You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Can you remove the space in the dropbox folder name ("Dropbox (Company-Name)")?
I'm using my companies business dropbox account. And it created a folder called "Dropbox (my companies name here)".
Is there a way to remove the space between "Dropbox" and "("? I don't want to ha...
Hi all,
Unfortunately, it's not possible to change the name of Dropbox folder, as many of you have discovered.
If you are using it for scripts then the best thing would firstly to parse the info.json and grab the path from there. The JSON is located:
Mac/Linux:
~/.dropbox/info.json
Windows will be one of these two paths:
%APPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json
I say this as if you were to move your Dropbox folder at anytime then this would, of course, break any paths that explicitly referenced an exact folder path.
On a side note, spaces within file paths shouldn't cause issues within scripts, it's fairly normal to have some spaces in there, just ensure your path string is correctly formatted and your script should be fine.
Not sure if it helps but someone desperate enough might be able to find a way.
The only solution I've found for this problem was:
My account was from before dropbox did this change, I kept and installed a folder save that had the d:\dropbox path on a backup before dropbox added a space, whenever dropbox updated it added the space back, so I created a folder called D:\Dropbox (Company name), I revoked all permissions so dropbox couldn't touch it and rename it and there you go...
My Dropbox has been D:\Dropbox for years with no issues, all my scripts work fine since the path is now smaller and contains no spaces I also had an install for C:\Dropbox just in case and I've kept those two settings for years with no problem, (think of it as sourdough mother dough haha), they are my prized digital possessions
The reason I tell you this is so you know it can be done, you just have to find some way for dropbox to let you use normal dropbox as a name, then change account
The only 2 things I can think of to do this in 2021 is:
(This requires a new dropbox account) Get dropbox and set it up wherever you like it, D:\Dropbox for example, then backup and save the install, (program/app data instance folder), create the D:\Dropbox (My business) decoy folder and deny it access to everyone, then upgrade the account to business, and the name will stay the same as Dropbox will be unable to change it, backup and copy this install to any machines you want to have D\C:\Dropbox on, and repeat the install/block folder process, once you install Dropbox on the new machine, it will recognize the existing install and let you use the folder without space, and be unable to change it due to permissions
Option 2:
Variation of this, same process but rename your business account email to something else, make another non business account with ur old business username, install Dropbox in D:\, close, backup, delete that account, rename ur business account email back to what it was, and try installing, it might work, I haven't tested this
There's a couple of diff ways to try but I just wanted yall to know it's possible, you just have to fiddle around with it
Definitely not a "solution" but at least it's something
If in 2021 I still have my D:\Dropbox folder on my business account working fine and the fact we still can't rename it just means Dropbox does not care about this problem, since clearly it's not a technical problem, just a UI problem
The only solution I've found for this problem was:
My account was from before dropbox did this change, I kept and installed a folder save that had the d:\dropbox path on a backup before dropbox added a space, whenever dropbox updated it added the space back, so I created a folder called D:\Dropbox (Company name), I revoked all permissions so dropbox couldn't touch it and rename it and there you go...
My Dropbox has been D:\Dropbox for years with no issues, all my scripts work fine since the path is now smaller and contains no spaces I also had an install for C:\Dropbox just in case and I've kept those two settings for years with no problem, (think of it as sourdough mother dough haha), they are my prized digital possessions
The reason I tell you this is so you know it can be done, you just have to find some way for dropbox to let you use normal dropbox as a name, then change account
The only 2 things I can think of to do this in 2021 is:
(This requires a new dropbox account) Get dropbox and set it up wherever you like it, D:\Dropbox for example, then backup and save the install, (program/app data instance folder), create the D:\Dropbox (My business) decoy folder and deny it access to everyone, then upgrade the account to business, and the name will stay the same as Dropbox will be unable to change it, backup and copy this install to any machines you want to have D\C:\Dropbox on, and repeat the install/block folder process, once you install Dropbox on the new machine, it will recognize the existing install and let you use the folder without space, and be unable to change it due to permissions
Option 2:
Variation of this, same process but rename your business account email to something else, make another non business account with ur old business username, install Dropbox in D:\, close, backup, delete that account, rename ur business account email back to what it was, and try installing, it might work, I haven't tested this
There's a couple of diff ways to try but I just wanted yall to know it's possible, you just have to fiddle around with it
Definitely not a "solution" but at least it's something
If in 2021 I still have my D:\Dropbox folder on my business account working fine and the fact we still can't rename it just means Dropbox does not care about this problem, since clearly it's not a technical problem, just a UI problem
Oh yeah, option 3 I forgot (it's been too long lol)
This is how I got to make all my users have no space back in the day, not sure if it still works but worth a shot, download an old offline installer version of Dropbox from before they added the space, select folder location you want, create the dropbox(company) decoy folder and deny everyone access to it, run the installer and install with your user, Dropbox will upgrade the client version but be unable to rename the folder because it has no permissions, and you are good to go, once you have your "mother dough" upgraded Dropbox install folders (appdata) you can just copy and install as normal on any machines you need this done and the location will stick forever
Again as I said not sure if it still works but its worth a shot, I'm sure I kept a copy of the last Dropbox offline installer version that allowed this somewhere, if enough people need it I can look for it and tell you the version so you can web search for old files and download it, or worst case I can upload it to my dropbox and share it
Hope this helps
This is how I got to make all my users have no space back in the day, not sure if it still works but worth a shot, download an old offline installer version of Dropbox from before they added the space, select folder location you want, create the dropbox(company) decoy folder and deny everyone access to it, run the installer and install with your user, Dropbox will upgrade the client version but be unable to rename the folder because it has no permissions, and you are good to go, once you have your "mother dough" upgraded Dropbox install folders (appdata) you can just copy and install as normal on any machines you need this done and the location will stick forever
Again as I said not sure if it still works but its worth a shot, I'm sure I kept a copy of the last Dropbox offline installer version that allowed this somewhere, if enough people need it I can look for it and tell you the version so you can web search for old files and download it, or worst case I can upload it to my dropbox and share it
Hope this helps
- Oh yeah and Dropbox..... Sync let's me use D:\Sync with no problems, also supports 5 million files on the account, 100,000 on a folder, selective sync and the folder name is smaller to boot (windows 150 characters folder/sub path name limit), if my mother dough trick stops working I'm jumping ship to that faster than I can uninstall Dropbox on all my machines, just a heads up you might want to fix this soon
Thanks so much, XionicFire. If I ever decide to go back to Dropbox business I will definitely use these tricks to get rid of the $#%$^&^% space in the foldername.
CJ
