my offline files, otherwise it doesn't work. I can't remember any time I've been pleasantly surprised by any change to the service.
Amazing Dropbox went from a brilliantly simple service to this stagnating corporate swamp of ooze. Yet another fascinating example of how headcount correlates with quality decline.
swiftcoder 24 minutes ago [-]
I guess teenagers don't have any need to sync files, eh? Hate to see this gradual erosion of internet access for young people - I'd bet half the notable members of this very site started their career trajectory by learning how to break/fix computers in middle school or before
hdgvhicv 39 seconds ago [-]
It’s erosion of closed saas, not the internet. That already broke the hacker environments of yesteryear.
ta988 16 minutes ago [-]
It will simply teach them how to go around those "protections". And put them at risk of using shaddy services to do so. Exactly like what happened with the war on drugs...
d0mine 9 minutes ago [-]
It is not about age. It is just a way to tie accounts to a real life identity.
It won't be surprising if the requirement comes from some alphabet agency.
iLoveOncall 17 minutes ago [-]
This has nothing to do with that. They probably realized that teenagers are a small enough portion of their userbase that the loss of revenue (and probably lack thereof to be fair) is far outweighed by the opportunity to ask users for their ID.
paul7986 9 minutes ago [-]
Hmmmmm today is a very different world compared to when we used the Internet to learn how to code. Now with Ai doing all the coding is learning how to code even happenning anymore?
Also, just talked two friends who work for mid-size companies and last week both of their CEOs told them to just point Ai to their Jira tickets to finish all their tasks. Anyone else hearing their CEOs instruct the same thing?
rlk 52 minutes ago [-]
Looks like the major changes are:
- some stuff about Teams that's mostly only relevant if you're using your work email for a personal account
- minimium age 13 -> 18; add "Dropbox may use and rely on information from third parties, including age signals from app stores, for the purpose of enforcing this restriction."
- free accounts may be terminated after 6 months of no use (previously 12 months)
- removed "If you reside in the EU, the European Commission provides for an online dispute resolution platform, which you can access here: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr." from the dispute resolution process.
LoganDark 24 minutes ago [-]
That last point is funny... so arbitration agreements are designed to make the process intentionally more difficult. Can't provide too many hints!
kristianc 13 minutes ago [-]
Dropbox will be one of the next Bending Spoons acquisitions. Low growth, none of the upsell or product extension things they've done have really worked out, and no-one's idea of what the future looks like.
duttish 12 minutes ago [-]
I've been a happy customer of Tresorit for several years now. Give them a try if you're fed up with Dropbox.
At first I was selective in what folders I synced but after a few months I decided to just sync my entire workspace folder with everything in it.
Incredibly convenient, everything is automatically synced between my desktop and laptop.
If you go this route look into filters, it's not a very advertised feature but works great for excluding build output, venvs and other stuff.
ak39 17 minutes ago [-]
Why hasn't anyone created a windows and mac client that git pushes changes to remote after file activities of local computer, and polls remote repo every 1 minute for changes to pull? I'd gladly pay for that. :-)
haven't used it yet. i either back up my data with restic or sync it to other devices with syncthing, but those are tiny files (keepassxc dbs)
hjkl0 31 minutes ago [-]
What’s a good Dropbox alternative? Especially for Macs. Feels like they spent twenty years just making the Mac client worse.
2 minutes ago [-]
ascorbic 10 minutes ago [-]
I heard you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem
simongray 29 minutes ago [-]
Self-hosted Seafile + Tailscale works great for me.
LeoPanthera 21 minutes ago [-]
iCloud Drive is the obvious choice.
NietTim 21 minutes ago [-]
If you only have ios and mac clients why not icloud?
Lukas_Skywalker 8 minutes ago [-]
If the enshittification continues, it might be time to go back to rsync [0].
I switched to Sync last year. Much cheaper, better quality.
egeozcan 31 minutes ago [-]
I didn't know about Sync. TIL someone had the guts to start a company named "Sync" in 2011.
2b3a51 11 minutes ago [-]
Yes, brave name choice. I went to have a look and the home page is nice, well laid out, and has links to documents. Small free tier to put your feet in the shallow end, and a couple of monthly plans, one aimed at individuals and the other at orgs. Perhaps a family plan would have benefits?
Alas no linux support, not even an api to allow the use of some terminal command to get round GUI fragmentation. Searching for 'sync online storage with linux' leads to a recent redit thread and a Mint Linux forum thread.
xprnio 25 minutes ago [-]
Let that sync in
sorbusherra 11 minutes ago [-]
i'm so happy with syncthing project.
webprofusion 55 minutes ago [-]
Diff or it didn't happen
GuestFAUniverse 51 minutes ago [-]
100%
It's 2026 and they're handling IT like pariahs of the stone age.
Even they grey beards of the 70s would have worked that out easily.
dannyw 48 minutes ago [-]
Oh it's probably intentional. I've seen efforts to simplify terms of service get rejected because "more people might read it if it's shorter".
nixass 53 minutes ago [-]
Well, diff it then?
GuestFAUniverse 49 minutes ago [-]
(I'm a former user of dropbox.)
Good services make change explicit.
