Dropbox client warns me that it'll stop syncing in Nov, why?

[porkins]

I have been using DropBox since its inception.  I run Linux Mint with an encrypted ext4 drive, which doesn't work. It has worked fine up until recently.  I am going to download all my data and move it to Google One.  Really stupid move DropBox.

[Ruak]

Sorry for simple questions, but I don't understand, whats wrong with encrypted home folder on Ubuntu?

I am running 18.04 and home folder encryption is part of standard installation. One way or another I will have to move to different provider.

[ok89]

I am no longer able to use veracrypt + exFAT which has been the only reasonable choice for dual-boot on linux and windows since I ever started using Dropbox. Not being able to use exFAT or encrypted drives is not understandable on my side as dual booter and I see no reason to change something that is a great solution just to fit the limited for no reason Dropbox, that never had a problem with it. Terrible idea, why on earth would you disallow people to use anything they like (I do not need support for it to be honest) and what works. Very frustrated with the change.

[Pete S.7]

I've recently upgraded to the latest version of dropbox, which introduces the file system check. on an Ubuntu 16.04 server.

Dropbox ran fine before the  latest release.

Running df -h lists:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/simfs 50G 28G 23G 55% /
devtmpfs 1.0G 0 1.0G 0% /dev
tmpfs 1.0G 0 1.0G 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 1.0G 99M 926M 10% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 1.0G 0 1.0G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
none 1.0G 0 1.0G 0% /run/shm
tmpfs 205M 0 205M 0% /run/user/1000

None of the other common shell commands: mount | grep '/dev'; cat /etc/fstab; fsck -N /dev/simfs; file -sL /dev/simfs; parted -l; lsblk -f; blkid /dev/simfs; cfdisk; show an underlying ext4 file system, although I've been told that's what's running.

Running: 

          sudo systemctl status dropbox.service

Gives the following error message:

Mar 04 15:50:03 server dropboxd[16826]: [ALERT]: So your files continue to sync, sign in to your Dropbox account and move Dropbox to a supported file system.

It appears that the simfs is a simulated in memory file system, and I've been told that's it an ext4 version.

How can I get this problem fixed?

-Pete

[Здравко]

Hi @Pete S.7,

Your command "df -h" doesn't show FS type used. Better try just "mount" command - gives much clearer view. If the reason is incompatible FS, did You try https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Error-messages/Dropbox-client-warns-me-that-it-ll-stop-syncing-in-No... ?

Good luck!

[Vash63]

Was just checking on this thread to see if they've fixed this yet, as their early support of WebAuthn is impressive... but, nope. They haven't even managed to give a reason for why XFS, btrfs and other modern filesystems are unsupported that wasn't complete BS about how 'only ext4 supports xattrs' (when it wasn't even the first Linux filesystem with xattr support...).

For shame.

[rafaelbernard]

Exactly. For shame. I liked dropbox a lot, but... They gave up on me.

I moved to pCloud. If you are interested, inbox me and I give you extra storage with my referral link.

[Vash63]

I've already moved on to a self-hosted NextCloud instance, but still disappointed that DB hasn't fixed this as I would've considered moving back for the FIDO2 / WebAuthn support. Thanks anyway.

Amazing how they're just completely disregarding this thread with almost 1k replies and 30k views. They can't even bother to provide an explanation that isn't factually incorrect like claiming they need ext4 for xattrs.

[ausername]

Creating a mounted ext4 image that is mounted when you login should fix this completely and keep Dropbox happy, and us end users happyish as even though it means we have to create an image and jump through hoops it still allows us to use the service without taking much time to setup

https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/493511

I'm not the author of the above but it works well.

[mwettach]

Alas, this will probably not solve the use case for a shared folder on dual boot machines with Windows and Linux. Even if we manage to mount that ext4 image in Windows, Dropbox will tell us that on Windows, only NTFS is supported.

But in the meantime, Dropbox has stopped working because of other reasons: for non-paying customers, only 3 devices per user are allowed (mobiles, tablets and boot partitions on my PCs each counting as a separate device). Therefore I will not invest further effort into getting Dropbox to run on my Linux partition.