Dropbox online storage provides us support for Ubuntu Linux. Now, we will install Dropbox on Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 LTS server terminal and as well as from GUI.
Dropbox provides us online storage to store or backup our data automatically. We use Dropbox to backup our contents with some security and peace of mind. In the event of our PCs crash, Our data will be saved and ready to be restored onto server.
Dropbox offers both free and paid services, each with varying options. The Free service provides us 2GB of free online storage whereas in Pro you can get as much as we want depending on our requirements.
Method 1) Installing Dropbox from Command Line
We will install the wget
package using the apt
command.
$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install wget
Dropbox cli version is available for both 32 and 64 bit editions, we will download Dropbox upon out version.
32-bit $ cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -
64-bit $ cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -
After executing this command, It will create a new hidden folder named .dropbox-dist
in our $HOME
directory.
Run the following command to start the Dropbox from .dropbox-dist
folder.
$ ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
Output This computer isn't linked to any Dropbox account... Please visit https://www.dropbox.com/cli_link_nonce?nonce=35ff549233f01a5d4e699826b0ab6ffb to link this device.
Now open the browser and navigate to the above link to connect system with your dropbox account.
Enter Dropbox username, password and click Sign-in.
The server is connected to our dropbox account, we should see a message like below.
This computer is now linked to Dropbox. Welcome Smart
Folder named Dropbox
will be created in our home directory. keep the data in this folder to access it from any devices.
$ ls Dropbox/
Output 'Get Started with Dropbox.pdf' python3_tutorial.pdf Screenshots 'Simply Raspberry Pi.pdf' smart.zip
Congratulations! The Ubuntu server has been linked to our dropbox account. The dropbox will keep running until we stop it by pressing CTRL + C
. We should start it manually every time
when we want to use dropbox.
Method 2) Installing Dropbox CLI
Frist thing we will install Python using command below.
sudo apt install python
Now, Download the dropbox python script and put it in our PATH, for example /usr/local/bin/
.
$ sudo wget -O /usr/local/bin/dropbox "https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/dropbox.py"
Make it executable:
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/dropbox
Now we can start using the dropbox cli. To display help, simply run:
$ dropbox
Output
Dropbox command-line interface
commands:
Note: use dropbox help <command> to view usage for a specific command.
status get current status of the dropboxd
throttle set bandwidth limits for Dropbox
help provide help
stop stop dropboxd
running return whether dropbox is running
start start dropboxd
filestatus get current sync status of one or more files
ls list directory contents with current sync status
autostart automatically start dropbox at login
exclude ignores/excludes a directory from syncing
lansync enables or disables LAN sync
sharelink get a shared link for a file in your dropbox
proxy set proxy settings for Dropbox
To view the usage of a specific command, for example running
, run:
$ dropbox help running
output dropbox running Returns 1 if running 0 if not running.
To see if dropbox service is running or not. Type command below.
$ dropbox status
Output Dropbox isn't running!
To start dropbox service. Type command below.
$ dropbox start
Let us again check if it is running using command.
$ dropbox status
Output Up to date
It will keep running until we reboot the system.
To stop dropbox service. Type command below.
$ dropbox stop
output Dropbox daemon stopped.
To get the current sync status of a file, Type command below.
$ dropbox filestatus Dropbox/smart.txt
Output Dropbox/smart.txt: up to date
we can exclude a directory from syncing. For instance, We will exclude dir1
folder using command below.
$ dropbox exclude add dir1
We can add multiple directories with space separated values to exclude them from syncing like below.
$ dropbox exclude add dir1 dir2
To view the list of directories currently excluded from syncing, Type command below.
$ dropbox exclude list
To remove a directory from the exclusion list, Type command below.
$ dropbox exclude remove dir2
To get a shared link for a file, for example smart.txt, in our dropbox folder, Type command below.
$ dropbox sharelink Dropbox/smart.txt
Output https://www.dropbox.com/s/rqteaol58c1zlkw/smart.txt?dl=0
We can now pass the above URL to anyone.
To enable lansync, Type command below.
$ dropbox lansync y
To disable lansync, Type command below.
$ dropbox lansync n
Starting Dropbox Automatically Every Reboot
We can make Dropbox service to automatically start on every reboot. Create a systemd service unit for Dropbox.
$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/dropbox.service
Add the following lines:
[Unit] Description=Dropbox Service After=network.target [Service] ExecStart=/bin/sh -c '/usr/local/bin/dropbox start' ExecStop=/bin/sh -c '/usr/local/bin/dropbox stop' PIDFile=${HOME}/.dropbox/dropbox.pid User=smart Group=smart Type=forking Restart=on-failure RestartSec=5 StartLimitInterval=60s StartLimitBurst=3 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Replace User, Group and dropbox cli path /usr/local/bin/
with our own values. Save and quite the file.
Reload daemon using command below.
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Enable dropbox service using command below.
$ sudo systemctl enable dropbox
Start dropbox service using command below.
$ sudo systemctl start dropbox
Now dropbox service will automatically start at every reboot.
Check running of the service using command below.
