Dropbox: ext4 isn't ext4











up vote
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down vote

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Some time ago Dropbox began to warn me about supporting ext4 as FS only. As a happy BTRFS user I wasn't happy, but have done this:



dropbox stop
dd if=/dev/zero of=~/dropbox.img bs=1M count=4096
mkfs.ext4 ~/dropbox.img
echo "${HOME}/dropbox.img ${HOME}/Dropbox ext4 rw,async 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
rm -rf ~/Dropbox/*
sudo mount "${HOME}/Dropbox"
sudo chown "${USER}:" "${HOME}/Dropbox"


Everything worked without errors, but Dropbox still says that I should use ext4 for its folder. What am I doing wrong?










share|improve this question




















  • 1




    @mook765 Problem is NOT fixed. I've accidently removed that field while making code use $USER and $HOME variables. Originally, I did this edit using gedit, but connaldline-only solution is more elegant for me.
    – val
    Aug 17 at 13:15










  • What is the output of df ${HOME}/Dropbox --output=fstype
    – Ravexina
    Oct 25 at 11:55










  • @Ravexina Type ext4
    – val
    Oct 25 at 12:12






  • 2




    I am very curious what feature in ext4 they depend on, which isn't also present in btrfs.
    – kasperd
    Oct 25 at 12:37















up vote
15
down vote

favorite
5












Some time ago Dropbox began to warn me about supporting ext4 as FS only. As a happy BTRFS user I wasn't happy, but have done this:



dropbox stop
dd if=/dev/zero of=~/dropbox.img bs=1M count=4096
mkfs.ext4 ~/dropbox.img
echo "${HOME}/dropbox.img ${HOME}/Dropbox ext4 rw,async 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
rm -rf ~/Dropbox/*
sudo mount "${HOME}/Dropbox"
sudo chown "${USER}:" "${HOME}/Dropbox"


Everything worked without errors, but Dropbox still says that I should use ext4 for its folder. What am I doing wrong?










share|improve this question




















  • 1




    @mook765 Problem is NOT fixed. I've accidently removed that field while making code use $USER and $HOME variables. Originally, I did this edit using gedit, but connaldline-only solution is more elegant for me.
    – val
    Aug 17 at 13:15










  • What is the output of df ${HOME}/Dropbox --output=fstype
    – Ravexina
    Oct 25 at 11:55










  • @Ravexina Type ext4
    – val
    Oct 25 at 12:12






  • 2




    I am very curious what feature in ext4 they depend on, which isn't also present in btrfs.
    – kasperd
    Oct 25 at 12:37













up vote
15
down vote

favorite
5









up vote
15
down vote

favorite
5






5





Some time ago Dropbox began to warn me about supporting ext4 as FS only. As a happy BTRFS user I wasn't happy, but have done this:



dropbox stop
dd if=/dev/zero of=~/dropbox.img bs=1M count=4096
mkfs.ext4 ~/dropbox.img
echo "${HOME}/dropbox.img ${HOME}/Dropbox ext4 rw,async 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
rm -rf ~/Dropbox/*
sudo mount "${HOME}/Dropbox"
sudo chown "${USER}:" "${HOME}/Dropbox"


Everything worked without errors, but Dropbox still says that I should use ext4 for its folder. What am I doing wrong?










share|improve this question















Some time ago Dropbox began to warn me about supporting ext4 as FS only. As a happy BTRFS user I wasn't happy, but have done this:



dropbox stop
dd if=/dev/zero of=~/dropbox.img bs=1M count=4096
mkfs.ext4 ~/dropbox.img
echo "${HOME}/dropbox.img ${HOME}/Dropbox ext4 rw,async 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
rm -rf ~/Dropbox/*
sudo mount "${HOME}/Dropbox"
sudo chown "${USER}:" "${HOME}/Dropbox"


Everything worked without errors, but Dropbox still says that I should use ext4 for its folder. What am I doing wrong?







mount ext4 dropbox






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Oct 25 at 10:03

























asked Aug 16 at 21:44









val

98112




98112








  • 1




    @mook765 Problem is NOT fixed. I've accidently removed that field while making code use $USER and $HOME variables. Originally, I did this edit using gedit, but connaldline-only solution is more elegant for me.
    – val
    Aug 17 at 13:15










  • What is the output of df ${HOME}/Dropbox --output=fstype
    – Ravexina
    Oct 25 at 11:55










