---
title: "Dropbox"
description: "Rclone docs for Dropbox"
date: "2020-03-18"
---

<i class="fab fa-dropbox"></i> Dropbox
---------------------------------

Paths are specified as `remote:path`

Dropbox paths may be as deep as required, eg
`remote:directory/subdirectory`.

The initial setup for dropbox involves getting a token from Dropbox
which you need to do in your browser.  `rclone config` walks you
through it.

Here is an example of how to make a remote called `remote`.  First run:

     rclone config

This will guide you through an interactive setup process:

```
n) New remote
d) Delete remote
q) Quit config
e/n/d/q> n
name> remote
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
[snip]
XX / Dropbox
   \ "dropbox"
[snip]
Storage> dropbox
Dropbox App Key - leave blank normally.
app_key>
Dropbox App Secret - leave blank normally.
app_secret>
Remote config
Please visit:
https://www.dropbox.com/1/oauth2/authorize?client_id=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&response_type=code
Enter the code: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_XXXXXXXXXX
--------------------
[remote]
app_key =
app_secret =
token = XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_XXXX_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y
```

You can then use it like this,

List directories in top level of your dropbox

    rclone lsd remote:

List all the files in your dropbox

    rclone ls remote:

To copy a local directory to a dropbox directory called backup

    rclone copy /home/source remote:backup

### Dropbox for business ###

Rclone supports Dropbox for business and Team Folders.

When using Dropbox for business `remote:` and `remote:path/to/file`
will refer to your personal folder.

If you wish to see Team Folders you must use a leading `/` in the
path, so `rclone lsd remote:/` will refer to the root and show you all
Team Folders and your User Folder.

You can then use team folders like this `remote:/TeamFolder` and
`remote:/TeamFolder/path/to/file`.

A leading `/` for a Dropbox personal account will do nothing, but it
will take an extra HTTP transaction so it should be avoided.

### Modified time and Hashes ###

Dropbox supports modified times, but the only way to set a
modification time is to re-upload the file.

This means that if you uploaded your data with an older version of
rclone which didn't support the v2 API and modified times, rclone will
decide to upload all your old data to fix the modification times.  If
you don't want this to happen use `--size-only` or `--checksum` flag
to stop it.

Dropbox supports [its own hash
type](https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/content-hash) which
is checked for all transfers.

#### Restricted filename characters

| Character | Value | Replacement |
| --------- |:-----:|:-----------:|
| NUL       | 0x00  | ␀           |
| /         | 0x2F  | ／           |
| DEL       | 0x7F  | ␡           |
| \         | 0x5C  | ＼           |

File names can also not end with the following characters.
These only get replaced if they are last character in the name:

| Character | Value | Replacement |
| --------- |:-----:|:-----------:|
| SP        | 0x20  | ␠           |

Invalid UTF-8 bytes will also be [replaced](/overview/#invalid-utf8),
as they can't be used in JSON strings.

<!--- autogenerated options start - DO NOT EDIT, instead edit fs.RegInfo in backend/dropbox/dropbox.go then run make backenddocs -->
### Standard Options

Here are the standard options specific to dropbox (Dropbox).

#### --dropbox-client-id

Dropbox App Client Id
Leave blank normally.

- Config:      client_id
- Env Var:     RCLONE_DROPBOX_CLIENT_ID
- Type:        string
- Default:     ""

#### --dropbox-client-secret

Dropbox App Client Secret
Leave blank normally.

- Config:      client_secret
- Env Var:     RCLONE_DROPBOX_CLIENT_SECRET
- Type:        string
- Default:     ""

### Advanced Options

Here are the advanced options specific to dropbox (Dropbox).

#### --dropbox-chunk-size

Upload chunk size. (< 150M).

Any files larger than this will be uploaded in chunks of this size.

Note that chunks are buffered in memory (one at a time) so rclone can
deal with retries.  Setting this larger will increase the speed
slightly (at most 10% for 128MB in tests) at the cost of using more
memory.  It can be set smaller if you are tight on memory.

- Config:      chunk_size
- Env Var:     RCLONE_DROPBOX_CHUNK_SIZE
- Type:        SizeSuffix
- Default:     48M

#### --dropbox-impersonate

Impersonate this user when using a business account.

- Config:      impersonate
- Env Var:     RCLONE_DROPBOX_IMPERSONATE
- Type:        string
- Default:     ""

#### --dropbox-encoding

This sets the encoding for the backend.

See: the [encoding section in the overview](/overview/#encoding) for more info.

- Config:      encoding
- Env Var:     RCLONE_DROPBOX_ENCODING
- Type:        MultiEncoder
- Default:     Slash,BackSlash,Del,RightSpace,InvalidUtf8,Dot

<!--- autogenerated options stop -->

### Limitations ###

Note that Dropbox is case insensitive so you can't have a file called
"Hello.doc" and one called "hello.doc".

There are some file names such as `thumbs.db` which Dropbox can't
store.  There is a full list of them in the ["Ignored Files" section
of this document](https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/145).  Rclone will
issue an error message `File name disallowed - not uploading` if it
attempts to upload one of those file names, but the sync won't fail.

If you have more than 10,000 files in a directory then `rclone purge
dropbox:dir` will return the error `Failed to purge: There are too
many files involved in this operation`.  As a work-around do an
`rclone delete dropbox:dir` followed by an `rclone rmdir dropbox:dir`.

### Get your own Dropbox App ID ###

When you use rclone with Dropbox in its default configuration you are using rclone's App ID. This is shared between all the rclone users.

Here is how to create your own Dropbox App ID for rclone:

1. Log into the [Dropbox App console](https://www.dropbox.com/developers/apps/create) with your Dropbox Account (It need not
to be the same account as the Dropbox you want to access)

2. Choose an API => Usually this should be `Dropbox API`

3. Choose the type of access you want to use => `Full Dropbox` or `App Folder`

4. Name your App. The app name is global, so you can't use `rclone` for example

5. Click the button `Create App`

5. Fill `Redirect URIs` as `http://localhost:53682/`

6. Find the `App key` and `App secret` Use these values in rclone config to add a new remote or edit an existing remote.