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jonnyA1's avatar
jonnyA1
Explorer | Level 4
7 years ago

Can't Move the Dropbox Folder to Ext4 or NTFS partition

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. In response to the change in dropbox file system support, I created a new partition on my hard drive to store my dropbox files in. It's 2 GB larger than my maximum dropbox...
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Krasimir S.'s avatar
Krasimir S.
New member | Level 2

I'm using Kubuntu 18.04.

I have ext4 partition, mounted on /media/dropbox and a symlink (for convenience) to it at: /home/$USER/Dropbox (my home & root partition is also ext4).

Until today, dropbox was set up to sync in /home/$USER/Dropbox.
Now it says I should move it to a supported location.
I tried setting it up to sync directly in the /media/dropbox ext4 partition, but it still refuses, and says this is unsupported location.
The filesystems ARE ext4 and HAVE extended attributes enabled.

Mounting the dropbox partition directly in /home/$USER/Dropbox (instead of using simlink) results in the same error.

Jane's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
7 years ago
Hey Krasimir S., thanks a lot for your detailed description! I’ve moved your post into this conversation, in order to ping you to the answer that did the trick for some users. That said, it’s worth mentioning that don't generally support the use of Symlinks due to the issues that can arise when they are added to Dropbox.
 
Additionally, please bear in mind that we currently only support Ubuntu 14.04 or higher and Fedora 21 or higher. If your device does not meet these requirements, you are still able to use the Dropbox desktop application however your results may vary. 
 
Hopefully these pointers are- evern slightly- helpful to you!
  • Krasimir S.'s avatar
    Krasimir S.
    New member | Level 2
    7 years ago

    Kubuntu = Ubuntu, just different desktop environment. Install KDE on Ubuntu, and you have Kubuntu...
    Also, about the symlink - it was NOT inside dropbox, and it was not the cause for the bug - the result was the same without it.
    It was a symlink to the dropbox directory, and I don't see why dropbox would have anything against it - it does not break anything, and it's a standard feature that has been working for, like, decades in unix/linux.
    This is definitely a bug - I don't have any other types of partitions except ext4, and yet, dropbox throws an error and refuses to sync).
    The proposed "solution", while maybe working, is just a workaround (and not very elegant one).

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