  • @Ravexina Type ext4
    – val
    Oct 25 at 12:12






  • 2




    I am very curious what feature in ext4 they depend on, which isn't also present in btrfs.
    – kasperd
    Oct 25 at 12:37














  • 1




    @mook765 Problem is NOT fixed. I've accidently removed that field while making code use $USER and $HOME variables. Originally, I did this edit using gedit, but connaldline-only solution is more elegant for me.
    – val
    Aug 17 at 13:15










  • What is the output of df ${HOME}/Dropbox --output=fstype
    – Ravexina
    Oct 25 at 11:55










  • @Ravexina Type ext4
    – val
    Oct 25 at 12:12






  • 2




    I am very curious what feature in ext4 they depend on, which isn't also present in btrfs.
    – kasperd
    Oct 25 at 12:37








1




1




@mook765 Problem is NOT fixed. I've accidently removed that field while making code use $USER and $HOME variables. Originally, I did this edit using gedit, but connaldline-only solution is more elegant for me.
– val
Aug 17 at 13:15




@mook765 Problem is NOT fixed. I've accidently removed that field while making code use $USER and $HOME variables. Originally, I did this edit using gedit, but connaldline-only solution is more elegant for me.
– val
Aug 17 at 13:15












What is the output of df ${HOME}/Dropbox --output=fstype
– Ravexina
Oct 25 at 11:55




What is the output of df ${HOME}/Dropbox --output=fstype
– Ravexina
Oct 25 at 11:55












@Ravexina Type ext4
– val
Oct 25 at 12:12




@Ravexina Type ext4
– val
Oct 25 at 12:12




2




2




I am very curious what feature in ext4 they depend on, which isn't also present in btrfs.
– kasperd
Oct 25 at 12:37




I am very curious what feature in ext4 they depend on, which isn't also present in btrfs.
– kasperd
Oct 25 at 12:37










5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
20
down vote



accepted
+50










There are three things in total that Dropbox requires to continue working on Linux, and only one is properly documented. What I'm summarising here worked for Dropbox 59.4.93 on Ubuntu 18.04.1 (amd64).



You've already cleared the first hurdle:




  • The base file system needs to be ext4, and specifically not ecryptfs. i.e. if your home folder is encrypted, you need to put the Dropbox folder someplace else, eg. a separate ext4 partition.


The other things to check are these:




  • The ext4 file system needs to be formatted with ext_attr on. This is the default behavior, but you can confirm by running debugfs -R features /dev/sda1 (or whatever your device file is called -- if you're using LVM it might be something like /dev/mapper/computername--vg-partitionname)

  • The ext4 partition needs to be mounted with the user_xattr option set (You can check for and add the option in GNOME disks or edit /etc/fstab directly)

  • The target folder (or Dropbox sync folder) needs to be at least two levels beneath the mountpoint, as described in this post. This is obviously a facepalm-worthy bug.


Once I fixed all these things, Dropbox finally allowed me to move the target folder and the error messages about "unsupported file system" disappeared.






share|improve this answer



















  • 2




    According to this thread, it seems that user_xattr option is set by default in the kernel for ext4 file system since 2.6.39.
    – Willie Robert
    Oct 30 at 9:26












  • Re the third point about depth below mountpoint - I found that /var/data/dropbox did not work when picking a new location using the Dropbox GUI client v60.4.107 and /var/data/dropbox/d did work when selecting a new location via the GUI client. / is my mount point for /dev/sda1 which is ext4. And this creates /var/data/dropbox/d/Dropbox as the sync folder 0_o
    – jamesc
    Nov 6 at 14:51










  • Thank you especially for the last point. I'm using Dropbox v60.4.107 on Linux Mint 18.3 64b and had problem with setting /partiton_for_dropbox as a Dropbox home. The error dialog still said something like "the partition is not ext4". What did work was choosing /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox. So yeah, the data is actually at /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox/Dropbox.
    – rzehan
    Nov 7 at 10:39










  • All four requirements are fulfilled in my case. But Dropbox is still complaining. It should be something else.
    – djhurio
    Nov 7 at 19:07


















up vote
2
down vote













I managed to fix this by using gnome-disks to format the ext4 partition instead of initially using GParted, as well as ensuring the Dropbox directory was placed at a 2-level depth of the mount point of the partition. On 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS with Dropbox v60.4.107.



