Dropbox 1.6.0
While apps like Google Chrome and CrashPlan seem to have no trouble updating themselves automatically, Dropbox continues to stumble in that area. If your copy, like ours, hasn’t updated (hover over the Dropbox icon in the menu to see the version in a tooltip), you might want to download Dropbox 1.6.0, which promises faster startup times for users with lots of files, improved overall performance, and improved Web login from the Dropbox client app. The update also features new icons that will look good on Retina displays, a new installer that doesn’t require that you quit the older version first, and translations for Italian and Iberian Spanish. Or just wait — Dropbox might update itself
eventually. (Free, 23.1 MB, release notes)
And it's already out of date. 1.6.2 is now available as of a few minutes ago. See https://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=93351 for more information.
Note that the post says, "Since it's a Holiday here in the US and we're all gonna be eating Turkey for the next couple of days we will not be auto-updating or posting this to the front page until after we get back. But if you're having any kind of problems with 1.6.0 this is the build for you."
Oh, that's maddening...
Even though their page says "Download 1.6.0 for Mac", what I get (and keep getting) is still 1.4.20
Weird - perhaps they had problems with 1.6.0 and pulled it from the main page until they could get 1.6.2 up. I'll revisit this after the holiday.
1.4.x are stable and 1.6.x are beta, so 1.4.x on the main page is to be expected, as are rapid releases of 1.6.x
Dropbox is advertising 1.6.2 on the main page, and everyone other than Roger seems to be getting that version. There is certainly a point during which the Dropbox builds are not stable, and they're not updating the main page, but that time seems to have passed for 1.6.x.
Very stealthy installer! I opened it on my Mac Book Pro, got the usual "app from the web" warning, then got distracted. When I went back to it, it had already finished and dismounted itself, Dropbox was running and said it was 1.6.0. In this time of automatic background upgrades I guess that's OK, but I actually prefer a little more feedback when I'm installing something.
Yes, all that's necessary is that double-click - nothing more. I didn't really mind, since I would have preferred that it update itself, but I can see where it would be surprising.
I STILL keep getting 1.4.20, even though the link on their landing page says "Download 1.6.2"!
What happens if you download from this page, Roger? It seems to point straight to 1.6.2. Also, what version of Mac OS X are you running? Perhaps Dropbox is restricting you to 1.4.20 because you're on an older version of the OS?
https://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=93351
I'm on 10.8.2. The button on the download page says 1.6.2, but the link goes to 1.4.20. I stumbled upon that link in teh forums, too, so thats how I finally got the current version.
That's just freaky. I can't think of an explanation, other than there's someone at Dropbox who is playing a tremendously involved practical joke on you. :)
I found this in the Dropbox Help Centre: "If you want to have the latest stable version of Dropbox, you don't have to do anything! Dropbox will silently update itself in the background.......If you don't have the latest version yet, don't worry! Auto-upgrades are rolled out over the course of several weeks after a new update is available. We're very conservative about auto-updating. We never want to risk breaking a working version of Dropbox."
Yes, but the simple fact of the matter is that we've found versions of Dropbox that are months out of date on our own machines. If the auto-update was reliable, then people wouldn't constantly end up with difference versions (for instance, Roger above has 1.4.20 whereas our Macs are running 1.4.12 for the most part).
I personally think Dropbox should just enable manual upgrades from within the client app - that way those who want the fixes can get them without having to hunt through random blog posts on the Dropbox site or wonder why they don't have the same version as Dropbox is distributing on its main page.
Thanks for your comment!
It worked for me.