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"Dropbox needs to change permissions" message on startup
Lately, every time I start my Mac (OS 10.14.6) I get a message that reads (in full):
"Dropbox needs to change permissions for the Folder: /Users/[name]/Dropbox
Enter your password to allow this"...
Hi Rachel R.2,
Can you try following commands in terminal:
sudo chflags -R noschg "/Users/$USER/Dropbox" sudo chflags -R nouchg "/Users/$USER/Dropbox" sudo chown -R "$USER" "/Users/$USER/Dropbox" chmod -R u+rw "/Users/$USER/Dropbox"
Will be asked for your password (sudo).
Hope this helps. :wink:
Line by line. Every line is one command.
Done--and thank you! I restarted, and it didn't ask for my password, so hopefully the problem is now solved.
I am having the same issue, but unrelated to restarts. About every week, Dropbox presents the message like in Rachel's screenshot, and starts synching 15K+ files, even though none of them changed. It takes several days and completely kills my buttery.
I have run the following command and do not have any hyperlinks:
find "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)" -type l -exec ls -lah {} \;
I've also applied the instructions above. Any other ideas?
Thanks,
Julia
mjulia wrote:...
I've also applied the instructions above. Any other ideas?
...
Hi mjulia,Is everything above passed without errors? Did you change the paths? In your case they are little bit different - the folder name differs!
Can you pass exact result in the terminal after execution (in a code block </>) - together commands and the returns, if any?
Yes, I did change the paths.
[~/Documents/D/GitRepositories/www]> sudo chflags -R noschg "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)"
Password:
[~/Documents/D/GitRepositories/www]> sudo chflags -R nouchg "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)"
[~/Documents/D/GitRepositories/www]> sudo chown -R "$USER" "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)"
[~/Documents/D/GitRepositories/www]> chmod -R u+rw "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)"
[~/Documents/D/GitRepositories/www]> ls -al /Users/mjulia/Dropbox\ \(Personal\)/
total 2784
drwx------@ 17 mjulia staff 544 5 Dec 00:11 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 70 mjulia staff 2240 3 Jan 09:50 ..(the rest of the directories are omitted)
Your subscription is a Business one! Did you try the same commands for the Business folder too, not only to the private one? :thinking: The issue could comes from there.
I believe that my Busness subscription is no longer active. Or at least I do not have that folder on my computer any more. After further inspection, I do have another Dropbox folder that is linked to that one. Maybe that causes some issues?
[~]> ls -al Dropbox*
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 mjulia staff 32 19 Feb 2016 Dropbox -> /Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)Dropbox (Personal):
total 2784
drwx------@ 17 mjulia staff 544 5 Dec 00:11 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 70 mjulia staff 2240 3 Jan 09:50 ..What's the result from:
cat ~/.dropbox/info.json; echo
:thinking:
{"personal": {"path": "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)", "host": 48016340672, "is_team": false, "subscription_type": "Pro"}}
Hmm... interesting...
Let's try different possibilities. First, if and what kind of links you have inside Dropbox:
ls -alRP "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)" | grep " -> "
If there is some result, pointing path have to be inside your Dropbox folder, otherwise could be the problem. Next, to remove potentially quarantine for part(s), try following:
xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)"
Hope some of the above commands will solve the issue.
No links..
[~]> ls -alRP "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)" | grep " -> "
[~]> xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine "/Users/mjulia/Dropbox (Personal)"- I'm up to here, haven't more suggestions, currently. Let's hope someone else will give some additional possibilities, which work better for you.
- Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi mjulia; I hope this finds you well!
As you haven't had any success on this so far, at this point, I'd suggest a clean, advanced re-install.
Give this a go when you get the chance and let us know how it goes!
Здравко: We haven't talked for a while now; happy new Year and thanks for your active contributions on our Community - we all appreciate your efforts!
I tried these too.
I am dragging the folder name from Finder into Dropbox to avoid typos. But its is the standatd location, anyhow.
Glad that this is a fix.
Does anyone know WHY it requires a permission change? This certainly shouldn't be a recurring issue.
I'm having the same problem. Every time at boot up. Hopefully someone will find the solution.