The full storyline:




  1. To begin with I created my dedicated ext4 with GParted which also was used to resize the old partition to allow room for the new ext4.


  2. Then I tried to ensure that my setup fulfilled everything described by Florian's answer, but that did not solve my problem.


  3. Then after many tries at combining different solutions, I decided to erase the whole partition and reformat it to ext4 with Ubuntu's native disk manager (just called Disks or gnome-disks) leading to Dropbox accepting the partition as ext4!



I used the following line in /etc/fstab to mount the partition:



UUID=ext4_partition_UUID    /media/dropbox  ext4 defaults 0 2


(where ext4_partition_UUID represents the UUID found with ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/)



Notice that I do not specify the user_xattr option here.



My Dropbox folder is now located at /media/dropbox/data/Dropbox - but did not check if the depth of 2 was really necessary.



It seems something went wrong when formatting the ext4 partition with GParted instead of the native software - no idea why or what the difference between them would be. If anyone knows I would be happy to learn more about it.






share|improve this answer






























    up vote
    1
    down vote













    My Lubuntu 18.10 installation laptop started complaining about the Dropbox some time back, but it wasn't until last week that I found that it did not have the package attr installed. Once I had installed that, Dropbox appears to be happy…



    I had happened upon the article at https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/475253 and attempted to check the file attributes within the Dropbox directory on the laptop. I was surprised to discover that the getfattr command wasn't available, that led me to installing the package.



    This might be a way forward for you, or it could be a completely different problem, but I hope it's worth flagging up.






    share|improve this answer

















    • 1




      attr is installed.
      – val
      Oct 25 at 12:12


















    up vote
    1
    down vote













    There's an alternative to your solution - a GitHub repository called dropbox-filesystem-fix. This makes your Dropbox folder appear as if it's on an unencrypted Ext4 filesystem, no matter what filesystem you use, and you don't have to mount anything, you just have to run Dropbox with with a dropbox-filesystem library (LD_PRELOAD).



    You'll need to grab the code from GitHub, compile the library (make) and replace the Dropbox startup entry with the dropbox_start.py script provided by dropbox-filesystem-fix.



    If you need complete step by step instructions, check out this page.






    share|improve this answer




























      up vote
      0
      down vote













      Check if you are using ecryptfs which is not supported:




      ecryptfs is not supported, but Dropbox will continue to sync with supported file systems that are encrypted via full disk encryption (e.g. LUKS)







      share|improve this answer

















      • 2




        You see, there is only ext4 in fstab line... and I mount on btrfs.
        – val
        Oct 24 at 3:53











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      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

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      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

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      oldest

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      active

      oldest

      votes








      up vote
      20
      down vote



      accepted
      +50










      There are three things in total that Dropbox requires to continue working on Linux, and only one is properly documented. What I'm summarising here worked for Dropbox 59.4.93 on Ubuntu 18.04.1 (amd64).



      You've already cleared the first hurdle:




      • The base file system needs to be ext4, and specifically not ecryptfs. i.e. if your home folder is encrypted, you need to put the Dropbox folder someplace else, eg. a separate ext4 partition.


      The other things to check are these:




      • The ext4 file system needs to be formatted with ext_attr on. This is the default behavior, but you can confirm by running debugfs -R features /dev/sda1 (or whatever your device file is called -- if you're using LVM it might be something like /dev/mapper/computername--vg-partitionname)

      • The ext4 partition needs to be mounted with the user_xattr option set (You can check for and add the option in GNOME disks or edit /etc/fstab directly)

      • The target folder (or Dropbox sync folder) needs to be at least two levels beneath the mountpoint, as described in this post. This is obviously a facepalm-worthy bug.


