Question

20

Dropbox on a dual-boot machine

rated 0 times [ 20] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 1725 / 2 Years ago, sat, august 27, 2022, 9:16:20

I have a dual boot laptop- Ubuntu 20.04 and Windows 10, both located on same HD, different partitions, and a third one, meant to be for common use.

To avoid putting my Dropbox folder on each OS, I wish to install it on that 3rd partition. I though that "FAT32" will fit for that job, but when I installed Dropbox on Windows side, it asked for "NTFS" (so it was changed from "FAT32" to "NTFS") and when I switch to Ubuntu, Dropbox asked for "Ext4".

Can this situation be solved ?

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

peafowkes

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 356

Total Questions: 102

Total Answers: 117

Location: Lebanon

Member since Tue, Oct 12, 2021

3 Years ago

peafowkes questions

1 empty XXXXX.html.part files remaining on desktop - can't find their origin

Mon, Jan 3, 22, 06:00, 2 Years ago

1 How do I launch gnome's print screen dialog without using the PrtScn key in recent versions of Gnome?

Thu, Apr 28, 22, 20:02, 2 Years ago

1 npm does not support Node.js v10.19.0

Tue, Dec 6, 22, 20:59, 1 Year ago

1 How can I get drivers for my Linksys WUSB6300 on Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS?

Wed, Jan 19, 22, 14:29, 2 Years ago

1 Do I need to create a separate EFI partition during installation of Ubuntu (dual boot)

Sun, Sep 26, 21, 08:33, 3 Years ago

View All

answered 2 Years ago freezidepu · Accepted Answer

Q. Can this situation be solved?

Nope.

Which probably leads to ...

Q. Why not?

The problem comes down to how Dropbox relies on the journaling mechanism of the file system to know when a file has been changed. This reduces the overhead of actively watching (potentially) millions of files, which comes with a high cost.

Linux does not have a mechanism to observe the NTFS journal in a reliable manner, so the Dropbox client cannot use NTFS file systems. Windows has a similar issue in that it does not have a reliable means of reading the Ext4 journal. FAT-based file systems do not use journaling at all, which is why Dropbox stopped supporting those file systems several years ago.