Is it possible to authenticate for only a single Dropbox subfolder?

[Hubro]

I am planning on moving some of my software development work over to remote servers, and as such I would like to install Dropbox on them in order to reduce the chance of losing any work.

However, I don't want a remote server to have access to my entire Dropbox folder.

Is it possible to authenticate with Dropbox in a way that only gives access to a single subfolder? (Linux)

I'm pretty sure this is technically possible, as phone apps can be given access to a single Dropbox folder to save backups and stuff like that. However, I am completely unable to find anything about this through Google, and I'm not sure if it's possible on Linux.

As a workaround, I can probably create a new Dropbox account, share a single folder between my main account and the new account, then authenticate on my development server using the new account. This is not a great workaround though, as the overhead for each new folder is huge.

[Lusil]

Hello @Hubro, thanks for posting here!

Generally, the Dropbox app isn't designed to run on a server, but you can have a look at this link for some suggestions on how you might be able to make it work.

As for folder setup, it sounds like you want to have a similar function as that of selective sync. 

Have you checked out this article which has more info on the commands that you can use for Linux?

Have a look and let me know how it goes, cheers!

[Hubro]

Thanks for your reply. My question was more oriented towards security than practicality. I could install Dropbox on my server and only sync my project folder using selective sync, but then I would still be fully authenticated towards my Dropbox account. Any intruders on the server could easily disable the selective sync and have free access to all my private files.

What I am looking for is something like the "Apps" access you have, where you can give an app access to a single folder in your Dropbox account. For security purposes, it would be great if this could be extended to allow any regular Dropbox client to sign onto an account, but only have access to a single subdirectory.

[Lusil]

I see, thanks for clarifying that and for taking the time to share your feedback. 

Although we don't have a specific feature like the one you're describing, you can suggest it, here, where other like-minded users can comment and upvote your idea. 

In the meantime, if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to get back to us. Thanks!