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Linux - Unable to change Dropbox directory
I'm using Fedora Workstation 25 with GNOME.
Trying to change the Dropbox directory results in the utterly useless message "Unexpected errors occurred. Your Dropbox is ok!".
Steps to recre...
I was having this same issue. I found a fix in creating a Dropbox folder in my home directory prior to connecting my account. This caused the installer to throw an error about a Dropbox folder already existing that prompted me to either delete the Dropbox folder or select a different location. Eureka! (for me at least...)
Guys solved, and the solution was the easiest and logic.
I expose my situation:
sda1 300GB --> /
sda5 8TB --> /home
As I explained, I wanted to install Dropbox below /home directory, but playing as "root" user, by default, it forced the installation on /root
So I just installed the daemon using the user who owns the home directory I want and it works properly, just remember to add the "user" to the root group.
If you need more details, don't hesitate to ask.
wrote:I was having this same issue. I found a fix in creating a Dropbox folder in my home directory prior to connecting my account. This caused the installer to throw an error about a Dropbox folder already existing that prompted me to either delete the Dropbox folder or select a different location. Eureka! (for me at least...)
This didn't work for me, but I did find a similar solution! I created a "work" dropbox account and set up a fresh installation of dropbox with that account, which places the "work" Dropbox folder in the defaut ~/Dropbox. I then deleted everything in ~/.dropbox* (with rm -rf ~/.dropbox* ), reinstalled dropbox and set it up using my personal account. Now since the folder in ~/Dropbox already contains the dropbox for the work account, I got the prompt that allowed me to either delete the Dropbox folder or select a different location for my personal account. Somehow this worked when simply moving the folder within dropbox wouldn't... I hope this helps somebody! (using Fedora 27 btw)
Jane
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey tuannv0708,
Thanks for your swift reply!
Would you mind sending in some more details on the matter, such as your device configuration (for instance, are you trying to move the Dropbox folder on an NTFS, HFS, ext4 drive?).
Also, are you receiving any error messages? I'd be glad to follow-up if you give me some more information on what you're experiencing.
Looking forward to hearing back from you,
JaneA
I have tried this on both NTFS and ext4 and still have issues. This is a clean OS install, other than the NVIDIA drivers that are installed beforehand.
-Installed 64bit Fedora 25 workstation
-Installed 64bit dropbox via https://www.dropbox.com/install-linux
-Formatted secondary drive (NTFS + ext4), and setup auto mount on fstab
-Opened up all permissions and using chown doesn't seem to make a difference since root is always mounting the drive
-When first opening Dropbox, I go to move the location and it returns "Unexpected errors occured. Your Dropbox is ok!"
One thing I would like to add is that about 6 months ago when I did this exact same process... I didn't have problems and didnt even need to change the permissions. Please help
-Formatted secondary drive (NTFS + ext4), and setup auto mount on fstab
That doesn't make sense. Do you mean you set up the secondary drive with two partitions and formatted one NTFS and one ext4? Then you tried to move the Dropbox directory to the NTFS partition?
Please helpC'mon, look at this thread, you may as well write "please help" on a piece of paper, stick it in a bottle and chuck it in the sea.
The only solution to this issue is someone at Dropbox figuring it out where the issue is in the client code and fixing it. All we can do is wait for that to happen.
The support ticket I have open has now been passed to the engineering team. Hopefully one of them will come up with a fix to incorporate in to a client update.
It could be that they issue you're encountering isn't even the same error I am. We're both trying to move the Dropbox directory and we both get the same error message, but it's obviously a generic catch all message that could be displayed in who knows how many circumstances.
I went through the entire process twice. Tried it with ext4 first...then I tried NTFS and same results... as I mentioned in the very first sentence.
I really doubt this issue is beyond Dropbox. I have been able to replicate the exact same error over multiple installations with different medias... I have tried both Fedora 25 + 26 (seperately!!! for those who cant read) and have just gone to a completely different OS to resolve the issue. I did see some people mentioning Arch had similar problems and error codes.
tharris104 wrote:
I really doubt this issue is beyond Dropbox.
