Hi everyone,
I’m trying to set up Dropbox on File Provider with the Dropbox folder on an external drive, but setup always fails with Errno 513 (NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513, “The file couldn’t be saved because you don’t have permission”). Choosing the default location on the internal drive works fine.
Setup
- Mac mini, macOS 27.0.1
- Dropbox desktop app 274.4.4905 (fresh install), Basic plan
- External drive: Samsung T7 1 TB (USB), shown in Finder as APFS (Encrypted)
- Home folder is on the internal drive
Steps to reproduce
- Sign in to the desktop app
- “You’re almost finished” > Advanced settings > Dropbox folder location > select the Samsung T7
- Dropbox fails with the error below
What I’ve already checked
diskutil info on the volume: APFS, FileVault: Yes, Owners: Enabled, Volume Read-Only: No- “Ignore ownership on this volume” was enabled by default, so I disabled it (
diskutil enableOwnership) - The volume root was owned by root:wheel (******). I changed the owner to my user, and a write test at the root of the volume now succeeds
- Fixed the permissions of
.TemporaryItems on the volume (folders.<uid> is owned by my user) - Dropbox has Full Disk Access
- Found a leftover
~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox folder from a previous install and moved it out - Deleted
~/.dropbox, restarted the Mac and tried again: same error every time - The unified log (fileproviderd and Dropbox processes) shows nothing relevant at the time of the error
Error (personal info redacted)
bn.VERSION: 274.4.4905
uid: 501
appdata: '/Users/<user>/.dropbox/instance4'
dropbox_path: None
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 7464, in _setup_root_for_account
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/helpers.py", line 204, in create_root_for_account
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 939, in result
File "desktop/dropbox/exception/exception_decorators.py", line 47, in newfn
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.py", line 349, in _completion_domains
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.py", line 335, in set_result_or_convert_exception
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 751, in set_result
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 714, in _on_post
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 1138, in _stage1
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 998, in _when_done
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 1157, in _stage2
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 751, in set_result
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 714, in _on_post
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 1119, in _stage1
File "desktop/dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.py", line 451, in _then_callback
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.py", line 1286, in _init_completion
File "desktop/dropbox/exception/exception_decorators.py", line 47, in newfn
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.py", line 1207, in _init_completion_inner
dropbox.mac.internal.MacError: [Errno 513] Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513 "Non è stato possibile salvare il file perché non hai i permessi."
(The error text is the Italian system message for “The file couldn’t be saved because you don’t have permission.”)
Questions
- Is external drive support for Dropbox on File Provider supported on macOS 27?
- Is there any other requirement that could make this volume ineligible, or a way to see the actual reason behind the 513 error?
- If an external drive isn’t possible, can I still opt out of File Provider on macOS 27?
Thanks!
