Dropbox is compatible with Ext4 but doesn't recognize ext4 drive?

[Axiom2018]

So, like most Linux users, I've gotten the message about needing to upgrade to an ext4 drive. I had an extra drive in my machine with nothing on it so I formatted it to ext4. I rebooted then went into my prefs to change location and it tells me:

To sync your Dropbox, move your Dropbox folder to a partition with a compatible File System. Dropbox is compatible with Ext4.

So, when is an ext4 drive not an ext4 drive?

I'm using v55.4.171

[Axiom2018]

That's a good posibility as well which means I'm done with dropbox because I have my system set up the way I want and I'll be damned if I'm going to format and reinstall all my apps for an app I'm hardly using at the time. I'll figure out something else before I do that

[dazinger]

I also have this issue. I am running Ubuntu 16.04 and have an ext4 partition, so this really surprises me that this problem occurs.

I mean yeah sure I'm too lazy to format my main drive as well, but this problem seems like it only needs a trivial fix.

[Jeroen O.]

Well, Dropbox's really lost it. Today I got a second warning from Dropbox for a different Linux system, where *all* relevant partitions are ext4.

Message to Dropbox: please fix your filesystem detection routine or improve the error message, or Dropbox goes in November. There are alternatives.

[ADinamita]

So, this means that it is no longer possible to use Dropbox when ecryptfs is also running?

[jdu]

Just want to add that I have a similar issue here. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, root system in ext3, dropbox folder in ext4 but not recognized as such by the app.

It's unfortunately to see the lack of response so far, but maybe this is just part of some cost cut decision to reduce the resource on providing Linux support in general (may make sense from a business perspective).

[Axiom2018]

ADinamita -  exactly

Jdu - that's the same set up I'm using except I'm trying to move to a non-encrypted ext4 drive and the software is saying it's not a valid location (or some BS similar to that). I mostly just use it as a quick and easy method of transfering from my phone to the computer so guess I need to start looking at bluetooth or something else.

[dtamayo]

I'm having the same problem. Here are the relevant lines from sudo blkid

/dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="495..." TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="afa..."

/dev/nvme1n1p1: UUID="19d..." TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="44f..."

I currently have dropbox running correctly on nvme1, which is where the OS (Ubuntu 18.04) is installed. But when I try to move the folder location to the (mounted) nvme0, I get the same incompatible filesystem error.

Here is what my /etc/fstab lines look like:

UUID=19d... / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

UUID=495... /mnt/ssd ext4 defaults 0 2

I tried changing the options on the drive that's not working to errors=remount-ro so that they would match, but that also did not fix the problem.

[Axiom2018]

Not sure it will work for you but I totally uninstalled the app, left it a few days and then grabbed the files to install again. Once I did, it did an update (59.4.93) and is now working with no messages on an ext3 drive partition

# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=1da462b1-03bf-422f-ae4c-5a8b3a87b82b / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=0e0bec2a-aaca-4883-a206-3bb13a64a676 /home ext3 defaults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=0aa4f146-4b6a-4c40-9bf8-23648479eb49 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

[AminSadeghi]

I've found a workaround. Create a new folder within the mount point of your ext4 drive. Then, simply choose that folder as the target in the Dropbox app. Here's an example:

Mount point of ext4 drive:

/media/mynewdrive

Make new directory within the mount point, say "DropboxContainer". Now choose the following path (simply choose in the Dropbox GUI) as the sync target:

/media/mynewdrive/DropboxContainer

To confirm, your Dropbox sync folder would look like this:

/media/mynewdrive/DropboxContainer/Dropbox

In my case, it used to complain about the ext4 thing, but this workaround seems to have done the job. Please let me know if it works for you.

[Axiom2018]

They changed something, location doesn't even need to be on an ext4 drive anymore as shown in my fstab above. My Dropbox location is /home/XXXX/Dropbox  which is an ext3 partition