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Ubuntu Linux: Website says it supports xfs file system, but Dropbox demands Ext4 or NTFS?

Hello,

I have an Ubuntu virtual machine running on Unraid. I have mapped one of the hard drives in the server and mounted it inside the virtual machine. Ubuntu reports the filesystem of this share as xfs.

https://help.dropbox.com/installs/system-requirements

According to this page, on 64bit Linux installations, xfs is supported....yet when I install the latest Dropbox and try and set that share as the location to store the Dropbox files, it demands either an Ext4 or NTFS file system.

What am I missing?

Thanks

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Здравко

Hi @dolphinuser426,

To be sure what Dropbox application sees, check your configuration with following command in terminal:

stat -f ~

What is reported as FS? 🧐

By the way NTFS is not supported by Dropbox on Linux and it should be something Dropbox never asks for. Where do you see such demands? That would be something strange (and something I personally wouldn't complain for) if not your mistake! Can you post a screenshot of the exact message where the Dropbox application asks for NTFS?

dolphinuser426

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

Firstly, I was mistaken re: the NTFS on Linux thing - it asks for Ext4 only. I was thinking of what I had read elsewhere. I had thought until a few days ago that Dropbox only worked with NTFS or Ext4 file systems - but then read at the link in my original post that it actually supports other file systems such as xfs and zfs.

This is a screenshot on Imgur of what stat -f ~ shows for me.

Thanks

Здравко

@dolphinuser426, As I suspected, your partition where Dropbox is supposed to exists is neither xfs nor ext4 (nor other expected). As can be seen there is ext3. 🤷 That's it. Unfortunately Dropbox is very pretentious.

If I have to bet, you have correct FS, but mounted on incorrect place. Check this and fix your system - Dropbox folder appears in your home folder initially and in this context your home has to match the requirements (by now it doesn't). You can move the location later, but unfortunately on Linux Dropbox does NOT support this to be done in advance. 😕

Hope this gives direction.

dolphinuser426

Thank you for your reply.

It's a really difficult one for me to try explain with this cause like I said, I am running Ubuntu in a VM on Unraid. The place I am trying to use as the place Dropbox folder using the Dropbox app running inside the VM is on the one of the drives in the Unraid the array. The drive is formatted with an xfs file system. I then pass that location through in the VM settings and I have added a line to fstab. It then shows up in the home directory.

This is a screenshot of the folder/mount point.

Unraid uses the FUSE file system to bring all of the drives in the array together into a single pool - but you can access all of the drives in the array individually and bypass the FUSE FS...or so I thought.

One other thing I should have mentioned in my previous post: Would what you said in your previous reply change at all if I said that the Dropbox app does allow me to set the save location to anywhere else other than the mounted share?

If none of what I am saying makes sense - I apologise and if you don't wish to deal with this, I totally understand. I am not an expert *at all* with Linux stuff.

Thanks

Здравко

Yes, as I suspected, you have correct FS but on incorrect place (see my previous post).

I don't know how to say it clearer. Probably you got in confusion because Dropbox support selecting a place for where to sync Dropbox folder on Mac and on Windows, but not on Linux. On Linux Dropbox application cannot understand that you want to use the folder you're showing. Yes the FS there is correct, but Dropbox stupidly tries to put data on different pplace and there is no way to avoid this - just Dropbox doesn't support Linux and many features available on other OSes are missing here. That's where your issue is coming from. The only way to workaround is to put your home folder in supported partition (the one you post the last) and repeat everything anew - Dropbox doesn't provide other way unfortunately. 🤦

Don't get confused anew that such thing is possible on Mac or Windows. 🤷 Dropbox ignore Linux. That's it. You are not the first getting in this lot of Dropbox issues and probably not the last.

Good luck.

dolphinuser426

Hey man, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

It's kind of wild that what I think, by a country mile, is the best cloud storage service available, so readily ignores Linux. Kinda shocking. I understand it's going to be a number of people who use it vs. the time and cost to flesh out the Linux version...but man it's disappointing. I've been trying to find a way to sync my Dropbox to my Unraid server since moving to Unraid and I have been surprised that it seems impossible, whether it's a docker container or a VM. Even my old QNAP NAS works with Dropbox lol.

I tried a fresh install of Ubuntu, twice actually. Once setting up using an XFS file system and then once explicitly setting Ext4 - both failed. I don't know enough about Linux to try anything else so I guess I've just got to give it up lol.

No worries though. Again, thank you for your time!

Здравко

@dolphinuser426 wrote:
... Even my old QNAP NAS works with Dropbox lol.
...

Actually it's Linux, but doesn't use official Dropbox application. 🙂 There OEM application is in use, that's why works without issues. 🙋

I cannot comment what's the new issue since if you have reinstalled with some of supported FSes (not ext3, as before), then it should work. Did you check with the command I posted above? 🧐

It's inconvenient, but not impossible. 😉

PS: You may try other service (like pCloud or Mega) where are no stupid requirements. There you may choose where and how to sync (initially pCloud doesn't sync anything by default).