How to enable team access to Dropbox for macOS on File Provider

Updated Jan 31, 2025

The information in this article applies to admins on Dropbox Standard, Business, Advanced, Business Plus, and Enterprise.

Dropbox is continuing to expand the rollout of full support for macOS 12.5 and later. Dropbox for macOS on File Provider is our latest update that utilizes Apple’s updated File Provider API and fixes issues related to opening online-only files in third-party applications for users on macOS 12.5 or higher. This updated experience is more integrated with macOS and comes with some changes that are consistent with macOS requirements.

How to update to Dropbox for macOS on File Provider

Once your team is ready to update Dropbox for macOS on File Provider, you can enable it for all team members through your admin console settings. To do so:

Log in to dropbox.com using your admin credentials.
Click Admin console.
Click Settings.
Under Content, click Sync.
Toggle Updates for Dropbox for macOS on File Provider to On.
- Keeping or switching the toggle to Off will stop migration eligibility notifications. It won’t stop in-progress migrations or revert the Dropbox desktop app back to the previous version.

After the update is complete, team members will receive a notification stating “Dropbox for macOS on File Provider is now ready” in Dropbox on the menu bar.

Notes:

Your device must be running macOS 12.5 or later to use Dropbox for macOS on File Provider. However, using macOS 13+ is strongly recommended.
It can take up to 90 minutes for team members to begin seeing this notification. To update, team members must click Get started in the Dropbox desktop app and follow the prompts on each device they’d like to update.
- Restarting your Dropbox app may cut down the wait time for receiving this notification.
Depending on the number of files, this initial update can take a significant amount of time.
Most accounts have received an email from Dropbox with instructions to enable the migration. Teams with complex configurations won’t be migrated at this time and will continue on their existing Dropbox experience. Teams interested in updating to the File Provider experience can reach out to their sales representatives.