Dropbox Smart Sync

[ckeats]

Dropbox now offers a smart sync options for the files. Has anyone found a script that will force everyone to use smart sync for all new or existing file structures?

[robby_c137]

Would love to figure this out as well as how to install Dropbox with admin privileges required so that SmartSync works and the Finder extension is enabled.

[cindy_jimenez]

We are also looking for this solution. Has anyone had any luck with this or reached to the vendor for assitance?

[robby_c137]

I haven't pushed past tier 1 and they don't understand the problem; that is of deploying over mdm or remote and loading/approving the system extension and Finder Extension in HS. They don't offer phone support but I may go through our enterprise channel if I pick this up again.

I had created a PKG that deployed Dropbox.app to /Applications and Dropbox.kext to /Library/Extensions and then ran kextload on it. But with my limited skills I wasn't able to confirm that it was a complete and safe way to do it. This was on 10.13.3 or earlier. Very few people have reported filling up their drives since so SmartSync is probably working. 😶

[cindy_jimenez]

Thanks I will look into that. I took a look on Dropbox's community but no one seems to be asking the question. Will see if anyone answers my post.

[ctw]

I would like to know if anybody has ever made progress with this. I currently have a script that downloads and installs the newest version, but Smart Sync will not be enabled even with admin rights. Also I cannot access my files when trying to open them on the web I get a "You don't have permission to access this page" but I still see my files.

Here is my current script:

#!/bin/sh

curl -O https://clientupdates.dropboxstatic.com/dbx-releng/client/Dropbox%2087.4.138.dmg

hdiutil attach Dropbox%2087.4.138.dmg

sudo /Volumes/Dropbox Offline Installer/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox

hdiutil detach /Volumes/Dropbox Offline Installer

rm -rf Dropbox%2087.4.138.dmg

exit 0

[pbileci]

Any updates on this? I currently have a user who needs Smart Sync but I can't figure out how to enable it. There must be a Config Profile setting you can push? When we deployed Sophos, I had to push a fairly complex profile to get all of the extensions to work but Sophos walked me through it.

[scentsy]

From documentation and testing (Dropbox Basic), "Smart Sync" is enabled/disabled via Dropbox.com user/account settings (https://www.dropbox.com/account/general):

Additionally, they've provided some online documentation for enabling Smart Sync in a per-user/self-service fashion: great for those few Dropbox end-users with storage/bandwidth concerns...abysmal for all MDM administrators with compliance/configuration concerns :/

[juttmartin]

After Dropbox installs and you tell it to use SmarSync, Dropbox will then try to modify files in the Public Library directory. The file specifically is the DropboxHelperInstaller. This action requires admin access as the user fails if they are the standard user. I actually used Composer for once to capture the changes. I'd have to pull up my work to see if there was anything else. I brought this up to Dropbox and how I find it odd that they designed the application to not run as a system service to get around this based on the initial install. Their response was they assume everyone is admins. I was even shocked that they have no managed preferences to force SSO only for specific domains. They just gave an awkward silence and said they have to look into this.