      Once I fixed all these things, Dropbox finally allowed me to move the target folder and the error messages about "unsupported file system" disappeared.






      share|improve this answer



















      • 2




        According to this thread, it seems that user_xattr option is set by default in the kernel for ext4 file system since 2.6.39.
        – Willie Robert
        Oct 30 at 9:26












      • Re the third point about depth below mountpoint - I found that /var/data/dropbox did not work when picking a new location using the Dropbox GUI client v60.4.107 and /var/data/dropbox/d did work when selecting a new location via the GUI client. / is my mount point for /dev/sda1 which is ext4. And this creates /var/data/dropbox/d/Dropbox as the sync folder 0_o
        – jamesc
        Nov 6 at 14:51










      • Thank you especially for the last point. I'm using Dropbox v60.4.107 on Linux Mint 18.3 64b and had problem with setting /partiton_for_dropbox as a Dropbox home. The error dialog still said something like "the partition is not ext4". What did work was choosing /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox. So yeah, the data is actually at /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox/Dropbox.
        – rzehan
        Nov 7 at 10:39










      • All four requirements are fulfilled in my case. But Dropbox is still complaining. It should be something else.
        – djhurio
        Nov 7 at 19:07















      up vote
      20
      down vote



      accepted
      +50










      There are three things in total that Dropbox requires to continue working on Linux, and only one is properly documented. What I'm summarising here worked for Dropbox 59.4.93 on Ubuntu 18.04.1 (amd64).



      You've already cleared the first hurdle:




      • The base file system needs to be ext4, and specifically not ecryptfs. i.e. if your home folder is encrypted, you need to put the Dropbox folder someplace else, eg. a separate ext4 partition.


      The other things to check are these:




      • The ext4 file system needs to be formatted with ext_attr on. This is the default behavior, but you can confirm by running debugfs -R features /dev/sda1 (or whatever your device file is called -- if you're using LVM it might be something like /dev/mapper/computername--vg-partitionname)

      • The ext4 partition needs to be mounted with the user_xattr option set (You can check for and add the option in GNOME disks or edit /etc/fstab directly)

      • The target folder (or Dropbox sync folder) needs to be at least two levels beneath the mountpoint, as described in this post. This is obviously a facepalm-worthy bug.


      Once I fixed all these things, Dropbox finally allowed me to move the target folder and the error messages about "unsupported file system" disappeared.






      share|improve this answer



















      • 2




        According to this thread, it seems that user_xattr option is set by default in the kernel for ext4 file system since 2.6.39.
        – Willie Robert
        Oct 30 at 9:26












      • Re the third point about depth below mountpoint - I found that /var/data/dropbox did not work when picking a new location using the Dropbox GUI client v60.4.107 and /var/data/dropbox/d did work when selecting a new location via the GUI client. / is my mount point for /dev/sda1 which is ext4. And this creates /var/data/dropbox/d/Dropbox as the sync folder 0_o
        – jamesc
        Nov 6 at 14:51










      • Thank you especially for the last point. I'm using Dropbox v60.4.107 on Linux Mint 18.3 64b and had problem with setting /partiton_for_dropbox as a Dropbox home. The error dialog still said something like "the partition is not ext4". What did work was choosing /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox. So yeah, the data is actually at /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox/Dropbox.
        – rzehan
        Nov 7 at 10:39










      • All four requirements are fulfilled in my case. But Dropbox is still complaining. It should be something else.
        – djhurio
        Nov 7 at 19:07













      up vote
      20
      down vote



      accepted
      +50







      up vote
      20
      down vote



      accepted
      +50




      +50




      There are three things in total that Dropbox requires to continue working on Linux, and only one is properly documented. What I'm summarising here worked for Dropbox 59.4.93 on Ubuntu 18.04.1 (amd64).



      You've already cleared the first hurdle:




      • The base file system needs to be ext4, and specifically not ecryptfs. i.e. if your home folder is encrypted, you need to put the Dropbox folder someplace else, eg. a separate ext4 partition.


      The other things to check are these:




      • The ext4 file system needs to be formatted with ext_attr on. This is the default behavior, but you can confirm by running debugfs -R features /dev/sda1 (or whatever your device file is called -- if you're using LVM it might be something like /dev/mapper/computername--vg-partitionname)

      • The ext4 partition needs to be mounted with the user_xattr option set (You can check for and add the option in GNOME disks or edit /etc/fstab directly)

      • The target folder (or Dropbox sync folder) needs to be at least two levels beneath the mountpoint, as described in this post. This is obviously a facepalm-worthy bug.


      Once I fixed all these things, Dropbox finally allowed me to move the target folder and the error messages about "unsupported file system" disappeared.






      share|improve this answer














      There are three things in total that Dropbox requires to continue working on Linux, and only one is properly documented. What I'm summarising here worked for Dropbox 59.4.93 on Ubuntu 18.04.1 (amd64).



