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Forum Discussion

mrforged's avatar
mrforged
Helpful | Level 6
2 years ago

Moving Dropbox folder from ~/Library/CloudStorage

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 ...
Desktop
desktop app
Dropbox folder
Error Messages
Mac OS
  • elizeufreitas's avatar
    elizeufreitas
    2 years ago

    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's avatar
mrforged
Helpful | Level 6

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.

labswift's avatar
labswift
Explorer | Level 3
2 years ago

Hi what's the command so that I can skip the /library/cloudstorage way of filing. I'm a DJ, and have all my files saved in the original dropbox location. Now when I add the same music from the same folder it comes out as a duplicate with the file location changed. It's really screwing up my way of organizing my music

 

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