original dropbox install location doesn't exist anymore

[KelsNotChels]

Hi DB community--

I am running dropbox for mac catalina on my trusty old 2012 MBP. 

It ran beautifully for years on my old user profile which was named with my firstlast name, but when my name changed, and I created a new user profile on my mac with my new name, I got caught in a loop because my new profile won't open. 

I logged into the old user, deleted every instance of dropbox I can find with a good app-uninstaller, and tried to reinstall from scratch on the new profile, but it still seems to know that it used to exist in another place. 

Here is the txt of the error report:

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox

bn.VERSION: 120.4.4598

bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 47

bn.is_frozen: True

machine_id: 5fba7662-b9ec-506b-8e9e-3cc286c397fc

pid: 2352

ppid: 1

uid: 501

user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='kelseytoney', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Kelsey Toney', pw_dir='/Users/kelseytoney', pw_shell='/bin/bash')

effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='kelseytoney', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Kelsey Toney', pw_dir='/Users/kelseytoney', pw_shell='/bin/bash')

euid: 501

gid: 20

egid: 20

group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])

effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None

cwd: '/'

     real_path='/'

            mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=80

     parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=80

HOME: '/Users/kelseytoney'

appdata: '/Users/kelseymacke/.dropbox/instance1'

         real_path='/Users/kelseymacke/.dropbox/instance1'

                mode=0o40700 uid=503 gid=20

         parent mode=0o40755 uid=503 gid=20

dropbox_path: '/Users/kelseytoney/Dropbox'

              real_path='/Users/kelseytoney/Dropbox'

                    mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20

              parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20

sys_executable: '/Users/kelseytoney/Desktop/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

                real_path='/Users/kelseytoney/Desktop/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

                      mode=0o100755 uid=501 gid=20

                parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20

trace.__file__: '/Users/kelseytoney/Desktop/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

                real_path='/Users/kelseytoney/Desktop/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

                      not found

                parent not found

tempdir: '/var/folders/vq/0pygl4tn27n3qpnmtgqwchtm0000gn/T'

         real_path='/private/var/folders/vq/0pygl4tn27n3qpnmtgqwchtm0000gn/T'

                mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20

         parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "dropbox/client/mapreduce.pyc", line 47, in __init__

  File "dropbox/client/mapreduce.pyc", line 72, in _get_user_key_with_retries

  File "dropbox/client/mapreduce.pyc", line 95, in get_user_key

  File "dropbox/client/mapreduce.pyc", line 171, in get_user_key

  File "dropbox/keystore/keystore_posix.pyc", line 180, in get_versioned_key

  File "dropbox/keystore/keystore_posix.pyc", line 134, in get_key

  File "dropbox/keystore/keystore_posix.pyc", line 89, in _load_dict

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/Users/kelseymacke/.dropbox/instance1/hostkeys'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 7712, in main_startup

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 2965, in initialize

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 2787, in create_keystore_and_unlink_cookie

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 2749, in create_keystore_and_unlink_cookie

  File "dropbox/client/configuration/local_configuration.pyc", line 249, in create_keystore

  File "dropbox/client/mapreduce.pyc", line 60, in __init__

  File "dropbox/client/mapreduce.pyc", line 92, in new_user_key

  File "dropbox/client/mapreduce.pyc", line 166, in new_user_key

  File "dropbox/keystore/keystore_posix.pyc", line 152, in store_versioned_key

  File "dropbox/keystore/keystore_posix.pyc", line 130, in store_key

  File "dropbox/keystore/keystore_posix.pyc", line 116, in _save_dict

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/Users/kelseymacke/.dropbox/instance1/hostkeys.new'

[Hannah]

Hey @KelsNotChels, welcome to our Community!

It seems like the Dropbox app is giving you a permissions error after changing the username on your computer.

Can I reach out to you via email, so we can look into this together?

Let me know!

[KelsNotChels]

Yes, please!

[marian b.2]

This seems very similar to my problem.

[Hannah]

Absolutely @KelsNotChels, I just reached out to you, so make sure to check your email!

@marian b.2 , would you mind sending me a screenshot of the error log you see on the error message you're getting on your end?

[marian b.2 · Accepted solution]

Thanks --- this has been solved on my own thread about this by doing an advanced reinstall:

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/advanced-reinstall