      You've already cleared the first hurdle:




      • The base file system needs to be ext4, and specifically not ecryptfs. i.e. if your home folder is encrypted, you need to put the Dropbox folder someplace else, eg. a separate ext4 partition.


      The other things to check are these:




      • The ext4 file system needs to be formatted with ext_attr on. This is the default behavior, but you can confirm by running debugfs -R features /dev/sda1 (or whatever your device file is called -- if you're using LVM it might be something like /dev/mapper/computername--vg-partitionname)

      • The ext4 partition needs to be mounted with the user_xattr option set (You can check for and add the option in GNOME disks or edit /etc/fstab directly)

      • The target folder (or Dropbox sync folder) needs to be at least two levels beneath the mountpoint, as described in this post. This is obviously a facepalm-worthy bug.


      Once I fixed all these things, Dropbox finally allowed me to move the target folder and the error messages about "unsupported file system" disappeared.







      share|improve this answer














      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer








      edited Oct 29 at 17:48

























      answered Oct 26 at 9:19









      Florian Echtler

      1,19411017




      1,19411017








      • 2




        According to this thread, it seems that user_xattr option is set by default in the kernel for ext4 file system since 2.6.39.
        – Willie Robert
        Oct 30 at 9:26












      • Re the third point about depth below mountpoint - I found that /var/data/dropbox did not work when picking a new location using the Dropbox GUI client v60.4.107 and /var/data/dropbox/d did work when selecting a new location via the GUI client. / is my mount point for /dev/sda1 which is ext4. And this creates /var/data/dropbox/d/Dropbox as the sync folder 0_o
        – jamesc
        Nov 6 at 14:51










      • Thank you especially for the last point. I'm using Dropbox v60.4.107 on Linux Mint 18.3 64b and had problem with setting /partiton_for_dropbox as a Dropbox home. The error dialog still said something like "the partition is not ext4". What did work was choosing /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox. So yeah, the data is actually at /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox/Dropbox.
        – rzehan
        Nov 7 at 10:39










      • All four requirements are fulfilled in my case. But Dropbox is still complaining. It should be something else.
        – djhurio
        Nov 7 at 19:07














      • 2




        According to this thread, it seems that user_xattr option is set by default in the kernel for ext4 file system since 2.6.39.
        – Willie Robert
        Oct 30 at 9:26












      • Re the third point about depth below mountpoint - I found that /var/data/dropbox did not work when picking a new location using the Dropbox GUI client v60.4.107 and /var/data/dropbox/d did work when selecting a new location via the GUI client. / is my mount point for /dev/sda1 which is ext4. And this creates /var/data/dropbox/d/Dropbox as the sync folder 0_o
        – jamesc
        Nov 6 at 14:51










      • Thank you especially for the last point. I'm using Dropbox v60.4.107 on Linux Mint 18.3 64b and had problem with setting /partiton_for_dropbox as a Dropbox home. The error dialog still said something like "the partition is not ext4". What did work was choosing /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox. So yeah, the data is actually at /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox/Dropbox.
        – rzehan
        Nov 7 at 10:39










      • All four requirements are fulfilled in my case. But Dropbox is still complaining. It should be something else.
        – djhurio
        Nov 7 at 19:07








      2




      2




      According to this thread, it seems that user_xattr option is set by default in the kernel for ext4 file system since 2.6.39.
      – Willie Robert
      Oct 30 at 9:26






      According to this thread, it seems that user_xattr option is set by default in the kernel for ext4 file system since 2.6.39.
      – Willie Robert
      Oct 30 at 9:26














      Re the third point about depth below mountpoint - I found that /var/data/dropbox did not work when picking a new location using the Dropbox GUI client v60.4.107 and /var/data/dropbox/d did work when selecting a new location via the GUI client. / is my mount point for /dev/sda1 which is ext4. And this creates /var/data/dropbox/d/Dropbox as the sync folder 0_o
      – jamesc
      Nov 6 at 14:51




      Re the third point about depth below mountpoint - I found that /var/data/dropbox did not work when picking a new location using the Dropbox GUI client v60.4.107 and /var/data/dropbox/d did work when selecting a new location via the GUI client. / is my mount point for /dev/sda1 which is ext4. And this creates /var/data/dropbox/d/Dropbox as the sync folder 0_o
      – jamesc
      Nov 6 at 14:51












