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Path error in Dropbox after User Home name changed..

Specifically Dropbox 112.4.321 on MacOS 10.12.6.

Background:

A restore from backup (TimeMachine) after a failed hard drive resulted in a number 1 being appended to the User Name.

Most things did not notice this, but I found it an annoyance for something which I now forget. So I used the time-tested procedure of renaming a Home folder, by logging in as another Admin (or perhaps Root), changing the Home folder name (by removing the space and 1 from the end), and then creating a new User with the correct name. The OS alerted me that such a Home folder already existed, so did I wish to utilise that? Yes, exactly what I want.

So this fixed all the annoyances I had been experiencing but created a new problem, with Dropbox.

Problem:

Dropbox thinks the path to the folder is "/Users/Supermac 1", but the actual path is "/Users/Supermac" and it fails to launch, providing a permissions error. There is no User folder named Supermac 1. Perhaps I will need to create one with the sole purpose of launching Dropbox in order to move the Dropbox folder!

Questions:

1— Is there a plist or similar containing the path to the Dropbox folder? If so what is it called, where is it located and what is the String name?

2— Is there a Terminal Command that will edit the path to the Dropbox folder? I am not a UNIX Admin, but am cautious and have successfully executed commands provided, to do things such as copy RAID disks to larger volumes, create symlinks, show invisible files, run daily maintenance and many other things.

In essence the actual solution is rather simple, but I do not have access to it. The Dropbox App will not launch with this error, so I cannot use the Dropbox Location menu within the App. I cannot use the contextual menu to launch Dropbox from the Dropbox folder, and the instructions in the Help named "Dropbox permissions error - how to fix in Terminal on MacOS" do not work, because the file or directory does not exist.

I would be most grateful for an answer as my Dropbox is shared with my lawyer for a case I have lodged in Court. Thanks in advance.

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Supermac

Hi @Здравко

What a wonderful solution. I thought it should be relatively straight-forward. Thank you kindly.

I cannot verify if that worked as I fixed it the "long way round", as follows;

- logged in as root

- created a folder in Users with the name that Dropbox was seeking

- copied my existing Dropbox into it

- changed the pseudo-User folder to Read/Write for all Admins

- logged in as normal User name. Dropbox app now discovered and could access the file it was expecting.

The Dropbox app went through the whole Setup process which allowed me to delete devices (it had three copies of the same computer - possibly from three different HDD replacements (or SDD the last one). I could also delete instances of Safari that were supposedly logged in from 3 years ago! Part of the setup allowed me to choose "Other…" as a location for the Dropbox folder and I chose the expected instance in my own User folder.

After a few minutes Syncing - all was well, and I believe it is functional now.

ENHANCEMENT SUGGESTION

I recommend that Dropbox allows the app to go into setup mode and reselect the Destination or instance of Dropbox to connect to, when it has an error like I described.

Once again, thank you for looking at my problem and providing a succinct answer.

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Здравко

Hi @Supermac,

You can forcibly unlink your application from the account using following command:

rm -rf ~/.dropbox

After that, run the application and link back to your account as usual.

Hope this helps.