Update: Dropbox Dies, Resurrection Complete

Karloff

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Update: Dropbox Dies, Resurrection Complete



A problem with routine maintenance took the filesharer offline.

Filesharing network Dropbox is offline, for reasons unknown, and at present there is no timetable for its resurrection. Dropbox is describing it as a problem with routine maintenance, and has yet to say when the problem will be fixed. At time of writing, the service has been down for about 12 hours.

Early reports that the issue had been caused by hackers appear to have been premature. A group describing itself as AnonOpsKorea claimed that its attack on Dropbox was intended to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111751-Reddit-Insider-Charged-With-MIT-Document-Theft], but Dropbox denies this claim, saying that the problem is internal. Swartz committed suicide after federal charges, including wire fraud and computer fraud, were levied against him in the wake of the M.I.T. hack.

Though AnonOpsKorea went on to post what it claimed was Dropbox user information, Dropbox describes this as a hoax. "This is not Dropbox data," a Dropbox spokesperson told the New York Times [http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/anonymous-member-claims-to-have-hacked-dropbox/?smid=tw-nytimestech&seid=auto&_r=0].

Meanwhile the forums [https://forums.dropbox.com/] over at Dropbox have gone toxic, as users quietly - in some cases not so quietly - freak out over lack of access. Many users rely on Dropbox as a file back-up, but many more use it to transmit large files and documents globally, and pay monthly fees for the privilege. Those people, and businesses, may lose a great deal of money through the unexpected outage; though nobody's filed a lawsuit yet, it would be surprising if someone didn't try.

Speaking as a Dropbox user, as of right now I can access the service on my home machine. That may indicate a successful fix, or it may just mean I got lucky. Dropbox has yet to confirm one way or the other.

Update: The most recent information from Dropbox suggests that this problem may be solved soon.

Dropbox_support tech support blog [https://twitter.com/dropbox_support/status/422411426909540352].

Mobile devices, whether Apple or Android, are still having connectivity issues, and some desktop users report syncing problems. Few users, posting on the Dropbox forum [https://forums.dropbox.com/], seem willing to accept Dropbox's reassurances. This is partly due to a lack of communication from Dropbox; while its support Twitter feed has been active, its Tech blog has been infrequently updated, and neither has said anything more substantial than 'a problem arose during routine maintenance, and we are working to solve it.'

Dropbox denies [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-01/11/dropbox] that the issue was caused by hackers.

Update: This is the most recent information from Dropbox:

"UPDATE 1/12 at 1:59pm PT: Hi everyone, we wanted to give an update on where things stand.

As of this morning at 4:10am PT, nearly all users (over 99%) can access their files on dropbox.com. The Photos tab is still turned off, but you can access your photos via the Files tab on dropbox.com or the desktop client. We're continuing to make a lot of progress restoring full service to all users, and are doing so in careful steps.

About 5% of our users are still experiencing problems syncing from the desktop client, and about 20% of users are having issues accessing Dropbox through our mobile apps. Within a few hours, we'll be rolling out a change that will further improve things for those users. We'll give an update after that.

Your files have been safe this entire time. Thanks again for your patience."

Update: Dropbox is up and running. Some users may still experience a problem with photos, but the vast majority have complete access to their files. A full explanation for the outage can be found on Dropbox's Tech blog [https://tech.dropbox.com/].

"We know you rely on Dropbox to get things done, and we're very sorry for the disruption," says Dropbox's Head of Infrastructure Akhil Gupta.


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Karloff

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Ftaghn To You Too said:
I'm also able to access it. It might have been fixed within the last half-hour or so.
I'm hopeful. But Dropbox has lost the communication battle; it really needed to get on top of this, with updates, rather than just keep its mouth shut and pray nobody'd notice.
 

Longstreet

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Bloody awesome and i hope it stays down for a while.

Don't get me wrong, it sucks for all the people that use it. But last semester a study partner and i were forced to use it, because the rest of our project group was so dropbox horny and basically demanded us to use it because it was so awesome, fail safe, and much better than emailing each other the stuff (which we had been doing for the past 3 years).

Too bad i won't see those people anymore to rub it in.

Edit, i seem to be able to log in. Dammit.
 

Fasckira

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Oct 22, 2009
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Longstreet said:
But last semester a study partner and i were forced to use it, because the rest of our project group was so dropbox horny and basically demanded us to use it because it was so awesome, fail safe, and much better than emailing each other the stuff (which we had been doing for the past 3 years).
What do you prefer to use? Just email? If so you're kind of missing the point in dropbox. To quote Roy from IT Crowd, "Are you from the past?" :p

I use a mix. Skydrive for personal stuff between my phone, PC, laptop and tablet. Dropbox for work stuff between my two work PCs, work laptop and home PC. Its a godsend, and I dont have to faff around sending updated copies of the same file all over the place when I make a change.
 