Dropbox seems to have degraded into incompetence. Unable to provide good services.
adrithmetiqa 37 minutes ago [-]
Long time Dropbox user here. I would disagree. In my opinion they still have the best file sync platform of the big providers, easily beating onedrive and Google drive for reliability, especially with hundreds of thousands of files.
53 minutes ago [-]
peri-cl 18 minutes ago [-]
curl and ftp never refuse to work, or willfully erase your backup files on their own initiative. Just saying.
23 minutes ago [-]
xtoilette 1 hours ago [-]
TL;DR?
charcircuit 54 minutes ago [-]
- You must be 18+
- You must access Dropbox every 6 months (from 12) if you have a free to ensure they don't delete your account
chrisandchris 54 minutes ago [-]
I did a comparison with an LLM of my choice and there was no meaningful difference (or nothing I would consider HN-worthy).
sph 48 minutes ago [-]
Given the HN-worthy differences posted by others, here’s another example of why it’s not a good idea to delegate your thinking to LLMs.
kenferry 24 minutes ago [-]
I… guess? I'm not sure why this was posted. None of these changes seem important.
There's at least 10 other accounts who do the same
catoc 19 minutes ago [-]
This account has 50 submissions in the last two hours!
[Edit: not the parent; the posting account]
I don’t know why GP’s comment was flagged because submitting at a rate of 25 submissions PER HOUR is not done out of a genuine desire to share something that may be of interest to fellow human beings. Not even for personal bookmarking
baxtr 40 minutes ago [-]
Or: they use it as their personal bookmarking tool
Rendered at 08:09:28 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
1. You must be 18 to use Dropbox. Previously, you had to be 13 if in the United States, or 16 if higher. Dropbox may use information "Dropbox may use and rely on information from third parties, including age signals from app stores, for the purpose of enforcing this restriction."
2. Your account may be terminated if you don't have a Paid account and haven't accessed for 6 months. Previously, it was 12 months.
3. If you have multiple accounts tied to the same email address, and one is banned, the others may also be banned.
4. "Refunds are only issued if required by law." -> "Refunds are only issued in limited circumstances or if required by law."
5. You automatically agree to the new terms if you continue to have an account. Previously, it was only if you continued to use the service.
6. Some terms covering Teams accounts.
I hope file sync is treated as "access", otherwise this would make me anxious.
I would really love to see courts throw this BS out.
It would also potentially invalidate clauses like the one in GPL license too: "this version or any later version" — how can anyone consent to yet-unknown terms?
In this particular case and going after the summary from big85, there's one case of legal compliance (like age restrictions — it applies in appropriate jurisdictions even if the ToS is not updated) or maybe two (banning per-account vs per-owner), some widening of the terms to the benefit of the customer (like refunds being permitted in "special circumstances" on top of "required by law, with only "reductionist" change being about lowering service window for unused free accounts (in some jurisdictions, even this could be about respecting data privacy laws — companies are obligated to remove any data which is not used after a certain time, though I think this is 12 months even under GDPR).
As such, I believe this would not be a good case where you can bring enough light how this type of clause is harming one side to the contract.
Having been a paid user for the last decade my current experience is just getting error messages on my phone every week that something failed to sync, and that I have to re-enter the app every ~month to disable/enable syncing for my offline files, otherwise it doesn't work. I can't remember any time I've been pleasantly surprised by any change to the service.
https://www.diffchecker.com/QD8AKShC/
It won't be surprising if the requirement comes from some alphabet agency.
Also, just talked two friends who work for mid-size companies and last week both of their CEOs told them to just point Ai to their Jira tickets to finish all their tasks. Anyone else hearing their CEOs instruct the same thing?
- some stuff about Teams that's mostly only relevant if you're using your work email for a personal account
- minimium age 13 -> 18; add "Dropbox may use and rely on information from third parties, including age signals from app stores, for the purpose of enforcing this restriction."
- free accounts may be terminated after 6 months of no use (previously 12 months)
- removed "If you reside in the EU, the European Commission provides for an online dispute resolution platform, which you can access here: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr." from the dispute resolution process.
At first I was selective in what folders I synced but after a few months I decided to just sync my entire workspace folder with everything in it.
Incredibly convenient, everything is automatically synced between my desktop and laptop.
If you go this route look into filters, it's not a very advertised feature but works great for excluding build output, venvs and other stuff.
haven't used it yet. i either back up my data with restic or sync it to other devices with syncthing, but those are tiny files (keepassxc dbs)
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
Alas no linux support, not even an api to allow the use of some terminal command to get round GUI fragmentation. Searching for 'sync online storage with linux' leads to a recent redit thread and a Mint Linux forum thread.
It's 2026 and they're handling IT like pariahs of the stone age.
Even they grey beards of the 70s would have worked that out easily.
Good services make change explicit.
Dropbox seems to have degraded into incompetence. Unable to provide good services.
- You must access Dropbox every 6 months (from 12) if you have a free to ensure they don't delete your account
I don’t know why GP’s comment was flagged because submitting at a rate of 25 submissions PER HOUR is not done out of a genuine desire to share something that may be of interest to fellow human beings. Not even for personal bookmarking