Kubuntu 16.04 Dropbox folder in ext4 partition on external usb HD. Folder not found on restart.

[davidsinf]

My aging Acer laptop has run out of disk space so I moved my Dropbox folder to an external 1tb Transcend drive. This was NTFS and had a lot of project files on it so I created a new ext4 partition specifically for Dropbox. I moved the folder using the preferences and everything was good.

Until I rebooted. I get a message saying the dropbox folder is not available and needs to be reconfigured.

I have 2 options - ReLink or Exit.

If I relink, the preferences reset to /home/[user]/Dropbox and if I try to change it to the partition I get 'This directory already contains a dropbox folder. If I delete it then everything works but the files are not available until a full resync is done (~100 minutes)

If I exit the only option I have is to move the dropbox folder to /home/[user]/Dropbox (where there is insufficent space.

I've been a paying Dropbox user for many years and like it a lot but this is moving me towards google docs as my cloud storage solution. 

[Walter]

Hi @davidsinf; thanks for joining our Community and sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

When you try to relink, could you maybe try pausing the syncing process and then point your Dropbox Folder to the desired partition? 

If you still get the same error, please send us a screenshot so that we can have a visual too.

Thanks so much, David. 

[davidsinf · Accepted solution]

I have found a solution thanks.

It looks like dropbox was starting before the drive was properly mounted. For some reason the mount can be a little slow.

I've written a small piece of python code that checks the partition is available before it starts the demon. If it is not available after 10 seconds it times out and sends a notification that the demon needs starting manually.

[Walter]

Ah yes, this would be better than having to turn the option to auto-start off completely, David. 

Thanks for letting us know what worked for you and, if you think that other users of our Community would benefit from your code or script, please feel free to share it here. 

See you around and take care!