      Thank you especially for the last point. I'm using Dropbox v60.4.107 on Linux Mint 18.3 64b and had problem with setting /partiton_for_dropbox as a Dropbox home. The error dialog still said something like "the partition is not ext4". What did work was choosing /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox. So yeah, the data is actually at /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox/Dropbox.
      – rzehan
      Nov 7 at 10:39




      Thank you especially for the last point. I'm using Dropbox v60.4.107 on Linux Mint 18.3 64b and had problem with setting /partiton_for_dropbox as a Dropbox home. The error dialog still said something like "the partition is not ext4". What did work was choosing /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox. So yeah, the data is actually at /partiton_for_dropbox/Dropbox/Dropbox.
      – rzehan
      Nov 7 at 10:39












      All four requirements are fulfilled in my case. But Dropbox is still complaining. It should be something else.
      – djhurio
      Nov 7 at 19:07




      All four requirements are fulfilled in my case. But Dropbox is still complaining. It should be something else.
      – djhurio
      Nov 7 at 19:07












      up vote
      2
      down vote













      I managed to fix this by using gnome-disks to format the ext4 partition instead of initially using GParted, as well as ensuring the Dropbox directory was placed at a 2-level depth of the mount point of the partition. On 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS with Dropbox v60.4.107.



      The full storyline:




      1. To begin with I created my dedicated ext4 with GParted which also was used to resize the old partition to allow room for the new ext4.


      2. Then I tried to ensure that my setup fulfilled everything described by Florian's answer, but that did not solve my problem.


      3. Then after many tries at combining different solutions, I decided to erase the whole partition and reformat it to ext4 with Ubuntu's native disk manager (just called Disks or gnome-disks) leading to Dropbox accepting the partition as ext4!



      I used the following line in /etc/fstab to mount the partition:



      UUID=ext4_partition_UUID    /media/dropbox  ext4 defaults 0 2


      (where ext4_partition_UUID represents the UUID found with ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/)



      Notice that I do not specify the user_xattr option here.



      My Dropbox folder is now located at /media/dropbox/data/Dropbox - but did not check if the depth of 2 was really necessary.



      It seems something went wrong when formatting the ext4 partition with GParted instead of the native software - no idea why or what the difference between them would be. If anyone knows I would be happy to learn more about it.






      share|improve this answer



























        up vote
        2
        down vote













        I managed to fix this by using gnome-disks to format the ext4 partition instead of initially using GParted, as well as ensuring the Dropbox directory was placed at a 2-level depth of the mount point of the partition. On 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS with Dropbox v60.4.107.



        The full storyline:




        1. To begin with I created my dedicated ext4 with GParted which also was used to resize the old partition to allow room for the new ext4.


        2. Then I tried to ensure that my setup fulfilled everything described by Florian's answer, but that did not solve my problem.


        3. Then after many tries at combining different solutions, I decided to erase the whole partition and reformat it to ext4 with Ubuntu's native disk manager (just called Disks or gnome-disks) leading to Dropbox accepting the partition as ext4!



        I used the following line in /etc/fstab to mount the partition:



        UUID=ext4_partition_UUID    /media/dropbox  ext4 defaults 0 2


        (where ext4_partition_UUID represents the UUID found with ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/)



        Notice that I do not specify the user_xattr option here.



        My Dropbox folder is now located at /media/dropbox/data/Dropbox - but did not check if the depth of 2 was really necessary.



        It seems something went wrong when formatting the ext4 partition with GParted instead of the native software - no idea why or what the difference between them would be. If anyone knows I would be happy to learn more about it.






        share|improve this answer

























          up vote
          2
          down vote










          up vote
          2
          down vote









          I managed to fix this by using gnome-disks to format the ext4 partition instead of initially using GParted, as well as ensuring the Dropbox directory was placed at a 2-level depth of the mount point of the partition. On 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS with Dropbox v60.4.107.



          The full storyline:




          1. To begin with I created my dedicated ext4 with GParted which also was used to resize the old partition to allow room for the new ext4.


          2. Then I tried to ensure that my setup fulfilled everything described by Florian's answer, but that did not solve my problem.


          3. Then after many tries at combining different solutions, I decided to erase the whole partition and reformat it to ext4 with Ubuntu's native disk manager (just called Disks or gnome-disks) leading to Dropbox accepting the partition as ext4!



