How Dropbox Hacks Your Mac

It looks like in 10.12 Apple has added TCC.db to SIP, so this will no longer work — Dropbox will, hopefully, actually be forced to request accessibility access like they're supposed to. I'm sure they'll still demand your admin password via a dialog that tries super hard to look like a system one to use for whatever other more or less nefarious purposes. Would be nice if there was an alternative that actually syncs as reliably and performantly, but in my testing that's very much not the case.

I appreciate the trend of Apple forcing Dropbox to stop doing dumb shit, though. (Previously, of course, the SIMBL-style Finder hacking)

I use owncloud (and then dropbox inside it so some files are double backed up). I find it to be just fine. Have you had any problems with it?

Yes, last time I tried it, had a variety of conflict issues plus the client had some problems, performance and otherwise. If you're just using it as a backup solution (does it even keep file history?) from a single machine + mobile/web access, it may well work acceptably.

We use OneDrive at work and it works pretty much exactly as well as I recall Dropbox working back when I used it.

When I last tried it the performance was abysmal, almost as bad as Google Drive. Also, no Linux client. I didn't use it enough to know if it has the same conflict issues as many of the other ones I tried — Microsoft may well have managed to get that right.

There is an open onedrive client that works great.

That last comment is ironic, given that Dropbox would literally not exist today without the runtime patching of the Finder.

There was no other way to do what they did. The only reason Apple added API was because Dropbox came up with an idea that demonstrated the need for such an API to exist.

Their only feature which necessitated that, as far as I know, was the sync status badge display which is hardly necessary to the product.

Being curious. What is "a variety of conflict issues"? Also could you perhaps expand on "the client had some problems"? Which client? I know an official Windows client exists as well as an Android client (this latter I use), but all communications are via HTTP (DAV for file transfers / calendar / etc. & REST for admin stuff), which means that a specific client is not necessary.

Personally, I use KDE's file manager (Dolphin). Plus a curl-cased Bash script for when I need to upload an arbitrary file from one of my home computers via my phone (SSH from phone to computer, sometimes over sat link, run "~/bin/upload.sh /some/file").

I manage my own ownCloud servers (one personal, one company), but hosted options are available.

And yes, it does keep file history (optional, enabled by default), as well as encrypted storage (optional, disabled by default).

Neither the client, nor the server even, require any administrative access.

I honestly am not sure, it was quite some time ago. I recall being quite unhappy with something about how it handled a sync conflict but I'm not sure of the specifics.

Seamless "filesystem integration" -- which includes the Finder badging -- was central to what made Dropbox a novel product.

It's also a very useful feature that served people well.

Their filesystem integration would have been just as seamless without the badging. I admit the badging is a useful feature, and certainly made Dropbox better but by no means is it core to the product.

I had couple conflicts in the few years Ive used it, but they were few and were actual conflicts (a file on a client was updated at the same time the server copy was updated). It does keep a limited file history. I'm not really using it for file history so I'm not sure exactly what the rules are for retaining old versions.

You're talking past each other — other, more fundamental features used to require hacking OS X. See for instance https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12467149. IIRC ArsTechnica wrote at some point that monkey-patching Mac OS/Mac OS X was standard on the platform.