I travel frequently and since most of the time phone tethering is not unlimited, I don't want Dropbox to sync over a hotspot. It seems that Dropbox has no functionality to detect this and stop syncing (on the Mac desktop client). How can I make sure Dropbox doesn't suck up my bandwidth when I'm on a hotspot? "Just remember to pause it when hotspot connects" is error-prone because it relies on remembering, and if I forget, I could lose a lot of the monthly data on my cell plan. I just want to automate this.

I'm backing up my Mac to an external hard drive with TimeMachine. I would also like to back up my Documents folder to the cloud. Dropbox Backup sounds good – but will Dropbox move my Documents folder to within its Dropbox directory? And will this prevent TimeMachine from backing it up? I want my Documents folder to stay where it is. In my User account folder. And I want to work on my files locally (not on cloud files) – and for these local files to get backed up to the cloud in the background. I've tried OneDrive and it moves the Documents folder into the OneDrive folder. OneDrive also can't cope with folders starting with a space (and I have a lot of folders on my Mac starting with a space!). Will this be a problem in Dropbox? (I've tried iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents twice and both times it has completely knackered my Mac – because the files live on the cloud, large files can clog up the synching and then Finder goes glitchy)

I have installed Dropbox app on Mac. This created a folder named "Dropbox" in my home folder. I copied a large folder into this Dropbox folder. The syncing of this folder is taking a lot of time so I have unlinked the Dropbox folder from Dropbox app (Dropbox app preferences -> Account -> Unlink the dropbox). Now when I try to delete this "Dropbox" folder I get the below error: The operation can’t be completed because some items had to be skipped. For each item, choose File > Get Info, make sure “Locked” is deselected, and then check the Sharing & Permissions section. When you are sure the items are unlocked and not designated as Read Only or No Access, try again. I have seen the 'Get Info' and see that the folder has 'locked' checkbox not ticked and also in users I see that I have read&write access I also restarted my Mac but I still get the same error How do I delete this folder(including all its sub-folders). How can I force delete this folder? I am able to move the folder to Bin but I cannot delete the folder from Bin. I was doing 'Delete immediately' option and the folder is not getting deleted. How do I get the free space on my hard drive back?

I have a lot of data (TBs) on Dropbox. My laptop hard drive has only 500 GB. For the last few years, I’ve been using the sync feature on Dropbox and only downloading what I need for my laptop as needed. So, at any given time, I only have 500 GB of data locally, with the rest “on the cloud”. Goal: I want to stop using Dropbox. I do want to have a subset of my documents available locally on my Mac and the rest retrievable “on cold storage” when needed and connected. Plan: Make a copy of all my Dropbox files on a 15 TB external hard drive and stop paying for Dropbox storage. I want all my data to sit on a 15 TB hard drive and then pull in a small subset “local copy” to my laptop as needed. When I plug in the external hard drive, all the changes made on my laptop will be mirrored on the external. Problem: Can I sync up the hard drive with my laptop to make the hard drive function like Dropbox does?

I have this recurring problem where certain files can't be removed from my bin: > The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “0000” > can’t be read or written. (Error code -36) I'm pretty certain that the problem is related to the '*online-only*' feature of Dropbox. E.g. me deleting files that are in the cloud rather than stored on my hard drive. I think the only way I could delete them would be to first restore them to their original folder, sync them with dropbox and then delete them again. Surely there has to be a better way?

Here's the setup… Computer A - Running Transmission - placing files in a Dropbox folder - Uses iTunes Match to load music from Computer B's iTunes library - Is always running Computer B - Shares Dropbox folder with Computer A - Is "master" computer for iTunes Match account - Is not always running Current process 1. Download files via transmission to dropbox folder 2. Start computer B, wait for dropbox folder to synchronize 3. Copy files to "Automatically Added to iTunes folder" What I want is to have a folder action that when Computer B sees new files in the dropbox folder it will wait till all file transfers are complete, then copy just the new files into **"Automatically added to iTunes"** All of my current tries have caused Automator to re-add all files in the dropbox folder to iTunes, creating duplicates. One limitation to be aware of — unaltered versions of the files must stay in the dropbox folder.

is there any 'easy' way to sync my ForkLift so I don't have to keep updating my three computers every time I add an FTP for example.. I thought about doing a symlink via dropbox but I don't have idea of which folders contain this information. Any suggestions? Thanks, Luis.

