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Two separate personal accounts on the same computer?

My husband and I have two Dropbox personal accounts. They are under two different email addresses. One is basically shared between the two of us, the other is mine with my own files on it. In the past, I have had the "shared" account on our iMac desktop, it shows up on the top bar with the Dropbox icon as well as in the Finder box with the Dropbox icon. When I wanted to use my account (the other one), I would just log in on the Safari browser.

But at Christmas I got a Mac Book Air, with the purpose of being able to do my own work on it, and wanted to have my account downloaded onto it. Which I did. So far, so good. However, because everything is synched via iCloud, etc between the Air and our iMac, this resulted, in the end, with now having two Dropbox accounts showing up on the iMac Finder, one in the menu bar at the top with the Dropbox icon, and two in the Finder window, one with the Dropbox icon and one just a folder with the name Dropbox. They are both linked to the same account. On my Air I just have the one Dropbox account in the menu bar AND in the Finder window, linked to my account.

I obviously did something wrong along the way. I'm fine with only having one account on my Air (my account) and accessing the other shared account via the web. But on the iMac, I would like to have both accounts showing up in the Finder window, one linked to the shared account and one to my account. That way, when my husband uses the iMac he can access the shared account easily without having to go on the web (which involves passwords and drives him nuts. lol).

How do I go about this?

Thanks for any help you can give. I hope I have explained this clearly.

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Accepted answers

Daphne

Hi there @psalmone1, I hope you're well today!

At the moment, it's only possible to have one personal Dropbox account linked to the desktop app at a time. You wouldn't be able to link both accounts to the iMac's app.

To access the second account on the iMac, the easiest workaround would be to use the website. Otherwise, I can suggest merging the two accounts into one.

Alternatively, you could create a new user profile on the iMac and install the second Dropbox account there. You'd need to switch between the profiles though to access the different Dropbox folders.

Also, I have to mention that we don't recommend sharing accounts with others. You can check out this article for more info on that.

I know that this isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but please don't hesitate to get back to me with any other questions.

Thanks!

All comments

Daphne

Hi there @psalmone1, I hope you're well today!

At the moment, it's only possible to have one personal Dropbox account linked to the desktop app at a time. You wouldn't be able to link both accounts to the iMac's app.

To access the second account on the iMac, the easiest workaround would be to use the website. Otherwise, I can suggest merging the two accounts into one.

Alternatively, you could create a new user profile on the iMac and install the second Dropbox account there. You'd need to switch between the profiles though to access the different Dropbox folders.

Also, I have to mention that we don't recommend sharing accounts with others. You can check out this article for more info on that.

I know that this isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but please don't hesitate to get back to me with any other questions.

Thanks!

psalmone1

Ok, thanks so much for your reply.

Daphne

I'm glad I could help out @psalmone1!

If you need anything else or have any other questions, please feel free to give me a nudge here.

Have a great day!

lsmolic

Thanks for the answer, but since dropbox only allows people to "approve" of their answers, rather than downvote them, I'll leave this here as a downvote. Not only should we be able to have as many accounts as possible, but for people like me who are contractors, the synching of business account and personal is completely ridiculous. I shouldn't have to attach my person and make the make sync the business account. There can't be that much of an bizdev concern to motivate keeping that from users and it certainly can't be a technical hurdle. Would really appreciate this being a priority to add 👎

Daphne

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this @lsmolic!

While this isn't currently possible, I'd suggest sharing this in our dedicated area of the Community here. Others will be able to upvote and add their support for this feature request and this will allow us to track your feedback more effectively.

Sorry that I can't be of much more help with this, but don't hesitate to get back to me here with any other questions.

Thanks!