Dropbox is compatible with Ext4 but doesn't recognize ext4 drive?

[Axiom2018]

So, like most Linux users, I've gotten the message about needing to upgrade to an ext4 drive. I had an extra drive in my machine with nothing on it so I formatted it to ext4. I rebooted then went into my prefs to change location and it tells me:

To sync your Dropbox, move your Dropbox folder to a partition with a compatible File System. Dropbox is compatible with Ext4.

So, when is an ext4 drive not an ext4 drive?

I'm using v55.4.171

[jameso]

I'm in the same boat. After getting an email about my Linux server running 18.04 needed to be on ext4, I moved files all around and had to format my large drive that was still on ext3. After going to all of the trouble, it didn't like the partion, complaining that it still wasn't ext4. My fstab looks fine, so I think they have a bug.

UUID=blahblah /media/HD_1500_SAMSUNG ext4 rw,user,exec,auto,user_xattr 0 0

I'm using Dropbox v60.4.107. I had to put the Dropbox folder up one level (/media/HD_1500_SAMSUNG/DropboxContainer/Dropbox). Thank you AminSadeghi, your suggestion worked.

For a paying customer ($99) a year, I would think my setup is a common one. I have an SSD as the OS disk and spinners for my large storage disks. My Dropbox 1T account is on my spinners since it can take up that much space. I can see how they can't support all of these file systems, but they need to fix the only one they now support.

[l0ngman]

Weird thing happend to me, which meant I was able to resolve this issue,
On 3 linux machines (2x Ubuntu 1x Ubuntu-Mate VM) all had this issue,
I thought ok well lets create a new partition for dropbox anyway.

When I used GParted and created a small partition of Ext4 if fixed the original
problem of dropbox not recognising my original partition as a valid file type.
After the repartition upon reboot into Linux dropbox started working again.
It must be something to do with a Ubuntu install not setting something quite
properly that then dropbox reads as not geninue. GParted seemed to fix it.

Now I have a spare partition on every machine I don't need 😕
Anyway it was good to get it fixed.

[pwang]

Your workaround works for me with Ubuntu 18.04 fresh install

[l0ngman]

@pwang
What ... you needed to do the Gparted fiddle after your Ubuntu 18.04 install too ?

[l0ngman]

Reading updates on other posts, Dropbox users say it may have updated recently and started working again that way. So I'm still not 100% if it was what I did with Gparted or an update.
Good that it is working though on 3 of my Ubuntu machines.
Maybe I will do a test VM in the future with a fresh install and see when it works.

[AminSadeghi]

I think you're mistaken. When you create a new partition with gparted, it automatically mounts in /media/username/new-drive-label, hence three levels down the root. The problem is when you try to mount your new drive fewer than 3 levels down the root, ex. /media/new-drive-label.

So, I guess as it stands, the problem is not resolved yet.

[michelfeu]

This solution did the trick for me, too. Thanks @AminSadeghi 

[l0ngman]

Ah in the last 2 days the problem has magically returned again, after working with no problem for a month (it happened at the same time on 2 machines).

No idea what has changed. I presume it is a remotely activiated restriction. I'm sure I've not changed anything, after my gparted fiddle a month ago (posted earlier 11-13-2018 12:17 AM which fixed the problem on all 3 of my linux machines I use).

[l0ngman]

@michelfeu Just to clarify, what solution did you try, there have been a couple mentioned, one of which (mine) stopped working, I was a bit confused by the 3-steps from root solution, like it wasn't clear if that was fixable by us somehow, but you mentioned something worked ?

[michelfeu]

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@l0ngman wrote:

@michelfeu Just to clarify, what solution did you try, there have been a couple mentioned, one of which (mine) stopped working, I was a bit confused by the 3-steps from root solution, like it wasn't clear if that was fixable by us somehow, but you mentioned something worked ?

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Hi, I created another director in /media/DropboxContainer, changed the permissions to user level (via chown) and redirected the Dropbox file to this location through the Dropbox menu. The program accepted it.