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How can I change the Dropbox folder location using only the command line/remote access?

rated 0 times [ 0] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 746 / 2 Years ago, mon, august 8, 2022, 10:03:48

I have Dropbox installed on a remote machine which I can only access via command line. The Dropbox folder installs by default to ~/, which is on a low-capacity SSD that holds my OS and programs. I would like to move the Dropbox folder to my internal HDD, /platter, which has enough capacity to hold all the files in my Dropbox. I can't figure out how to do this using only the command line/remote access.

I've tried moving the folder with mv ~/Dropbox /platter/Dropbox. It moves fine but won't sync. dropbox status only returns Dropbox isn't running! even though I can see the processes in htop. dropbox start runs some stuff that looks like it's starting (and I see things happening in the htop view of processes that have dropbox in them), but then dropbox status returns the same message -- Dropbox isn't running! It starts syncing again if I mv /platter/Dropbox ~/Dropbox, kill the running Dropbox processes, and re-run Dropbox start.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled using the headless install instructions here, but it still puts the Dropbox folder into ~/.

The instructions on the Dropbox website aren't super helpful because they assume access to the Dropbox GUI. I need something that can work via command line only since I only have remote access to the machine.

The other questions I've seen on here also seem to use the GUI. Is there a way to change where the folder is and get it to sync using only the command line/remote access?

The remote machine is running Ubuntu 18.04, Dropbox daemon version 140.3.1861, and Dropbox command-line interface version 2020.03.04.

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lowovey

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answered 2 Years ago nalystcul · Accepted Answer

Many years ago I used a bind mount to keep the Dropbox data on an external disk. (At the time the Dropbox application refused to work with symlinks, which might not be the case now.)

What I did was something like:

cp ~/Dropbox /media/data/Dropbox

echo /media/data/Dropbox ~/Dropbox bind bind | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

sudo mount ~/Dropbox

(cp so that I wouldn't have to copy all the data back if it didn't work - we can always unmount and empty the directory once it's been found to work.)