$ sudo systemctl status dropbox
Method 3) Install Dropbox On Ubuntu Desktop GUI
First, download the Ubuntu deb package. Select 64-bit or 32-bit according to OS architecture.
Once downloaded, open file manager, navigate to the Download folder. Then right-click the Dropbox deb package, select Open With Software Install.
Ubuntu Software will be opened.
Click the Install button to install Dropbox CLI and Nautilus extension. You need to enter your password in order to install software. Once this step is finished, a window will appear. Click Start Dropbox.
Then click OK button to download and install the proprietary Dropbox daemon.
Once the installation is complete, you can login with your Dropbox account and start using Dropbox to back up or sync your files.
We can see that Dropbox will not be able to verify binary signatures if python-gpgme is not installed. We can install python-gpgme by executing command below.
$ sudo apt install python-gpgme
Note: Dropbox Linux client supports HTTP, SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 proxy. We can configure proxy in Dropbox Preferences > Proxies. This is useful if our country or area is banned from accessing Dropbox.
Method 4) Installing Dropbox from Software Application
Step 1: Use top left activities menu to open the software application
Step 2: Search for Dropbox application

Step 3: To begin the installation press the Install button.
Step 4: Enter your username and password. Your user needs to belong to sudo administrative group.
Step 5: Start the Dropbox application
Step 6: Sign in to your Dropbox account

Now you linked Dropbox account to Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 Desktop.
Conclusion
We have successfully learned how to install Dropbox in Ubuntu 18.04/20.04. If you face any kind of issues, do let us know in the comment section.
Hi, sorry to bother you. I have come across the following error after I typed in $ ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
The error is :
[2559:2559:0109/115546.637832:ERROR:x11_input_method_context_impl_gtk.cc(144)] Not implemented reached in virtual void libgtkui::X11InputMethodContextImplGtk::SetSurroundingText(const base::string16 &, const gfx::Range &)
[2559:2559:0109/115546.705936:ERROR:gpu_process_transport_factory.cc(967)] Lost UI shared context.
[1:8:0109/115546.828577:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(124)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuChannelMsg_CreateCommandBuffer.
And I couldn't go further and create the Dropbox Folder. Could you clear my question? Thank you so much!
It's easier to do this nowadays:
sudo apt-get install nautilus-dropbox
dropbox start
Hi Bart,
That's a quick one. Thanks for that.
I have been having problems getting Dropbox configured. I followed your guide to see if it would resolve the issue. I am running KDE Neon 18.04 and when I tried to install 'python-gpgme' it was reported that the package is obsoleted and no longer available. Apparently it has been replaced by 'python-gpg'. Installing this helped but the issue is not fully resolved. I am still experiencing problems signing into Dropbox. I also use Deepin 15.9, Modicia O.S. LMDE3, Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition and openSUSE Argon and they all work fine. The problem did crop up in Ubuntu Budgie 18.04.
You need to use sudo apt install python-gpg* now to install python-gpgme
Thanks! This command is workiung
I am trying to install Dropbox onto Ubuntu Server 18.04. It is a server, so it doesn't have a browser. I tried to visit the URL using a text browser (w3m), but that doesn't accept my Dropbox-credentials.
I think I have to visit the website on the Ubuntu computer; not another one. Is that right?
How to install it on a computer without a browser?
you'll need this if you're running Ubuntu 18.04:
apt-get install libatomic1
Thanks Clancy
this is one of the best info for installing Dropbox with no gui I have seen yet. I SO WISH... someone would publish instructions for moving the Dropbox folder (or folders as in the case of the Business version) to another Volume like /mnt/Shares/(Dropbox Folders)
Is there also an option to connect more than one Dropbox-account at the same time?
I have to setup a cloud storage (Nextcloud) for a few users who has now a Dropbox account each.
Of course I can synchronise the first account and after that the second account, et cetera, but I prefer to do it in one session.
I have a paid Dropbox account: a Dropbox Business.
After the command
dropbox start
Ubuntu creates two directories:
~/Dropbox
~/Dropbox (team name)
As far as I can see, the contents of these directories are equal and spent a lot of disk space. I am not able to free more disk space.
What is the best solution?
Hi Guido,
What are those directories ? is the dropbox cache or shared folders?
I am sorry, I don't know. How do I figure out this?
I tried to exclude some directories for syncing. The exclude command immediately returns the prompt without thinking.
When I want to know which directories are excluded, there are no directories listed.
What is going wrong?
root@vanharten:/home/guido# dropbox exclude add Nextcloud-backups Uploader123
root@vanharten:/home/guido# dropbox exclude list
No directories are being ignored.
I am having this exact same problem.
Ok I figured it out: the directory HAS to be formatted as: Dropbox/ where is the name of a folder in your Dropbox folder. if the directory name has spaces use quotes as normal: 'Dropbox/directory name' ---> etc. would be good if OP mentioned this assumption because I would naturally assume that of course it is looking in Dropbox directory already and that this wouldn't need to be specified
IMHO the dropbox.py code is pretty lazy, authors should have added something like:
elif any(result["unrecognized"]):
for unpn in result["unrecognized"]:
console_print("Failed to recognize directory: %s" % unpn)