I doubt it's beyond Dropbox, but all the evidence suggests it is very much beyond the support staff who post here, hence my comment about "please help". Seriously, the first reply I got in this thread wasn't even for the right operating system. And look at the "sudo chmod" advice - does that seem like it's written by someone who's used Linux for longer than it took to write that bit of the FAQ? I'm sure the support staff who post here help lots of people, but based on this thread so far it really doesn't seem like they're equiped to provide a solution for a generic error message appearing when a specific operation is attempted with the Linux client on some distros.
Even after raising a support ticket I was given the "sudo chmod" advice again. And then after providing details of a load of tests I'd done on different versions of Fedora, with and without LVM and LUKS, and providing strace output, I was told "sudo chmod" etc. Only after I expressed disatisfaction with that, again, was I told the ticket has been referred to engineering.
If you raise your own support ticket at https://www.dropbox.com/support then, maybe after you've explained to them N times that "sudo chmod" doesn't help, that might get referred to engineering. Maybe more support tickets will mean engineering give greater priority to finding a solution.
100% match to my issue, Usng Fedora 26 - Followed all the permisson changes in this thread. However I can move the "~/Dropbox" directory in to a "~/subfolder?Dropbox" sync works. Unable to move Dropbox folder to another partion on same SSD or any HDD Drive. (internal or external).. Would you recommned I open a new ticket to raise the awareness to support?
pix365 wrote:
100% match to my issue, Usng Fedora 26 - Followed all the permisson changes in this thread. However I can move the "~/Dropbox" directory in to a "~/subfolder?Dropbox" sync works. Unable to move Dropbox folder to another partion on same SSD or any HDD Drive. (internal or external).. Would you recommned I open a new ticket to raise the awareness to support?
Yep, sounds like same issue I encoutered. Dropbox support told me earlier today that engineering are "not actively working on a solution for this problem". Which is disapointingbut not particularly surprising given the obscureness of the issue and the number of people who'd be affected by it.Someone else raising a ticket may make them more inclined to look at the issue. Tell them you think you're encounting the same issue as ticket 6168712.
It'd be interesting to know if the issue occurs on any distro other than Fedora. I can't replicate it on openSUSE. I've not tried any other distros. I've not yet had time/inclination to try other distros.
Mike, I moved off Linuxmint 18.2 why? After the lastest upgrade I cannot fix low audio and distortion issues.
So in my efforts to track down the root cause over the past two weeks l've tried various flavours of Ununtu based distros, 16.04.04 & 17.04. this audio issue is common to all with kernel 4.6.xx. Back to your Dropbox question, in these distro tests (a real machine not inside a VM) the Dropbox app allowed me use any folder on my HDD (I'm adding +30GB of images per week to Dropbox, so I know for sure they worked.
As a workaround I'll try to setup LM 17.3 on a Virtualbox, I can sync up Dropbox to shared directory, thats is if i can fool the app to use it as drive and not a network share.
Hi Mike new ticket raised. F YI : https://dropbox.zendesk.com/hc/fr/requests/6332540. let's hope this moves this issue up the food chain. .
I have a virtualbox running WIN7 , witha shared folder, sync is working.. Minor provlem of with file conflicts - but hey, I'll just wait until the sync is 100% and then sort the file duplications.
Same problem... A possible workarround is to do it by a simlink :
- dropbox stop
- mv <old_path>/Dropbox <new_path>/Dropbox
- ln -s <new_path>/Dropbox <old_path>/Dropbox
- dropbox start
- Good idea LeviEE. I'll try soon.
Thanks. I'd already attempted this, both as a user & root
tried chmod 1777, to remove any risk of permissions restrictions.
Created new Group "dropbox" added root, sudo and users to group. linked
Created firewall rules,
Disabled the firewall.. +cold booted
Removed user install and reInstalled Dropbox as "Root" and even as root I cannot move Dbox folder to HDD
sadly nothing has worked : erm... YET...
pix365 wrote:
I'd already attempted this, both as a user & root
tried chmod 1777, to remove any risk of permissions restrictions.
Created new Group "dropbox" added root, sudo and users to group. linked
Created firewall rules,
Disabled the firewall.. +cold booted
chmod 1777 on what? 1777 on a directory means that any user can write to it but they can only delete things in it which they own. If you want to eliminate permissions as a problem it's not the most useful thing to set.
You may as well grab a couple fists full of straws as mess with the firewall and "Created firewall rules" doesn't convey anything of value about what you actually did.l
But whatever, it's clearly a bug in the Dropbox client.