I keep notes in text files (.txt) in a folder. I want to be able to edit and search these on my iPhone. I currently use VS Code to edit the text files on my Mac. Currently, I sync them via Dropbox. The Dropbox iOS app allows me to edit text files on my iPhone, but I can't search the text files' contents, unless I upgrade to a paid plan (minimum C$16 / month). I tried Google Drive, but it doesn't allow me to edit text files on iOS. But I can search them. So this is the opposite problem that I have with Dropbox. Is there another solution that I can use, which allows me to edit text files on my iPhone, synced from my Mac, and search their contents? I'm willing to pay up to $10 for a one-time iOS app, or up to $5 per month, for this ability.

I have recently noticed something weird. This MacBook Pro I now have is new, M3 Max (14-30), 16-inch, so I documented every step of its configuration. In System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Apps Using iCloud, the starting list after the first boot contains 15 apps. Looking at the list now I have 22—which is irrelevant—but one of them is Dropbox, with the switch turned ON. Why on Earth would Dropbox need to use iCloud Drive? Shouldn't it be its own thing? I have turned the switch OFF for now, and Dropbox is still working fine, as expected, but something else strange happened: Time Machine backups are no longer completing. Browsing the log I could find several repeated entries pointing at something starting with com.dropbox.somethingElse and about the auto-backup starting but then always finding a reason not to complete. The UI in System Settings (as well as the menu bar) showed "Preparing to back up", and stayed there for the whole night. I forced the MBP to shut down, waited a bit, then booted in Safe Mode and successfully completed the backup there. Browsing the log again with the T2M2 & Mints apps showed 2 backups in the last 24h which had completed successfully, so I wonder what made it get stuck.

I have some Shortcuts using Dropbox actions (such as “Get Dropbox File”). Now whenever I try to run them, I get this error: > An unknown error occurred (invalid_access_token/) This started to happen after I disconnected all my apps from Dropbox due to some security concerns. Other apps allow me to easily reconnect to Dropbox, but I couldn’t find a way to do that in Shortcuts. So how can I reconnect Siri Shortcuts to Dropbox? (That would also be useful for switching the Dropbox account connect to Siri Shortcuts, by the way).

I have all my passwords and stuff in an Open Office Write document (.odt file) in Dropbox. That file is itself password-protected (which effectively means it is encrypted with the password being the key). I'm happy with this approach generally (I'm not looking for advice on whether it's secure enough, thanks), but the one problem is that the Dropbox app on my iPhone can't handle the password-protected aspect - it just says "Unable to open file". It'd be very handy to be able to access this info on my phone while i'm out and about, but I don't want to put it in Dropbox in an unencrypted format. Does anyone know of a different password-protected text file format which **will** work in the Dropbox app? Ie will ask me for the password then open the file? Alternatively, can anyone recommend a different app which syncs between devices and does password protection, and works on iphone? I don't mind a one-off payment but i'd prefer not to have to do a monthly subscription. Also i'd prefer something that has freeform text entry rather than something that just stores usernames and passwords because sometimes I have to write notes about things. **EDIT**: It was suggested in the comments to use the Notes app, and i've just tried that. Unfortunately, because i'm using a different icloud account on my work computer as on my phone, I need to do it as a "Shared Note", and shared Notes can not be locked (ie password protected). So I think Notes is not going to work unfortunately. **EDIT2**: The Notes app on iphone, combined with being logged into icloud.com in the **web browser** on my work mac (rather than using the native Notes app on the mac) seems to be working - both the iphone Notes app and the website require the password (which is different to the password to log into the icloud.com website) to view the contents of the file, which is what I needed.