Longstreet

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Fasckira said:
Longstreet said:
But last semester a study partner and i were forced to use it, because the rest of our project group was so dropbox horny and basically demanded us to use it because it was so awesome, fail safe, and much better than emailing each other the stuff (which we had been doing for the past 3 years).
What do you prefer to use? Just email? If so you're kind of missing the point in dropbox. To quote Roy from IT Crowd, "Are you from the past?" :p

I use a mix. Skydrive for personal stuff between my phone, PC, laptop and tablet. Dropbox for work stuff between my two work PCs, work laptop and home PC. Its a godsend, and I dont have to faff around sending updated copies of the same file all over the place when I make a change.
Either Email or an USB drive. Much easier.

Problem with dropbox, IMO, is that if you work with a group, person A uploads something, person B and C download it. They edit in their own stuff and reupload it with the same title. Something will go wrong somewhere. Just emailing it to the next in line, or emailing one guy that puts the finished document together is much easier.
 

Karloff

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Looks like the problem's ongoing, at least according to Dropbox's Twitter account. Some users have access, some don't.

https://twitter.com/dropbox_support/status/422054651609899008
 

CriticalMiss

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serious biscuit said:
This is why the cloud sucks.
Nooo, the cloud has infinite power! Bow down before the cloud and embrace it's cloudness.

I'm curious to know why Anonymous would say it was their doing (when it wasn't) and calling it revenge, did Dropbox send in a crack squad of technicians to arrest Swartz or is it the usual hack-unrelated-sites-for-justice-somehow sort of thing. I didn't really follow the story so I have no idea if Dropbox are in some way relevant to deserve someone pretending to hack them.
 

Tigurus

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Well, that does suck quite a bit for everyone that can't get it to work.
Glad I use Skydrive though. Then again, same could happen with that I bet.
 

Granfaloon

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Apparently the issue has been resolved, just read an article saying as much.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/01/10/dropbox-down-hacker-group-claims-credit/4426715/
 

Karloff

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According to Dropbox support Twitter, many users are still having access problems, and there seems to be an ongoing issue with synching files for those accounts that do have access. For further information, better follow dropbox_support
 

MetalMagpie

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Granfaloon said:
Apparently the issue has been resolved, just read an article saying as much.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/01/10/dropbox-down-hacker-group-claims-credit/4426715/
It hasn't been resolved for everyone. I still don't have access.

That article was quoting a tweet that turned out to be premature.

chikusho said:
Dropbox has worked perfectly for me for the entire day (in europe).
Well, there goes my theory that it's European users who are still having problems. Maybe there's something they're having to restore on an account-by-account basis.
 

Karloff

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CriticalMiss said:
serious biscuit said:
This is why the cloud sucks.
Nooo, the cloud has infinite power! Bow down before the cloud and embrace it's cloudness.

I'm curious to know why Anonymous would say it was their doing (when it wasn't) and calling it revenge, did Dropbox send in a crack squad of technicians to arrest Swartz or is it the usual hack-unrelated-sites-for-justice-somehow sort of thing. I didn't really follow the story so I have no idea if Dropbox are in some way relevant to deserve someone pretending to hack them.
Looks as if Anon are acting up on the anniversary of Swarz's death. The MIT website was hacked today by Anon, but MIT is a much better target than Dropbox since there is a direct link between MIT and Swartz.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/11/aaron-swartz-death-first-anniversary

I don't think Anon are behind dropbox's troubles. But a bunch of hackers deciding to 'honor' Swartz by lashing out at a globally known target? Seems plausible, if nothing else.

According to dropbox support, the issue isn't resolved yet.
 

Hairless Mammoth

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Remember, people, make back ups of back ups of your first back up. Your flash/hard drives could go missing in the mail or on your trip and email or these cloud servers could go down. Relying on just one thing is foolish. I've got at least two external hard drives plus my laptop backing up my all my games and music. Even those could go up in smoke if plugged them all in while Thor and Zeus arm wrestle above my house.
 

Cookiegerard

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Well, one of the first thing you learn as an IT student is to have several backups for everything, so I'm not really devastated if my files vanish into the Warp, I only used it because people I was doing a project with pretty much demanded we use it, so all I have on there is a pile of files for a mobile app project that we already handed up and were graded on (78%! Pretty damn good considering we couldn't get a section of it to work properly).