Moving Dropbox folder from ~/Library/CloudStorage

[mrforged]

What is the reason for not allowing me to specify where I want to save my Dropbox files in Ventura?  I don't have enough space in my system drive to keep a copy of my Dropbox files.  And yes, I need a local copy at all times.  I tried replacing the folder with a symlink pointing to an external drive but that does not work.  Dropbox just refuses to load and these are the last lines of the log file:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 5055, in _setup_root_for_account
File "dropbox/sync_root/helpers.pyc", line 164, in create_root_for_account
File "dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.pyc", line 853, in result
File "dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.pyc", line 121, in set_result_or_convert_exception
dropbox.mac.internal.MacError: [Errno 62] Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=62 "Too many levels of symbolic links"

It looks like 1 level of symbolic links is one level too many. 

A search for Venture did not yield any results I found relevant.  I need to know how to relocate the Dropbox folder.  If I cannot relocate the folder, Dropbox loses its utility and that only means I will have to look for alternatives.  I really hope I don't need to do that.

[Jeff6]

This so sucks! Does this change gives users more convenience or brings more trouble? For sure, it's the latter. I know it's MacOS's policy. This shows Apple is now away from what users really need and away from the spirit of Jobs. 

[rng2023]

It may be convenient in the sense that it's probably a bit faster for transferring files than it would be to an external but it's IMO it's massively more inconvenient for a number of reasons, such as smaller disk space and not being able to take the files with you on an external. I used to be able to use Dropbox on an external, have everything synced to that, and then I could plug it into my laptop which also looked for Dropbox on the external and everything would be in SYNC because the once true source is the external drive. I can't do that now. The only way to really do that would be if I used something like CCC (carbon copy cloner) to make daily sync backups to an external to keep the Dropbox folder and external drive in sync. 

[iainthorp]

This worked for me after months of nothing working. Thank you so much! 

[DenisInternet]

Hello,

I use TrueNAS to work with my data locally (fiber network for color grading). Occasionally I use dropbox to share project files/media/assets with clients. With the. latest version of MacOS it seems now I can't change the storage path, and also dropbox doesn't support the ZFS file system. 

Anyone have a workaround for this? If I can't use these two features, I might as well just use something else like WeTransfer or Nextcloud. Any pointers/work arounds/alternatives are really appreciated. Payed 200 bucks earlier this year, and it was running fine on an old Mac system.

[Calvin2DBX]

Hi @DenisInternet,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community!

I moved your post to this thread as you have a similar question about changing the storage path.

Keep me posted on what you find!

[mkaufman]

This happened a year ago. Why wouldn't Dropbox email its users to tell them this news? I found out by noticing recently that my main internal drive had 3g of 500 gigs left because Dropbox had reinstalled itself on the local drive and I had two versions running for months. Now I've paid for something useless because the main reason I use it is to free up a small 500 gig drive for application files. Now it's useless and I won't renew after being among your first customers from the beta around 2006/7.  Now DB is spending money on F1 sponsorships??? WTF happened to the company??? This is nuts.

[Mark]

They did inform people - there were lots and lots of emails and popups on the web page about it with directions to read FAQ's about the upcoming changes: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes