Dropbox Retires Sync and Datastore APIs
With the preview of Dropbox API v2 now underway, Dropbox is consolidating its developer platform. As part of that simplification, the Sync and Datastore APIs are being deprecated over the next 12 months. Developers using the Core API—the majority—will see no impact on their apps.
Why the Sync API Is Going Away
The Sync API launched in early 2013 as a mobile-friendly library built on top of the Core API. It aimed to simplify file synchronization with Dropbox, but maintaining two separate mobile SDKs created confusion about which one developers should adopt. Rather than supporting competing file-handling approaches, Dropbox is steering everyone toward the Core API directly.
There was also a maintenance cost. The Sync API’s implementation required trade-offs that made it difficult to satisfy every syncing scenario developers needed. With limited resources, Dropbox prefers to offer the foundational Core API tools and let developers build the sync behavior that fits their use case.
Why the Datastore API Is Going Away
The Datastore API, introduced in mid-2013, was designed for syncing structured, non-file data. It never gained the adoption Dropbox hoped for. Although some developers used it heavily, overall usage remained low.
Because the Datastore API handles a data model distinct from the Core API’s file operations, Dropbox is working with existing Datastore developers individually to migrate them to alternatives. In the meantime, existing Datastore apps keep running, and the data and HTTP endpoints remain available through April 2016.
To aid anyone building sync and conflict-resolution logic, Dropbox has released the JavaScript Datastore SDK as open source on GitHub. Documentation on how the Datastore API approaches conflict handling is also still available in earlier blog posts covering offline conflict basics and collision resolution.
Timeline and Migration Path
New apps should be built on the Core API starting now. For the next six months, Dropbox will apply urgent bug fixes to the Sync and Datastore SDKs but will no longer actively develop them. By October 2015, support for the deprecated SDKs ends entirely.
Since the Sync SDK is layered on the Core API, existing Sync apps will not stop working. Dropbox still recommends moving to the Core SDKs as soon as practical. Datastore API users get a longer runway: HTTP endpoints and stored data stay available until April 2016.
The retirement date for the Datastore API has since been set to April 29th, 2016.
Dropbox frames this as a platform-wide cleanup: one API and one SDK set should make development more coherent. The Core API itself continues to improve, and the upcoming API v2 SDKs—along with guidance for building sync-style applications on top of them—are expected in the coming months.
