Moving Dropbox folder from ~/Library/CloudStorage

[mrforged]

What is the reason for not allowing me to specify where I want to save my Dropbox files in Ventura?  I don't have enough space in my system drive to keep a copy of my Dropbox files.  And yes, I need a local copy at all times.  I tried replacing the folder with a symlink pointing to an external drive but that does not work.  Dropbox just refuses to load and these are the last lines of the log file:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 5055, in _setup_root_for_account
File "dropbox/sync_root/helpers.pyc", line 164, in create_root_for_account
File "dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.pyc", line 853, in result
File "dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.pyc", line 121, in set_result_or_convert_exception
dropbox.mac.internal.MacError: [Errno 62] Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=62 "Too many levels of symbolic links"

It looks like 1 level of symbolic links is one level too many. 

A search for Venture did not yield any results I found relevant.  I need to know how to relocate the Dropbox folder.  If I cannot relocate the folder, Dropbox loses its utility and that only means I will have to look for alternatives.  I really hope I don't need to do that.

[Jay]

Hi @mrforged, thanks for messaging the Community.

With the new version of the Dropbox desktop application for Mac OS, changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by the OS itself.

It will need to be stored on the CloudStorage folder, and can't be moved to another internal or external drive.

If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.

[elizeufreitas · Accepted solution]

Hello goodnight.

I'm using the Ventura version, and I also had the same problem, analyzing my Logs, and observing the Forum messages, I performed a battery of tests.

1. Reinstall via homebrew (same error)
2. Manual reinstall (same error)

Then I went to other levels of execution, when running as Root, it worked at first.
Puff, it dawned on me, permission was the problem.
I reset the permissions. (same error) lol 😞

I decided to run the binaries via terminal.
"cd /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS"
Then "./Dropbox"

However, I still got error.

Realizing that it had worked as root, and there were indications of permissions.
I decided to delete the root folders.
"/Users/elizeu/.dropbox"
"/Users/elizeu/Dropbox"

IT WORKED.!!!!

Running as RootRunning as a regular user, after excluding local folders.synchronizingHe follows:

[mrforged]

I gave it a try but I am still getting the same error!

The only difference this time was that I was asked to grant Dropbox accessibility permissions.

Just to be clear,  ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox is a symlink to some other location.

What did you reset permissions to?  And where?

[elizeufreitas]

Hello, I advise you to define the Symbolic Link after the correct installation and startup of Dropbox.

I also had the same issue and message from accessibility permissions.

As I said, to reset the permissions, I had to delete the folders:

/Users/yourusername/.dropbox
/Users/yourusername/Dropbox

Take this test and answer here.

[mrforged]

Got it to work!

[elizeufreitas]

Very good, so we can consider this case as solved.

[FGK-120]

---

@Jay wrote:

With the new version of the Dropbox desktop application for Mac OS, changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by the OS itself.

It will need to be stored on the CloudStorage folder, and can't be moved to another internal or external drive.

What is the Dropbox company's advice to users whose Dropbox folder on an external drive is too large to be accommodated on the internal startup drive? (And who don't want to jump through hoops with Terminal workarounds.)

Are you saying that any files in excess of startup drive capacity will become online-only with just a link in the user's Dropbox folder?

Thanks.

[mrforged]

That is what they are saying and they are blaming Apple for it.

From what I have been able to find, the requirement for the cloud storage provider's local copy to be stored on the local system drive is due to a dependency of a macOS feature or API called fileproviderd.  This fileproviderd is a macOS-native method for accessing cloud file systems and it is what Apple's own iCloud drive uses.  Apparently, Apple removed certain functionality from macOS that Dropbox and Microsoft's software (I am sure others as well) depended on to force them to use fileproviderd and it all began back in Catalina.

I know from first hand experience that the requirement to store Dropbox under ~/Library/CloudStorage/ can be worked around.  Nothing is going to break. If I can do it with just a couple of commands from the Terminal, you can bet Dropbox could do that for you too if they really wanted to.  Why don't they?  The world may never know.   At the very least, you know the requirement is a joke because if OneDrive can use any location on the local system drive to store its files, so can Dropbox.  Why don't they?  Another one of the big mysteries of life.

I only wish they didn't say things like "changing the location of your Dropbox folder is no longer supported by the OS itself."  That is an outright lie and does not look good on you, Dropbox.

[Plumspot]

This must be Apple's way of moving everyone away from Dropbox to iCloud. I don't have 2TB of internal storage. But it looks like Google Drive uses some kind of alias to have the drive folder located on an external drive. ??? I love Dropbox, but I may have to move to Google Drive. 😛