New Windows User and one Dropbox account - Can't access files that are online-only.

Question

Whenever my awesome IT folks can't fix something, they just create a new windows user account for me. Besides losing all my preferences and needing to reinstall programs and other headaches, I believe this is causing me to lose access to dropbox files which are stored under the previous users 'documents' folder. The last time this happened, I created a dropbox top level folder that was in a location common to all users in the root of a drive partition. Two days ago they got me again with a new user profile. I can't access any 'online only' files in the dropbox folder that I created with the previous user. See the image below for the message I get. I can still access these files from the previous windows user account.

How is the windows user linked to the dropbox account? I only have one dropbox account but want to access it from multiple windows accounts (Which are all still my accounts with different user names thanks to IT).

Hannah · Answer

Sorry to jump in here, @Keith Given.

The Dropbox folder you have in your D drive is no longer syncing, right?

If you need to use Dropbox from your D drive, we'd suggest you rename the existing Dropbox folder (the one in D) to something like "Dropbox (old)" or delete it, and then move the syncing Dropbox folder to that location, using these steps.

Before doing anything, though, just make sure that the Dropbox folder that's now in the D drive is not actually syncing, to avoid any deletions of your files.

Keith Given · Answer

All the users of the computer are me. My IT keeps creating a new profile for me every time they run into an issue. I was just trying to put it in a place where I could get it with the new user. Then hoping to delete the old user without losing stuff.

Jay · Answer

Hi @Keith Given, it isn't recommended to have your Dropbox folder located on a central location for all your user accounts on your machine, since this would result in permission issues, syncing performance, and potential file deletion.

You can choose to have the folder somewhere easier (like D: \Dropbox) for the current user, however, using the same location for another computer user entirely isn't recommended.