Ever since Dropbox updated its software a few months ago, and advised all Mac users to update in order to continue having the same facilities, a folder in my Dropbox Cloud was apparently corrupted and could not be read. I tried to salvage what I could and deleted the folder directly from the Dropbox site. It, however, appears in my Trash and cannot be deleted. I get: "The operation can't be completed because the item > is in use". (All other items do get deleted from Trash.) I have tried sudo rm commands from Terminal, using all possible parameters (-R, -ri, -rf etc.) to no avail. I have tried to erase it *before* Dropbox gets loaded at startup, again to no avail. I have erased ".Trash", but again the stubborn file pops up in the Trash. I am using MacOS Monterey 12.6.6 on a Mac Pro (Late 2013). Help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

When right clicked in the dropbox directory, the menu looks like this. I don't use those dropbox options and don't plan on doing so in the future. I understand I can disable the dropbox extension for the Finder altogether and lose sync badges etc, but is there a way to just disable these dropbox menu items? Edit: Seems that if you disable the Finder extension, in Venture, it disables syncing altogether. _Chef's kiss._

Is it possible to find the location of an iPad via Dropbox activity? We are looking for a 'lost' iPad and don't have any other app that might be able to give us information.

I am trying to understand how the new dropbox folder on macos works with Spotlight Search. system: macbook pro, macOS 13.2.1 and DropBox v169.4.5684 This version of DropBox puts locally stored files in ~/Library/CloudStorage/DropBox I know that many people have found that Spotlight will not index files in that directory without forcing a rebuild of the Spotlight index. I have rebuilt the Spotlight index successfully and now have the following two different behaviors: 1. If I use spotlight to search for any file that is stored on my mac in the directory ~/Library/CloudStorage/DropBox/tmp/ , Spotlight search is SUCCESSFUL, finding the file with a full text search or a search for the name of the file. It also reports the file's full path correctly. 2. But, if I navigate to that directory using the Finder and search for that file using the search box in that Finder window, that search FAILS, whether I search for the file name or the text contents of the file. Two other bits of information: A. the Dropbox directory itself and all the directories and files in it have extended attributes. For example, the xattr command reports these attributes for the Dropbox folder:

$ xattr -lx Dropbox 
com.apple.FinderInfo: 
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| 
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................| 
00000020 
com.apple.file-provider-domain-id: 
00000000 63 6F 6D 2E 67 65 74 64 72 6F 70 62 6F 78 2E 64 |com.getdropbox.d| 
00000010 72 6F 70 62 6F 78 2E 66 69 6C 65 70 72 6F 76 69 |ropbox.fileprovi| 
00000020 64 65 72 2F 38 65 30 34 36 66 65 35 2D 61 38 37 |der/8e046fe5-a87| 
00000030 33 2D 34 62 33 36 2D 38 65 62 30 2D 62 36 34 62 |3-4b36-8eb0-b64b| 
00000040 63 39 65 64 65 64 30 36 |c9eded06| 
00000048 
com.dropbox.attrs: 
00000000 0A 12 0A 10 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF |................| 
00000010 FF FF FF FF 10 F0 BD 9C 8E 0B |..........|

B. When I cd in the terminal to any of the directories in the Dropbox directory, linux commands such as ls, attr, less, and grep all work normally. So, the files are there and Spotlight knows they are there. Why won't the directory ("folder") specific searches work???

I'm unable to complete the latest Dropbox update that changes the location of Dropbox on macOS to ~/Library/CloudStorage. Following the walkthrough that appears in the Dropbox app I get in an infinite loop where the files can't be moved ("right now"). FWIW, I can't move them there using the app's settings either, though I have no problem adding or changing files in the folder otherwise, and can even drag the Dropbox folder there in Finder (though that disconnects Dropbox). How do I complete the update? Is anyone else having these issues. (macOS 13.2.1 / MBA M2)

I have a simple html file with all my links that I share between all my devices. I can see and open the file from within the Dropbox application but cannot seem to figure out, how to open it from Safari and add it to my favorites.

All of a sudden in the dock (next to downloads folder etc) the dropbox folder is just showing as a plain blue regular mac folder. It still looks correct in Finder And also in Get Info I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but it just put a 'plain' folder back into the Dock. Any suggestions?

My OneDrive and DropBox will not sync photos on my iPhone unless they are opened. I have checked both apps settings and they are allowed to run in the background. Also, both are allowed to use cellular data. So, basically, I followed all the recommendations however it seems they only sync when they are opened. iCloud syncs fine and I can see all my photos in the cloud. Any idea or tips on how to make OneDrive and DropBox work in the background?

I have two macs with a Dropbox folder syncing between them. The Dropbox on my iMac is not syncing properly, i.e. when I add new files, it just does not sync them. Only when I pause and then sync again does it get synced. How can I solve this? (I have Monterey 12.4)