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user1614
Asked: 2013-01-26 05:07:40 +0800 CST

How do I fix a "Can't access Dropbox folder" error?

  • 772

I'm having a rather strange problem with Dropbox that started a few weeks ago.

Dropbox will stop syncing with the message "Can't access Dropbox folder", and refuse to sync until I reboot.

I've tried restarting Dropbox and logging out, but nothing I seem to do will allow it to sync again short of a reboot.

This is not a permissions problem, as the permissions don't change when I suddenly lose access.

I've checked lsof for anything related to dropbox that might still be hanging on when I stop it. As far as I can tell nothing else other than Dropbox is accessing it's folders when this happens.

dropbox

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    if you put these in /etc/sysctl.conf:

    fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 1048576
fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 256

    it will fix the issue. You may have to run sudo sysctl -p for these settings to take effect.

    Alternatively, if you are not interested in making these settings permanent, you may try the following commands...

    sudo sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_instances=256
sudo sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1048576

    In this case the settings will be lost after a reboot.

    The problem is that the system has run out of inotify instances. You can check your syslog (e.g. by using tail -f /var/log/syslog) and if you see...

    tail: inotify cannot be used, reverting to polling: Too many open file

    then you know this is your issue. For me it was nepomuk.

    • 56

  2. The fs.inotify.max_user_instances=256 fixed my immediate "Can't access dropbox folder" problem (Ubuntu 12.04).

    It also cleared up an odd behavior I'd noticed, where the dropbox systray icon continually indicated file activity: The arrow circles cycling continually, though nothing was changing in my dropbox, and the "recently changed files" list remained unchanged.

    A few moments after I changed fs.inotify.max_user_instances=256, the pointless cycling stopped.

    • 1

  3. In one of the forums, someone mentioned it is due to inotify. They have this solution/workaround.

    • disable desktop search (in kde nepomuk+tracker, in gnome tracker)
    • reboot (logout didn't help)
    • -1

  4. This usually happens because sysctrl has run out of inotify instances. The following 2 commands will normally fix the issue.

    sudo sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1048576
sudo sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_instances=256
    • -1