Sadly the ticket I had open about this issue was closed by Drobox support without informing me or fixing the issue. I only found it it had been closed because I received a " tell us how we did" email, thought that was odd and then checked the status for the ticket. (The " tell us how we did" email didn't say that it was being sent as a result of ticket being closed, or mention a ticket number or anything useful like that.)
my attempt at isolating the issue has clearly upset you. Sorry.
Yes - one could say my attemps are clutching at straws, But any diag - even a faiure is better than doing nothing. The Dropbox folder is created yet fails to use it.. so i'm thinking why? what could prevent it. and without the ability to read the log files = my straws
it could have been the firewall rules. but i wasn't.
It could have been file (user and or group)permissons, but i isn't.
What directory do your think i'm attempting the chmod on? It's the new Dropbox folder on the other HDD. (why change anything else)
I am not recommending folks do this chmod to their files sytem, as your 100% right it is a dangerous chmod, it was a simple diagnostic step that failed to make any difference.
Well, I seem to have a similar setup to "mike", and the same problem. I have just submitted a new support ticket (I think).
- Mark
Super User II
mike _. wrote:Sadly the ticket I had open about this issue was closed by Drobox support without informing me or fixing the issue. I only found it it had been closed because I received a " tell us how we did" email, thought that was odd and then checked the status for the ticket. (The " tell us how we did" email didn't say that it was being sent as a result of ticket being closed, or mention a ticket number or anything useful like that.)Hi mike _., thats not helpful at all..... sorry.
I dont work for Dropbox, but, if you can get me a ticket number I'll see if I can escalate it for you.
The previous ticket number (issued by "mike") is 6168712. He wrote that earlier in the thread.
My ticket number is 6702220.
I finally tracked down the access issues. Even though I had chosen "NOT" to install fedora 26 in LVM mode it did just that. Soon as realised my HDD was not part of the LV enviroment - Partioned a spare 2TB USB HDD into 2x1TB partions added 1xITB into the LV, Home then had +1TB of free space. .. ( Informed dropbox support of my testing and final solution, their reply was not a thank you, but a warning not to use a USB drive.... humm ) FYI, using a partition on an internal sata drive without any issues.
- Jane
- I ran into the same issue as everyone but I was able to find a fix. I had a folder shared to me in Dropbox that I was only given read access to. Once I used selective sync to uncheck this folder I was able to move to an external USB then just went back in and checked that one folder again. You can see in the selective sync window a different icon on the folder if you don't have the proper permissions to it.
I was having this same issue. I found a fix in creating a Dropbox folder in my home directory prior to connecting my account. This caused the installer to throw an error about a Dropbox folder already existing that prompted me to either delete the Dropbox folder or select a different location. Eureka! (for me at least...)
That's the same workaround we had to implement at my job, where I help support many Linux users on a network file system. So far it's worked for everyone who has tried it.
wait please:D explain it better, every step!!
wrote:I was having this same issue. I found a fix in creating a Dropbox folder in my home directory prior to connecting my account. This caused the installer to throw an error about a Dropbox folder already existing that prompted me to either delete the Dropbox folder or select a different location. Eureka! (for me at least...)
This didn't work for me, but I did find a similar solution! I created a "work" dropbox account and set up a fresh installation of dropbox with that account, which places the "work" Dropbox folder in the defaut ~/Dropbox. I then deleted everything in ~/.dropbox* (with rm -rf ~/.dropbox* ), reinstalled dropbox and set it up using my personal account. Now since the folder in ~/Dropbox already contains the dropbox for the work account, I got the prompt that allowed me to either delete the Dropbox folder or select a different location for my personal account. Somehow this worked when simply moving the folder within dropbox wouldn't... I hope this helps somebody! (using Fedora 27 btw)
I have this same problem on my F27. It's stupid but
Wow, thanks a lot for this, turtlejuice! For years I've been trying to make it work!
Just to add a line between the steps:
"uninstall the fake/bogus/dummy 'work' account Dropbox client"
and
"install the Dropbox client again linking to your original account that you wanted to move folder",
Use this command to uninstall the Dropbox client linked to your bogus account:sudo apt-get remove dropbox; rm -rvf ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-dist
(use this also at the beginning of the process to uninstall your current Dropbox client linked to original account)
btw, I am on Fedora 25.
