---

title: "Dropbox" description: "Rclone docs for Dropbox" versionIntroduced: "v1.02"

Dropbox

Paths are specified as remote:path

Dropbox paths may be as deep as required, e.g. remote:directory/subdirectory.

Configuration

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
Configuration complete.
Options:
- type: dropbox
- app_key:
- app_secret:
- token: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_XXXX_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Keep this "remote" remote?
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

See the remote setup docs for how to set it up on a machine without an internet-connected web browser available.

Note that rclone runs a webserver on your local machine to collect the token as returned from Dropbox. This only runs from the moment it opens your browser to the moment you get back the verification code. This is on http://127.0.0.1:53682/ and it may require you to unblock it temporarily if you are running a host firewall, or use manual mode.

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.

Modification times 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 which is checked for all transfers.

Restricted filename characters

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

Invalid UTF-8 bytes will also be replaced, as they can't be used in JSON strings.

Batch mode uploads {#batch-mode}

Using batch mode uploads is very important for performance when using the Dropbox API. See the dropbox performance guide for more info.

There are 3 modes rclone can use for uploads.

--dropbox-batch-mode off

In this mode rclone will not use upload batching. This was the default before rclone v1.55. It has the disadvantage that it is very likely to encounter too_many_requests errors like this

NOTICE: too_many_requests/.: Too many requests or write operations. Trying again in 15 seconds.

When rclone receives these it has to wait for 15s or sometimes 300s before continuing which really slows down transfers.

This will happen especially if --transfers is large, so this mode isn't recommended except for compatibility or investigating problems.

--dropbox-batch-mode sync

In this mode rclone will batch up uploads to the size specified by --dropbox-batch-size and commit them together.

Using this mode means you can use a much higher --transfers parameter (32 or 64 works fine) without receiving too_many_requests errors.

This mode ensures full data integrity.

Note that there may be a pause when quitting rclone while rclone finishes up the last batch using this mode.

--dropbox-batch-mode async

In this mode rclone will batch up uploads to the size specified by --dropbox-batch-size and commit them together.

However it will not wait for the status of the batch to be returned to the caller. This means rclone can use a much bigger batch size (much bigger than --transfers), at the cost of not being able to check the status of the upload.

This provides the maximum possible upload speed especially with lots of small files, however rclone can't check the file got uploaded properly using this mode.

If you are using this mode then using "rclone check" after the transfer completes is recommended. Or you could do an initial transfer with --dropbox-batch-mode async then do a final transfer with --dropbox-batch-mode sync (the default).

Note that there may be a pause when quitting rclone while rclone finishes up the last batch using this mode.

Exporting files

Certain files in Dropbox are "exportable", such as Dropbox Paper documents. These files need to be converted to another format in order to be downloaded. Often multiple formats are available for conversion.

When rclone downloads a exportable file, it chooses the format to download based on the --dropbox-export-formats setting. By default, the export formats are html,md, which are sensible defaults for Dropbox Paper.

Rclone chooses the first format ID in the export formats list that Dropbox supports for a given file. If no format in the list is usable, rclone will choose the default format that Dropbox suggests.

Rclone will change the extension to correspond to the export format. Here are some examples of how extensions are mapped:

Importing exportable files is not yet supported by rclone.

Here are the supported export extensions known by rclone. Note that rclone does not currently support other formats not on this list, even if Dropbox supports them. Also, Dropbox could change the list of supported formats at any time.

Standard options

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

--dropbox-client-id

OAuth Client Id.

Leave blank normally.

Properties:

• Config: client_id
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_CLIENT_ID
• Type: string
• Required: false

--dropbox-client-secret

OAuth Client Secret.

Leave blank normally.

Properties:

• Config: client_secret
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_CLIENT_SECRET
• Type: string
• Required: false

Advanced options

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

--dropbox-token

OAuth Access Token as a JSON blob.

Properties:

• Config: token
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_TOKEN
• Type: string
• Required: false

--dropbox-auth-url

Auth server URL.

Leave blank to use the provider defaults.

Properties:

• Config: auth_url
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_AUTH_URL
• Type: string
• Required: false

--dropbox-token-url

Token server url.

Leave blank to use the provider defaults.

Properties:

• Config: token_url
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_TOKEN_URL
• Type: string
• Required: false

--dropbox-client-credentials

Use client credentials OAuth flow.