          I used the following line in /etc/fstab to mount the partition:



          UUID=ext4_partition_UUID    /media/dropbox  ext4 defaults 0 2


          (where ext4_partition_UUID represents the UUID found with ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/)



          Notice that I do not specify the user_xattr option here.



          My Dropbox folder is now located at /media/dropbox/data/Dropbox - but did not check if the depth of 2 was really necessary.



          It seems something went wrong when formatting the ext4 partition with GParted instead of the native software - no idea why or what the difference between them would be. If anyone knows I would be happy to learn more about it.






          share|improve this answer














          I managed to fix this by using gnome-disks to format the ext4 partition instead of initially using GParted, as well as ensuring the Dropbox directory was placed at a 2-level depth of the mount point of the partition. On 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS with Dropbox v60.4.107.



          The full storyline:




          1. To begin with I created my dedicated ext4 with GParted which also was used to resize the old partition to allow room for the new ext4.


          2. Then I tried to ensure that my setup fulfilled everything described by Florian's answer, but that did not solve my problem.


          3. Then after many tries at combining different solutions, I decided to erase the whole partition and reformat it to ext4 with Ubuntu's native disk manager (just called Disks or gnome-disks) leading to Dropbox accepting the partition as ext4!



          I used the following line in /etc/fstab to mount the partition:



          UUID=ext4_partition_UUID    /media/dropbox  ext4 defaults 0 2


          (where ext4_partition_UUID represents the UUID found with ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/)



          Notice that I do not specify the user_xattr option here.



          My Dropbox folder is now located at /media/dropbox/data/Dropbox - but did not check if the depth of 2 was really necessary.



          It seems something went wrong when formatting the ext4 partition with GParted instead of the native software - no idea why or what the difference between them would be. If anyone knows I would be happy to learn more about it.







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited Oct 29 at 9:16

























          answered Oct 28 at 17:49









          Phil

          212




          212






















              up vote
              1
              down vote













              My Lubuntu 18.10 installation laptop started complaining about the Dropbox some time back, but it wasn't until last week that I found that it did not have the package attr installed. Once I had installed that, Dropbox appears to be happy…



              I had happened upon the article at https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/475253 and attempted to check the file attributes within the Dropbox directory on the laptop. I was surprised to discover that the getfattr command wasn't available, that led me to installing the package.



              This might be a way forward for you, or it could be a completely different problem, but I hope it's worth flagging up.






              share|improve this answer

















              • 1




                attr is installed.
                – val
                Oct 25 at 12:12















              up vote
              1
              down vote













              My Lubuntu 18.10 installation laptop started complaining about the Dropbox some time back, but it wasn't until last week that I found that it did not have the package attr installed. Once I had installed that, Dropbox appears to be happy…



              I had happened upon the article at https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/475253 and attempted to check the file attributes within the Dropbox directory on the laptop. I was surprised to discover that the getfattr command wasn't available, that led me to installing the package.



              This might be a way forward for you, or it could be a completely different problem, but I hope it's worth flagging up.






              share|improve this answer

















              • 1




                attr is installed.
                – val
                Oct 25 at 12:12













              up vote
              1
              down vote










              up vote
              1
              down vote









              My Lubuntu 18.10 installation laptop started complaining about the Dropbox some time back, but it wasn't until last week that I found that it did not have the package attr installed. Once I had installed that, Dropbox appears to be happy…



              I had happened upon the article at https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/475253 and attempted to check the file attributes within the Dropbox directory on the laptop. I was surprised to discover that the getfattr command wasn't available, that led me to installing the package.



              This might be a way forward for you, or it could be a completely different problem, but I hope it's worth flagging up.






              share|improve this answer












              My Lubuntu 18.10 installation laptop started complaining about the Dropbox some time back, but it wasn't until last week that I found that it did not have the package attr installed. Once I had installed that, Dropbox appears to be happy…



              I had happened upon the article at https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/475253 and attempted to check the file attributes within the Dropbox directory on the laptop. I was surprised to discover that the getfattr command wasn't available, that led me to installing the package.



              This might be a way forward for you, or it could be a completely different problem, but I hope it's worth flagging up.







