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Forum Discussion
Unable to create a directory for iCloud Photos. Restarting your computer might... (Error 5)
I've search high and low for a solution to this error.
I had given up after over a year of trying to resolve it, on Windows 10. I've pickup up a new PC on Windows 11 and tried to install the latest...
Rich
Super User II
Super User II
Doug R.1 wrote:
Anyone have ideas on how to solve this issue?
The first thing I'd say is never have more than one sync service syncing files in the same directory structure. That's always been a problem as the different services try to compete with each other over access to the files. There have been plenty of posts describing problems when the main folder for one sync service is in the folder structure for another, causing one or both to not sync properly.
If you have to run more than one sync service, don't allow any of them (or only allow one) to take over the folders in your user profile, such as Documents, Pictures, etc. Dropbox doesn't do that by default, but if you enable the backup feature, it moves Documents, Downloads, etc. into the Dropbox folder so they can sync. OneDrive's backup does the same thing, and neither one of them will operate correctly, if at all, if the other has taken over the location for those folders. Don't enable the Backup feature in Dropbox and the core folders remain in the user's profile, not in the Dropbox folder.
Beyond that I'd say that the error you're seeing is from iCloud, so it's really on Apple to work on detecting the presence of Dropbox as it does with OneDrive. There's not really anything Dropbox can do about that.
I only have one cloud service, ...Dropbox.
But all my iPhone photos are in iCloud, not Dropbox. So it is certainly a reasonable expectation to have iCloud for Windows installed on a PC and that has NOTHING to do with OneDrive or Google Drive, or any other cloud solution... My troubleshooting enabled my to realize what the issue is and its 100% repeatable. Customers who use OneDrive don't have a problem, so maybe I should leave Dropbox and go to OneDrive. I'm sure that's not what the CRO at Dropbox would want to hear...
And I completly agree that this is absolutely on Apple to fix, but of course I'd like to have the fine engineering team at Dropbox help solved this issue, work with Apple to update their iCloud for Windows product to detect and recognize the presence of Dropbox cloud services just like it does with Microsoft's OneDrive.
That is the solution to this issue.
IMHO, its incumbent upon Dropbox to recognize the issue exists for it's customers even if it isn't caused by DropBox, and get engaged with it's partners to solve it. Lets also recognize that Dropbox's decision to stop supporting Symlinks (external) is a contributing factor. Dropbox backup will backup picture and video folders, but it will not allow the sync of those folders across a customer's devices...
So yeah, this is an ongoing issue that need to be addressed. There is no solution as it stands now, and I'd love for Dropbox to advocate a fix for it's customers. There is certainly a lot of community support for this issue as it's a very common error for Dropbox customers with iPhones.
I figured out how to fix mine! The photos are no longer backing up to Dropbox, but I don't need the photos in two places. I went into Dropbox settings and told it to stop backing up Pictures and Videos. Voila! Problem solved.
Did the same.
Until they fix the software, I've stopped the backup of Photos and Videos. At least now i got my photos from icloud. Now I have to find a way to save pictures from others sourcer directly in dropbox.
