Install dropbox after changing account short name?

I'm having this very same issue. A few questions though:

1. Is the home folder name (macuser) still on you're HD? You might find it under Users>Deleted Users. If it is there I'm assuming that the folder is locked (little red circle on the folder). You might have to assign permissions to that folder by selecting it> get info> (look on the bottom at the permissions) then add your new name with read & write abilities.
2. If you are like me and totally deleted the "Deleted User" folder... the error message that you get might not shed any light because I'm still waiting for an answer from Dropbox Support on that.

Ok, I think I've found a solution.... what you need to do is create a user account with the old name (macuser) and make sure to make it Admin.

Restart your macbook pro and log in under macuser. Open the dropbox app if it's installed, if not reinstall it. Once you open the app and do your settings... go to the DB icon on your menu bar, click the settings wheel, go to Preferences and under Account Unlink this computer. This will unlink your computer but leave the files in the dropbox folder for this user name. Close the Dropbox app and restart your Macbook Pro.

Log in under the name you wish to use and either reinstall DB or open it. You probably will still get that message about permissions but this time you should be able to continue through with logging in. When you get the pop up message asking if you want to merge the dropbox folder or create in a new location make sure you select the Home Folder of the new user name and NOT the old name (macuser in this case).

At this point this is where I am and so far everything is working correctly. I intend on deleting my old user name and all of its files... but I'm going to wait until Dropbox puts everything in the new Home folder. 🙂

Thanks for the suggestion to unlink it from the dropbox app on my computer. I tried unlinking from Dropbox's website, but that had no effect. However, to save others a bit of unnecessary trouble, the following simplified version worked for me:

1. Simply re-create the old user folder in /Users. Mac OSX will prompt you for your admin password to do so, since the Users folder is a sacred location that you really shouldn't normally be directly manipulating.
2. Now, run the dropbox install. It should go off without a hitch, since it can now find the folder it is looking for to do its thing. Unfortunately, it will still install the local Dropbox folder into that old fake user folder.
3. Here, you do as Darla suggested, and choose to unlink your computer from dropbox using the command within the dropbox app settings on your computer. No reboot necessary before or after this step.
4. Finally, re-install dropbox one last time, and you will be golden; it will put it in a subdirectory of your correct home directory, and you can delete the fake user directory you previously created.

Thank you so much for your work around!

Now that my files are in the correct/new User folder, can I safely delete the recreated identity in the Users&Groups of the System Preferences?

I didn't even bother re-creating the user identity. I only re-created the user folder, which I did then delete. So yeah, I'd say you're probably safe to delete the old re-created user identity; just double-check that when you go to the Dropbox menu and click the little folder icon to open dropbox's local folder, that it opens a folder under your current (new) user directory. If it does, you should be good to go for deleting the old.

Thanks for replying. I double checked and the location of the dropbox folder is now the "house" with my correct user name.

I deleted the re-created user identity "X" and then when I logged into my regular identity, dropbox was still looking for the for X's folder. So I followed your tip and recreated X's folder and opened dropbox again. At this point it said that there was already a folder with my preferred name and asked if I wanted to merge, which I did. After it finishes merging, I will delete the X folder and hope there are no more problems.

Hi there,

You probably have this solved by now, but I had the same problem and found the solution here (stack exchange site). As I was able to fix it on my machine, I wanted to let others know...

Here are the steps

1. Stop Dropbox (If needed):

• Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen
• Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select 'Quit Dropbox'

2. Download the newest version: www.dropbox.com/install

3. Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)

4. Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, ONE AT A TIME, and press ENTER after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer's admin password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.

sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"

sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox

sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox

sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old

sudo mv ~/.dropbox-master ~/.Trash/dropbox-master.old

sudo chmod -N ~

sudo mv /Library/DropboxHelperTools ~/DropboxHelperTools.old

5. Open the .dmg file from step # 2 and double click the Dropbox icon to install Dropbox.

6. Restart Dropbox from the Applications folder.

Hopefully that does the trick for you as well!

I've been suffering for four months. Finally! Thank you!

This works perfectly--many, many thanks!

Found an even shorter solution:

After recreating the original user folder and re-installing Dropbox there, you can just click on the icon, go to preferences>account then change the Dropbox location to the new user folder. No need to unlink and re-install again.

Wait. I was wrong. You do need to unlink and re-install. Otherwise, once you delete the old user folder again, you have the same problem.

Brilliant — saved me a lot of trouble. Thank you.

nevermind.

I know this is an old message, but it saved me a lot of trouble!! Just use the command line instructions and your' ready to re-install Dropbox after that. The files will download from the Dropbox server afterwards.

Thanks to ptypix