change my dropbox folder name on my PC

[Elliott F.1]

I have my dropbox folder in the D drive of my computer. For some reason, the dropbox folder is not named "D:\Dropbox", but "D:\Dropbox (Elliotfan)" with my account name together. Does anybody know how to return the name back to "D:\Dropbox" without messing up the saved files?

Thanks.

[Stefanie]

Hi Elliott,

Sounds like you were on a Dropbox for Business team before. I’m sorry for any confusion this may have caused. If you downgrade from Dropbox for Business, the Dropbox folder on your desktop won't be renamed automatically back to "Dropbox".

Here are the steps on your Windows computer:

1) Unlink your account from the Dropbox desktop application. You can find the steps to unlink your account on the Help Center here here:

https://help.dropbox.com/accounts-billing/settings-sign-in/unlink-relink-computer-mobile

Once you’ve unlinked your account, Dropbox will prompt you to sign in. Please don't sign in yet.

2) Open your Dropbox folder.

3) Change your view settings, so that your hidden system files are viewable. You can find instructions on how to do this here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files#show-hidden-files=windows-vista

4) In Windows Explorer, delete the "Dropbox" folder.

5) Rename your "Dropbox (team name)" folder to "Dropbox".

6) Change the view settings to re-hide the hidden system files.

7) Restart Dropbox from Start -> All Programs and sign in to your account

I apologize for the inconvenience. Our engineers are working on a way to ensure that the folder will be automatically renamed in the future.

Best,
Sofia

[Pat D.1]

Sofia, I followed your instructions to change "My Dropbox" to "Dropbox" (to match my other computer, browser links etc)
When I restarted dropbox on my pc, it displayed an error window:
Your ..folder has been moved.. will not work until you move it back. ..
to link again to download and restore from the web version, click "Relink".
After clicking "Relink" ALL my files were downloaded to C:\Users...\Dropbox
Lucky that I noticed this as the original files were now orphans!
The good news - there is a "move" command in the dropbox (Dropbox icon > 'gear' icon > Preferences > Account)
I moved it back to D:\Dropbox which is all I wanted in the first place.

[Geoffrey P.1]

Hi Sofia/All,
Same issue but on a mac (though in my case trialled Dropbox for Business and cancelled it, so now my only Dropbox folder has a different name). Does the same procedure work safely on mac? (i.e. unlink from dropbox, re-name and link again - would like to avoid re-downloading the entire file as its over 100GB, and don't want to break links for files/folders that have already been shared, obviously).
Thanks!
G

[Emilio D.1]

Because I use LaTex and Mathematica (Wolfram) I have detected after installing Windows 8 and 10 (later) that these programs do not recognize the path to Dropbox. It is due to the space in the main folder of Dropbox, that is Dropbox (Univ.Palmas). I did not have this problem with Windows 7. How can I change the name of the main folder?

[Rich]

How can I change the name of the main folder? 

There's currently no way to remove the space for a Dropbox team folder. As long as you're part of a Dropbox Team, there will always be a space and parentheses in the folder name.

[Stefanie · Accepted solution]

Hi Emilio,

I can only confirm what Rich already pointed out.

Dropbox for Business will allow you to access both your personal Dropbox and your work Dropbox from the same computer. To help signify which Dropbox folder is connected to which account, we've chosen to rename the business Dropbox to "Dropbox (business name)." Currently, there is not a way to change the name of this folder back to just "Dropbox".

By default, we place a hidden symlink from Dropbox to the new Dropbox (team name), so you may find that your applications can continue working by accessing this symlink.

However, if this does not work for you, and if you are comfortable creating symbolic links on your machine, there is a workaround that may help you. Please note that this workaround is not supported by our support team, so if you are unable to set up this environment, I'd recommend that instead of using this workaround, you move any files needed by your affected application out of your Dropbox folder instead.

If outside code sources don't cooperate with the space character or parenthesis character, the simplest workaround would be the following:

- pause Dropbox
- remove the hidden symlink at Dropbox
- Rename the "Dropbox (team name)" folder to Dropbox
- Place a symlink at "Dropbox (team name)" that points to "Dropbox"
- Resume syncing

This will allow Dropbox to continue accessing the content through the symlink, and it will allow any external code to use the "Dropbox" folder pathname that doesn't include the additional characters in the path.

I hope this helps!

[Rich]

Sofia,

Place a symlink at "Dropbox (team name)" that points to "Dropbox"

Will syncing continue to work as normal with that workaround, or will changes to files only be detected during a re-index (restart of Dropbox)? I know that having a symlink inside the Dropbox folder pointing to a location outside of Dropbox will cause changes to only be detected during a re-index. Will the same apply to a symlink used for the actual Dropbox folder?

[Stefanie]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for checking on this one 🙂

This workaround won't influence the syncing negatively. You're right that it's not a good idea to have symlinks inside your Dropbox folder. This one is different though as it's a symlink to the actual Dropbox folder and it shouldn't have any effect.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[Fernando Henriq1]

Hi Sofia/All.
I came here from: https://www.dropboxforum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/202867585-How-do-I-rename-the-root-folder-

Like Emilio D. I also use LaTeX, Mathematica and develop codes Matlab / C. Which means change path names is a terrible headache.

I decided to test the Team Account option for Dropbox during this week, so my coworker and I could share this Team folder and not the "old school" shared folder.

Worst idea!

Every program lost track of shortcuts... well not a big problem, it is just have to find them. But when I starter to check LaTeX reports and some codes paths I realize the huge headache.

"Dropbox" changed to "Dropbox (anything)", that meant some LaTeX data bases like .bib bibliography we share from a single folder and others .cls files could not be found by LaTeX just because of the !dammit! space, and then I realized the same would occur for codes.

Options OR change the location structure OR find a way to rename Dropbox back again. I knew I couldn't do it while it is synchronizing. I read the steps above for Business and then I did these:

1) Stop Dropbox Sync

2) Change the name back to "Dropbox"

3) Restart Sync - Receive message about the change of name and if I would do a new installation or use the old name and settings for "Dropbox (anything)" by renaming this path again. I chose a new installation.

4) Download Dropbox Installer from my account on dropbox.com

5) Reinstalled Dropbox on My PC.

After some - a lot of - time all files were re-synchronized.

I beg you for next upgrade, give us the option to choose the name of the new Dropbox, I saw no need to change the old Dropbox just because there is a new "Dropbox (Team)" folder. Don't change the name of folders without asking for it. And as I learned with codes and so on:

DO_NOT_USE_SPACES_OR_ACCENTS_ON_NAMES_FOR_CODE_DATA

If the new name was "Dropbox_Specification", I could simply rename paths as I need, but the space character just made it impossible.

I hope my words may help.

FHZ.