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Is there a way to set the Dropbox folder via the command line?

MikeHLondon

Hi Dropbox

HUGELY EXASPERATING -- NO WAY TO MOVE / SET THE DROPBOX ON-PC FILE LOCN ON COMMAND LINE INSTALLS

#Dropbox - presuming you are here, WHY am I having to ask the Community to help with such an OBVIOUS NEED ??????????

#### YOU SHOULD FIX THIS, DROPBOX -- IT'S BEEN OVERLOOKED FOR YEARS. SORT IT OUT PLEASE - TODAY WOULD BE GOOD.

This will take a decent programmer in your offices *20mins tops to document*.

PROBLEM: THE HEADLESS DROPBOX - IDEAL FOR MANY LINUXES ****HAS NO WAY TO RELOCATE THE STORAGE FOLDER*****

On Win / Mac / Ubuntu there's a GUI - but for the hundreds of other Linux situations, and most servers, WE USE COMMAND LINE

-- but you FORCE US to put the synch folder in the most obviously idiotic place - under home. And moving it is then IMPOSSIBLE it seems.

"Jane" replied with this helpful news three years ago on this thread: [ https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/Unable-to-access-preference-menu-on-linux/td-p/232112/page/3 ] .

## SO DROPBOX -- what are the millions of us out here supposed to do ????? Can you FIX this IDIOTIC OMISSION please. I only ask because I have work associates who want Dropbox. (Cloud on Linux is massively simpler with Google Drive. Just works).

Looking forward in anticipation to your detailed help. No sarcasm intended.

(Apologies to all the good people in Community but there seems no way to actually reach a Dropbox person).

Thanks

MikeHLondon

[ PS that detail advice from 2013 - it doesn't work. MHL ]

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Jay

Hi @MikeHLondon, thanks for messaging the Community.

Are you referring to the Linux version of the Dropbox desktop application, or also for Mac and Windows OS versions?

This will help me to assist further.

MikeHLondon

Neither.
I referenced the COMMAND LINE version as you saw there - the headless version which you provide here:

https://www.dropbox.com/en_GB/install-linux
Scroll down past the named distros and you get to the headless install notes:
==========
" *Dropbox Headless install via command line* "
The Dropbox daemon works fine on all 32-bit and 64-bit Linux servers. To install it, run the following command in your Linux terminal.

32-bit:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -
64-bit:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -
Next, run the Dropbox daemon from the newly created .dropbox-dist folder.

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
If you’re running Dropbox on your server for the first time, you’ll be asked to copy and paste a link in a working browser to create a new account or add your server to an existing account. Once you’ve done this, your Dropbox folder will be created in your home directory. Download this Python script to control Dropbox from the command line. For easy access, put a symlink to the script anywhere in your PATH.
======

---to be clear this works fine on distros I've tried it on -- but *doesn't ask or offer any way to set the storage location* so saves direct to /home/username which is the last thing we want.

SEEMS you use some sort 'system tray' component on desktops to change this, but then in a headless there is no such of course.
Surely whatever that component does, can also exist as a bash script?

Back in 2013 it looks like it once did - I've seen a help page from then that offered it -- but that's all obsolete now.
SURELY it any professional application you WANT it running on a headless machine mostly (to then share locally in a workplace over LAN) so I would have thought this massively in demand.

GDrive does all this seamlessly -- please sort out your version, the headless headless instance works fine we just need to be able to relocate it. Surely just a local database entry ?
Thank you

Mike

Hannah

Thanks for this info, @MikeHLondon.

We appreciate your feedback here and I will make sure it's passed along to our team.

Let us know if you need anything else.

Happy holidays!

MikeHLondon

HI Hannah

You asked if I needed anything else -- YES !!! A SOLUTION PLEASE ! "passing this along" is not good enough.

You (DropBox) are a Big, RICH, Commercial software company. You have CUSTOMERS (thats us out here) who get exasperated when you don't FIX your very-mature-product-that-really-ought-to-work-by-now.

