Reinstalling Ubuntu, but keeping Dropbox install, files and configuration

[jdinca]

Hi,

I'm going to reinstall Ubuntu on my workstation.  It's on a separate drive to all data, so I can keep all files.  But, I would like to be able to then install Dropbox and point it to /mnt/data/Dropbox where I have all dropbox files and not have to resync everything (I have ~3TByes there).  Is there any way to do this?

Can I, for example, just ensure I keep /home/jdinca/.dropbox and /home/jdinca/.dropbox-dist and hope for the best?

Thanks in advance for any help here.

Jonathan.

[Здравко]

Hi @jdinca,

As you probably know already, Linux is NOT first class citizen in the Dropbox "city", unfortunately. There is no supported way to do what you're asking for, but you can workaround using some tricks. 😉

Once the system reinstal and new configuration complete, you can temporary rename the existing Dropbox folder (let say to 'DropboxBkp' for instance). After that you can install Dropbox application in regular way and move the folder next to the just renamed Dropbox folder. At the end, to avoid resync everything stop the application and remove the new, just created and not yet full, Dropbox folder and rename back the existing one. On next application run, it will reindex the existing folder and continue sync as usual.

Hope this helps.

[jdinca]

Thanks for the answer.  I considered that, but assumed also that, separate to the your dropbox files folder, Dropbox itself keeps a record of what was synced and when.  So my assumption was that this trick would cause havoc as suddenly a load of unsynced files appeared and everything would stop working.  I guess it is worth a try.  I was hoping someone had done this.

I'll wait a couple of days and if no-one has an alternative, I'll give it a go and report back.

Thanks again.

[jdinca · Accepted solution]

Turns out, just backing up ~/.dropbox and ~/.dropbox-dist and replacing them before reinstalling will do it.  But only, of course, if your files are in the same place and your user account the same.  For me, they were.