You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Roaming Profiles
Everytime I post a request for Dropbox to start supporting Roaming Profiles on Windows 7/8 the message seems to get removed by a moderator. But when I search, there are alot of users asking for this. I would urge Dropbox to consider supporting roaming profiles as other solutions already are. And it is only a matter of time that all non mac users will abandon this app when it becomes a problem. I am already seeing clients switching to google drive and microsofts version. I think dropbox is a better system, but it has to stay current and advance with the times. In the era of virtualized workstations, pcoip, and smaller companies harnessing the power of roaming profiles, it would be suicide to ignore.
I would appreciate an office response!
Hi Fred,
Thanks a lot for your feedback.
Currently, installing Dropbox on either a shared folder or network drive, using redirected folders, and installing Dropbox on roaming profiles are not supported.
Since Dropbox installs to the folder path %APPDATA%\Dropbox, roaming profiles will cause Windows to mark the Dropbox database files as offline files, sending them back to the server. When this happens, the files are effectively unavailable, causing the Dropbox client to unlink.
As a workaround, I’d recommend asking your IT administrator to stop the %APPDATA% folder from roaming by following these steps:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814592Additionally, you should be able to resolve this by setting Windows to ignore the AppData\Roaming\Dropbox location and preventing it from roaming using the following directions:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188692If you have used redirected folders to change the location of the Dropbox install, we recommend reinstalling Dropbox and allowing it to install to the default locations.
Our engineers are also actively working a solution; however, I can't give you an exact timeline when it will become available.
Best,
Sofia
StefanieDropbox Staff
Hi Fred,
Thanks a lot for your feedback.
Currently, installing Dropbox on either a shared folder or network drive, using redirected folders, and installing Dropbox on roaming profiles are not supported.
Since Dropbox installs to the folder path %APPDATA%\Dropbox, roaming profiles will cause Windows to mark the Dropbox database files as offline files, sending them back to the server. When this happens, the files are effectively unavailable, causing the Dropbox client to unlink.
As a workaround, I’d recommend asking your IT administrator to stop the %APPDATA% folder from roaming by following these steps:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814592Additionally, you should be able to resolve this by setting Windows to ignore the AppData\Roaming\Dropbox location and preventing it from roaming using the following directions:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188692If you have used redirected folders to change the location of the Dropbox install, we recommend reinstalling Dropbox and allowing it to install to the default locations.
Our engineers are also actively working a solution; however, I can't give you an exact timeline when it will become available.
Best,
Sofiafaster workaround for us was to do the following
1. Uninstall Dropbox
2. Open registry (regedit)
3. Find key (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft|Windows|CurrentVersion|Explorer|User Shell Folders”
4. Change volue “AppData” to “%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local”
5. Install Dropbox
6. After installation change the key back to previous value, usually “\\server.example.com\profiles$\[username]\AppData”This will install dropbox to use AppData\Local instead of AppData\Roaming to store it its database.
We use folder redirection with offline sync for various folders including AppData(roaming) Shouldn't dropbox use appdata\local not appdata\roaming?
And that article refers to Windows NT does dropbox work under windows NT?
I am testing out a group policy using security groups to push app data(roaming) back onto their local user profile path for users who will use dropbox.
appdata: u'\\\\us-nyc-srv100.globalservs.com\\profiles$\\xxx.xxx\\AppData\\Roaming\\Dropbox\\instance1'
real_path=u'\\\\us-nyc-srv100.globalservs.com\\profiles$\\xxx.xxx\\AppData\\Roaming\\Dropbox\\instance1'
mode=040777 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=040777 uid=0 gid=0Michael,
Thank you for this workaround. This worked for me as well! I had all but given up on DropBox. But I am glad to see that I can in fact use it again.
Hello,
I have severall users who are using dropbox.
But they have to authenticate at each session opening.
If i understand, the Michael P. procedure should be used for each user ??