              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered Oct 25 at 10:28









              Geoff Riley

              112




              112








              • 1




                attr is installed.
                – val
                Oct 25 at 12:12














              • 1




                attr is installed.
                – val
                Oct 25 at 12:12








              1




              1




              attr is installed.
              – val
              Oct 25 at 12:12




              attr is installed.
              – val
              Oct 25 at 12:12










              up vote
              1
              down vote













              There's an alternative to your solution - a GitHub repository called dropbox-filesystem-fix. This makes your Dropbox folder appear as if it's on an unencrypted Ext4 filesystem, no matter what filesystem you use, and you don't have to mount anything, you just have to run Dropbox with with a dropbox-filesystem library (LD_PRELOAD).



              You'll need to grab the code from GitHub, compile the library (make) and replace the Dropbox startup entry with the dropbox_start.py script provided by dropbox-filesystem-fix.



              If you need complete step by step instructions, check out this page.






              share|improve this answer

























                up vote
                1
                down vote













                There's an alternative to your solution - a GitHub repository called dropbox-filesystem-fix. This makes your Dropbox folder appear as if it's on an unencrypted Ext4 filesystem, no matter what filesystem you use, and you don't have to mount anything, you just have to run Dropbox with with a dropbox-filesystem library (LD_PRELOAD).



                You'll need to grab the code from GitHub, compile the library (make) and replace the Dropbox startup entry with the dropbox_start.py script provided by dropbox-filesystem-fix.



                If you need complete step by step instructions, check out this page.






                share|improve this answer























                  up vote
                  1
                  down vote










                  up vote
                  1
                  down vote









                  There's an alternative to your solution - a GitHub repository called dropbox-filesystem-fix. This makes your Dropbox folder appear as if it's on an unencrypted Ext4 filesystem, no matter what filesystem you use, and you don't have to mount anything, you just have to run Dropbox with with a dropbox-filesystem library (LD_PRELOAD).



                  You'll need to grab the code from GitHub, compile the library (make) and replace the Dropbox startup entry with the dropbox_start.py script provided by dropbox-filesystem-fix.



                  If you need complete step by step instructions, check out this page.






                  share|improve this answer












                  There's an alternative to your solution - a GitHub repository called dropbox-filesystem-fix. This makes your Dropbox folder appear as if it's on an unencrypted Ext4 filesystem, no matter what filesystem you use, and you don't have to mount anything, you just have to run Dropbox with with a dropbox-filesystem library (LD_PRELOAD).



                  You'll need to grab the code from GitHub, compile the library (make) and replace the Dropbox startup entry with the dropbox_start.py script provided by dropbox-filesystem-fix.



                  If you need complete step by step instructions, check out this page.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered Nov 21 at 23:20









                  Logix

                  5668




                  5668






















                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote













                      Check if you are using ecryptfs which is not supported:




                      ecryptfs is not supported, but Dropbox will continue to sync with supported file systems that are encrypted via full disk encryption (e.g. LUKS)







                      share|improve this answer

















                      • 2




                        You see, there is only ext4 in fstab line... and I mount on btrfs.
                        – val
                        Oct 24 at 3:53















                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote













                      Check if you are using ecryptfs which is not supported:




                      ecryptfs is not supported, but Dropbox will continue to sync with supported file systems that are encrypted via full disk encryption (e.g. LUKS)







                      share|improve this answer

















                      • 2




                        You see, there is only ext4 in fstab line... and I mount on btrfs.
                        – val
                        Oct 24 at 3:53













                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote










                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote









                      Check if you are using ecryptfs which is not supported:




                      ecryptfs is not supported, but Dropbox will continue to sync with supported file systems that are encrypted via full disk encryption (e.g. LUKS)







                      share|improve this answer












                      Check if you are using ecryptfs which is not supported:




                      ecryptfs is not supported, but Dropbox will continue to sync with supported file systems that are encrypted via full disk encryption (e.g. LUKS)








                      share|improve this answer












                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer










                      answered Oct 24 at 0:18









                      y.luis

                      1034




                      1034








                      • 2




                        You see, there is only ext4 in fstab line... and I mount on btrfs.
                        – val
                        Oct 24 at 3:53














                      • 2




                        You see, there is only ext4 in fstab line... and I mount on btrfs.
                        – val
                        Oct 24 at 3:53








                      2




                      2




                      You see, there is only ext4 in fstab line... and I mount on btrfs.
                      – val
                      Oct 24 at 3:53




                      You see, there is only ext4 in fstab line... and I mount on btrfs.
                      – val
                      Oct 24 at 3:53


















                       

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