Dropbox has decided to push out a new version of their application/client, and instead of continuing to do what made them famous - smoothly stay out of the way while reliably syncing a local folder to the cloud and other computers, so that you don't have to think about it - they decided they wanted to get more in your face.
More interesting though is the major oversight in even promulgating information on the changes to tech support, or the fact that apparently, a significant number of people at Dropbox tech support don't even know how Dropbox worked by default for years, until a couple months ago.
Dropbox does keep syncing in the background after you quit the new file manager, and the useful Menu Bar icon will still be there. But you have to do this every time you restart your Mac, or every time Dropbox restarts. No matter what settings you choose, the new file browser and corresponding Dock open every time Dropbox starts. I suspect many people will just leave it in the Dock because they may not realize that Dropbox will continue running normally even if you "quit" the file browser.
So what does this have to do with Dropbox support employees? Well, it turns out they don't know that it's possible for Mac applications to run without a Dock icon even though that's exactly how Dropbox worked for a decade. And they've been giving bad advice to users who want to change back to the old way of doing things.
Because multiple Dropbox employees are making this mistake, I assume this is a failure at a higher level. Dropbox made a major change to how its Mac application works, but it doesn't seem to have fully explained that change to its support reps. You'd think Dropbox would make sure its support reps have a baseline understanding of how its Mac app works and how the Mac Dock works before they have to respond to Mac users, but that hasn't been the case.
One would think that a company which once pulled off a moderately brilliant and non-trivial technical feat would be a little better about keeping their tech support people properly informed.
