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.

[monicame]

Can you give step by step instructions for those of us who are not experts. Thanks! I understand the concept but have no idea how to enact it.

[elizeufreitas]

Hello.

I can help yes.1. Access Finder (File Explorer).
2. Press the following keys (CMD + Shift + G) "Go to folder"
3. In the next pop-up type /Users/~ and access your user's folder.
4. While in your user's folder, press the following keys (CMD + Shift + . ) "At the end, the dot key" will show the hidden folders.
5. Select the .dropbox and Dropbox folders, delete with the following keys (CMD + Alt + Delete).
6. Reinstall Dropbox. 😄

Follow print's for better understanding.

Note: The Dropbox folder is just a shortcut to "/Users/elizeu/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox"

Caminho absoluto das pastas de configuraçãoReal caminho da pasta Dropbox

[Plumspot]

Thank you for your insight and help. But that's what I was trying to avoid was the reinstall — as it takes days to resync up. Might as well move to Google Drive. Take it easy.

[mrforged]

You will not need to re-synchronize your files.

Let's assume you have your huge Dropbox folder stored on an external drive and it is accessible at  /Volumes/External/Dropbox.  You can replace that location with the actual location of your folder for the remainder of these instructions.  It will work just fine.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

I assume your Dropbox folder is located on an external drive that can be accessed at /Volumes/External/Dropbox. You should substitute that folder with the actual location of your Dropbox folder as you go through this guide.

If you have not already done so, make sure you quit Dropbox before you begin!

1. Open a Terminal window
2. In the Terminal, type 

sudo rm ~/Library/Dropbox && ~/Library/.dropbox

• Enter your Mac's password when prompted.  You will not get any visual feedback while you are entering the password
• Run Dropbox.  It will think it's the first time you run it.  Go through the setup.
• As the last step of the setup, you will be asked to choose what files and folders in your Dropbox account you want to keep a local copy of.  Select them all. Complete the setup.
• As soon as Dropbox loads, quit the app.
• Now go back to the Terminal: 

sudo rm ~/Library/Dropbox && ln -s  /Volumes/External/Dropbox ~/Library/Dropbox​

• To verify everything is good:

ls -al ~/Library/Dropbox​

• You should see a listing of all the files located at /Volumes/External/Dropbox  If you don't, go back to step 2. 
• OPTIONAL:  Install macFuse https://osxfuse.github.io/ 
• Now start Dropbox.  You are DONE!

[rng2023]

This does not work in the least. 

[rng2023]

This doesn't really seem like precise step by step instructions ... I am on Ventura 13.2 and I don't have a users/dropbox folder. It's already in the cloud storage location. It's a brand new mini m2. Your instructions just talk about deleting and reinstalling Dropbox (which will yield the exact same results). Mind being a more precise for others who are struggling to move their Dropbox location?

[Graham]

Hi @elizeufreitas,

I hope you are well today. I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for your contribution to this thread! I can see that you have put a lot of thought into finding this solution and even more thought and time into helping other Community members use it. We really appreciate your time and effort.

Thanks again, and have a great weekend!

Graham

[B R Y N L S]

I'm on Mac 13.2.1. I just got the notice to update my Dropbox, and it's now in the CloudStorage location. However, it was a little wonky. I have all my files saved locally, and in the cloud. But it set some to online only, etc... Also, I use Dropbox for my Apple Music library, and it was stuck on "syncing" as it doesn't like the "Automatically Add to Music" folder, so I had to set that one to ignore, and now no issues.

So what I did was I have a backup externally, and I made a backup of my Dropbox folder, and put that on the desktop (I don't sync the desktop). I then delete all the files in my Dropbox, and then made sure everything was up to date, then I added my folders back one by one. But since I deleted them on Dropbox, but didn't delete them permanently, the process didn't seem to have to re-upload the files, it just pulled them in from Dropbox, etc. I have about 100 GB, so the entire process took about an hour, from the time I had to figure out what was going on, etc.

But now my Dropbox is fine. The only thing is that by default now, Camera Uploads is online only, and if you make it available offline, it adds a green check. None of my other folders now have green checks by default, if I created them offline. And anything I drop in them from my Mac, they are available online, which I how I use Dropbox. I don't add files from other locations. So with Camera Uploads. I either have to manually download those, or set the folder to offline, but then deal with a single green check....

Whatevs, it could have been worse.. and I blame Apple for all this.. I should be able to have my Dropbox folder wherever I want it... but oh well.

[jreades]

I can't speak to the issue of moving Dropbox to an external device, but I have just dealt with the failure to sync issue and wanted to clarify a couple of things because it seems to me like the problem is tied to the way Dropbox tries to migrate you from the old setup to the new one. I've had to resend about 13GB of files and folders as a result.

I reset the app as follows from the Terminal:

1. osascript -e 'tell application "Dropbox" to quit'
2. rm ~/Dropbox
3. mv ~/.dropbox ~/dropbox.dot.bak
4. open -a "Dropbox"

The first line tells Dropbox to quit. You should find that ~/Dropbox (or ~/Documents/Dropbox) is a simple file that can be removed with rm. If you get an error then this means that it is a folder and you should not delete it but, rather, rename it (e.g. mv ~/Dropbox ~/Dropbox.bak). ~/.dropbox is a hidden folder containing various info about your account so (again) my preference is to move it, not delete it, until you know that everything is working.

After that, I opened Dropbox and it prompted me to authenticate and acted like I had never set it up on this machine before. So that seems to have resolved the issue as far as I can tell. Now I am just sitting through a massive resynching of my data. 

[labswift]

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