I've posed a simple question which PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR SEVERAL YEARS - it is simple - CAN YOU PLEASE provide us (now) with the no-doubt simple script or instructions to RELOCATE the on-PC storage location when using the HEADLESS (GUI-less) version of Dropbox for Linux which otherwise works very well.

Instead of sending me NO help as you did above - why not pick u a phone to a developer - ask him - he would tell you / send you a link by mail - you send it back here and then thousands of us would be happier, immediately. Instead of COMPLETELY UNABLE TO USE DROPBOX ON ANY HEADLESS LINUX INSTALLATION USEFULLY AT ALL WHILE WE WAIT.

We KNOW you have the answer to this -- in the GUI versions you use a system tray tool to do it - so the code exists;

And we know you shared a script to do it in years past because from 2013 the old script is still out there in the wild (it just doesn't work anymore).

So YES -- You CAN help me further -- Can I have some PROPER CUSTOMER SUPPORT from DROPBOX please - QUICKLY so I can get on with my Job - or shall we all just assign DropBox to that well-known and enormous, growing pile of companies globally who really just don't care about customers at all, they just hide from them as best they can, and just enjoy counting the cash.

Let me know which if you would.

Thanks

Mike

EXASPERATED and Waiting for Dropbox

London

andregn

Hi, Hannah

I have 1 SDD (for operational system and softwares) and 1 HD (for files storage).
And I use Linux (Ubuntu).

With the current version I still can't find a way to set the path of Dropbox files to the HD. As my SSD is very limited in storage, I just can't use Dropbox on my Linux.

I don't think it's a rare corner case.
And it doesn't seem like a hard solution to parametrize the path.

So I really don't understand why it's not solved yet.

I'm open to any kind of suggestion, or solution.

MikeHLondon2

Hi Andregn

Since NO-ONE AT DROPBOX can be bothered to help their users on this point it seems, I wanted to share a scrap of information I have which might help you.

Sounds like your need a little different from mine - I was asking about *pure headless* devices, whereas you I think are in a different situation - but still with the problem you **can find no way to relocate the storage location**. Let me just tell you what I found subsequently which might help.

I was seeking to use Dropbox on a headless device - hence no desktop / no system tray - nowhere (as explained above in my earlier post) to find the Dropbox "tool" which allows you to change location. I got NO ANSWER as you see above so solve that issue a different way.

BUT subsequently I've tried Dropbox again / different situation but AGAIN on a 'modest' machine -- running a super lightweight Linux called ANTIX. Nominally, it looked like I would have the same problem, but what I did was this:

1. Installed Dropbox using SYNAPTIC under Linux (straight from repositories - default).

2. This gave me an installation but NO commands or menu entries to run it.

But before giving up on it - I tried experimentally running dropbox from the command line - you have to run

dropbox start -i

...and to my surprise, that popped up a taskbar icon which when right-clicked, gave me a pop window offering (see attached image above ). As you see that Window at centre, offers 'Dropbox Folder Location' -- which there - with the benefit of a desktop - you can click and edit.

That MIGHT solve your issue IF you're using some Linux with a Desktop.

But if you're working headless as I was, I HAVE FOUND something else since which may help -- which is *where the Storage Path appears to be stored*. I found it seems to be in this file:

/home/yourusername/.dropbox/info.json

[ EG my copy of that file contains this:

{"personal": {"path": "/media/240GB/DROPBOX2/Dropbox", "host": 1426857425, "is_team": false, "subscription_type": "Basic"}}

]

SO you MAY FIND, that if you edit the path in that JSON file, and then restart dropbox from the command line, it may work. I've not tried the headless situation specifically since I needed it: but it may well and I hope this helps you and or someone else.

I have to say - once working, the synch to cloud was very sound and reliable.

Best wishes

Mike H

London UK

linux000001

I'm not surprised this hasn't been fixed yet. Dropbox has terrible support of Linux users. I've been a paying customer for years and never had a good experience with them. I would move to a different company if there were any strong competitors.

I agree...this sounds trivial for a software engineer to fix. When installing, simply ask where you want to create the directory. I guarantee Mike isn't the only one that's overly frustrated with Dropbox when it comes to simple Linux support.