iCloud blocking file in Dropbox

[rjkg]

An app that I wrote for our club accesses an SQLite DB file in our Dropbox.

Most members have no trouble.

One member uses iCloud and gets "permission denied ' when he tries to access this DB.

The DB file sometimes has a small cloud symbol next to it. Hovering on this pops up a "file not downloaded" message. Clicking on it frees up the DB file for use by the app.

The info on the file shows it is actually  in : ~user/Library/CloudStorage/....

There is no reference to Dropbox in the Settings->iCloud->Applications using iCloud  section of settings (as shown in the iOS discussion re iCloud and Dropbox) .

How can I stop iCloud interfering with this file as Dropbox is already an adequate backup?

[Hannah]

Hey @rjkg, thanks for reaching out to us.

Can you send us a screenshot of the error message this member is receiving?

Is this an API app that you've created?

Also, what's the Dropbox version and the OS version of this person's computer?

Let me know and we'll go from there.

[rjkg]

The error message is (error caught by my code within Tcl) :

authorization denied

authorization denied

    while executing

"sqlite3 dbcmd $SQLITEDB  -create 0"

    (procedure "login_ok" line 45)

    invoked from within ....

Dropbox version: 178.4.4811

MacOS : Ventura 13.4.1 

This is what he sees in Settings - no mention of Dropbox - 2 screenshots as the list goes to 2 screens :

The app is a user interface to a membership management database. The database itself is a single SQLite file, in Dropbox.

Sorry about the delay I had to wait for the member to reply with the details.

rjkg

[Megan]

Hi @rjkg, sorry to jump in here! 

Can you let me know the file path of the SQLite file? 

[rjkg]

I reference it as  /Users/<user>/Dropbox/heathdb/heath.db which works for the other 6 or 7 people wjo use this app.

But looking at the file info <Cmd-i>, without checking again with the member, the real file name, as I remember it, is

   /Users/<user>/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox/heathdb/heath.db

rjkg

[Jay]

Hi @rjkg, this is unrelated to iCloud, as the CloudStorage location is a new requirement by Mac OS for newer installations of the Dropbox desktop application. 

You can read up more about this change from here.

Since that user is on the newer version, the link you specified for the other users won't work for them.

[rjkg]

The error occurred even when trying to access CloudStorage.

However digging into the link you referenced, the 'Make available offline' option may work.

Does the file continue to sync  with that turned on?

Thanks

rjkg

[Walter · Accepted solution]

Hey @rjkg, sorry to jump in, but I just wanted to mention that 'available offline' files will still sync normally. 

For more information about online only and available offline files, you can take a look here.

As for the user who's getting the error, could you check if they've granted Dropbox full disk access as outlined here?