This will use the OAUTH2 client Credentials Flow as described in RFC 6749.

Note that this option is NOT supported by all backends.

Properties:

• Config: client_credentials
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_CLIENT_CREDENTIALS
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--dropbox-chunk-size

Upload chunk size (< 150Mi).

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 128 MiB in tests) at the cost of using more memory. It can be set smaller if you are tight on memory.

Properties:

• Config: chunk_size
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_CHUNK_SIZE
• Type: SizeSuffix
• Default: 48Mi

--dropbox-impersonate

Impersonate this user when using a business account.

Note that if you want to use impersonate, you should make sure this flag is set when running "rclone config" as this will cause rclone to request the "members.read" scope which it won't normally. This is needed to lookup a members email address into the internal ID that dropbox uses in the API.

Using the "members.read" scope will require a Dropbox Team Admin to approve during the OAuth flow.

You will have to use your own App (setting your own client_id and client_secret) to use this option as currently rclone's default set of permissions doesn't include "members.read". This can be added once v1.55 or later is in use everywhere.

Properties:

• Config: impersonate
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_IMPERSONATE
• Type: string
• Required: false

--dropbox-impersonate-admin

Team admin ID to use when performing actions as a team administrator.

This sets the Dropbox-API-Select-Admin header with the given team member ID (for example "dbmid:...").

This takes a team member ID directly rather than an email address.

Note that if you want to use impersonate_admin, you should make sure this flag is set when running "rclone config" as this will cause rclone to request the "team_data.member" scope which it won't normally.

Using the "team_data.member" scope will require a Dropbox Team Admin to approve during the OAuth flow.

You will have to use your own App (setting your own client_id and client_secret) to use this option as currently rclone's default set of permissions doesn't include "team_data.member".

Properties:

• Config: impersonate_admin
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_IMPERSONATE_ADMIN
• Type: string
• Required: false

--dropbox-shared-files

Instructs rclone to work on individual shared files.

In this mode rclone's features are extremely limited - only list (ls, lsl, etc.) operations and read operations (e.g. downloading) are supported in this mode. All other operations will be disabled.

Properties:

• Config: shared_files
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_SHARED_FILES
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--dropbox-shared-folders

Instructs rclone to work on shared folders.

When this flag is used with no path only the List operation is supported and all available shared folders will be listed. If you specify a path the first part will be interpreted as the name of shared folder. Rclone will then try to mount this shared to the root namespace. On success shared folder rclone proceeds normally. The shared folder is now pretty much a normal folder and all normal operations are supported.

Note that we don't unmount the shared folder afterwards so the --dropbox-shared-folders can be omitted after the first use of a particular shared folder.

See also --dropbox-root-namespace for an alternative way to work with shared folders.

Properties:

• Config: shared_folders
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_SHARED_FOLDERS
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--dropbox-skip-shared-folders

Instructs rclone to skip all shared folders.

When set, any folder that is a shared folder mount point will be excluded from directory listings, regardless of ownership. This is useful if you prefer to back up shared folders separately using a separate remote configured with the shared folder namespace.

Properties:

• Config: skip_shared_folders
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_SKIP_SHARED_FOLDERS
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--dropbox-skip-unowned-folders

Instructs rclone to skip shared folders not owned by the current user.

When set, any folder that is a shared folder mount point and not owned by the current user will be excluded from directory listings. This is useful when backing up multiple Dropbox accounts that share common folders, to avoid duplicating the shared data across accounts.

Note: In Dropbox Business, 'Team Folders' are owned by the Team. For standard team members, these folders evaluate as 'unowned' (editor/viewer access) and will be excluded by this flag. To back up Team Folders, do not use this flag or run the backup using a Team Admin account.

If --dropbox-skip-shared-folders is also enabled, this flag has no effect.

This makes an extra API call per shared folder mount point.

Properties:

• Config: skip_unowned_folders
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_SKIP_UNOWNED_FOLDERS
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--dropbox-pacer-min-sleep

Minimum time to sleep between API calls.

Properties:

• Config: pacer_min_sleep
• Env Var: RCLONE_DROPBOX_PACER_MIN_SLEEP
• Type: Duration
• Default: 10ms

--dropbox-encoding

The encoding for the backend.

See the encoding section in the overview for more info.

Properties:

• Config: encoding