How to Install Dropbox on Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10

This tutorial shows 2 ways to install Dropbox on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 17.10. The first method uses the graphical interface; the second uses terminal command line.

Install Dropbox on Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10 the Graphical Way

If you don’t have a Dropbox account yet, then click here to sign up. Then go to Dropbox Linux version download page. Download the Ubuntu deb package. Select 64-bit or 32-bit according to your OS architecture. Dropbox Ubuntu deb package

Once downloaded, open file manager, navigate to the Download folder. Then right-click the Dropbox deb package, select Open With Software Install.

install dropbox on Ubuntu 16.04

Ubuntu Software will be opened.

Ubuntu Software install dropbox

Click the Install button to install Dropbox CLI and Nautilus extension. You need to enter your password in order to install software. Once this step is finished, a window will appear. Click Start Dropbox.

start dropbox daemon on Ubuntu

Then click OK button to download and install the proprietary Dropbox daemon.

Dropbox daemon Installation

Dropbox Installation Ubuntu 16.04

Once the installation is complete, you can login with your Dropbox account and start using Dropbox to back up or sync your files.

Ubuntu dropbox login

If you look closely, you can see that Dropbox will not be able to verify binary signatures if python-gpgme is not installed. We can install python-gpgme by executing this command in the terminal.

sudo apt install python-gpgme

Dropbox Linux client supports HTTP, SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 proxy. You can configure proxy in Dropbox Preferences > Proxies. This is useful if your country or area is banned from accessing Dropbox.

Dropbox proxy settings

Install Dropbox on Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10  from the Command Line

Open a terminal window and edit sources.list file with nano text editor.

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Use down arrow key to scroll to the bottom of this file. Copy and paste the following line at the end the file. This will add the Dropbox for Ubuntu 16.04 repository, which is also compatible with Ubuntu 17.10.

deb [arch=i386,amd64] http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu xenial main

dropbox ubuntu 17.10

Press CTRL+O to save the file. Press CTRL+X to close the file. Then run the following command to import Dropbox GPG key to your Ubuntu 16.04 system.

 sudo apt-key adv --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 1C61A2656FB57B7E4DE0F4C1FC918B335044912E

Now update package list and install Dropbox.

sudo apt update

sudo apt install dropbox python-gpgme

Once it’s finished, you can start Dropbox from Unity Dash.

dropbox start

Or by typing this command in terminal.

dropbox start

Then click OK button to download and install the proprietary Dropbox daemon.

dropbox daemon

Once the installation is complete, you can login with your Dropbox account and start using Dropbox to back up or sync your files.

Ubuntu dropbox login

For more Dropbox command line usage, issue this command:

man dropbox

To uninstall Dropbox Linux client on Ubuntu, run apt-get remove.

sudo apt-get remove dropbox

Install Dropbox on Linux Server

First, download the Dropbox for server.

wget -O dropbox-linux.tar.gz https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64

Extract it to /opt/dropbox directory.

sudo mkdir /opt/dropbox

sudo tar xzfv dropbox-linux.tar.gz --strip 1 -C /opt/dropbox

Then run the dropbox client.

/opt/dropbox/dropboxd

You will be asked to link your server to your Dropbox account. Copy and paste the link it gives you to the browser and sign in with your Dropbox account. Click the connect button.

dropbox-ubuntu-server-connect

Once the link is complete, press CTRL+C to quit Dropbox. You will see a Dropbox folder in your home directory.

To run Dropbox daemon in the background, append ampersand character.

/opt/dropbox/dropboxd &

To enable auto start with system boot, add a cron job.

@reboot /opt/dropbox/dropboxd

If you like to set up your own cloud storage server, you can check out the open source ownCloud or nextCloud.

I hope this article helped you to install Dropbox on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus. As always, if you found this post useful, then subscribe to our free newsletter. You can also follow us on Google+Twitter or like our Facebook page.

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10 Responses to “How to Install Dropbox on Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10

  • Ashiq Moosani
    6 years ago

    Greetings. Thank you for this helpful tutorial. In the Command Line instructions, in the step to add the repository it shows the “wily” folder. Shouldn’t the “xenial” folder be used instead since this tutorial is for Ubuntu 16.04?

    • Xiao Guo-An (Admin)
      6 years ago

      When Ubuntu 16.04 came out, Dropbox didn’t update their repository. The Ubuntu 15.10 version worked on Ubuntu 16.04. Now the dropbox repository is updated and I updated this article as well.

      • Jarno Ilari Suni
        6 years ago

        If I install the graphical way in 16.04 (Xenial), there will be file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dropbox.list containing solely debline “deb [arch=i386,amd64] http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu wily main”. Anyway, the installation seems to work.

  • Tony Harrison
    6 years ago

    Excellent instructions that worked perfectly for me thank you. I am very grateful for this tutorial.

  • Dave Albert
    5 years ago

    Unfortunately, these instructions no longer work. Installing via apt or using by downloading the .deb package delivers a 2015 version of dropbox that is too old and the authentication step will fail when you try to log into your dropbox account.

    To fix this, you need to run the following command from the terminal (after installing dropbox):
    sudo dropbox start -i
    This will download and install the latest version of the dropbox daemon which will authenticate successfully.

  • does this incude a graphical interface? or is this only dropbox folder syncing functions?

    • Xiao Guo An (Admin)
      5 years ago

      Use the first method to install the graphical desktop client.

  • hasitha
    5 years ago

    dropbox.service – Dropbox Daemon
    Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/dropbox.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running)
    Process: 20395 ExecStop=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Main PID: 20399 (dropbox)
    Tasks: 46
    Memory: 94.7M
    CPU: 5.089s
    CGroup: /system.slice/dropbox.service
    └─20399 /opt/dropbox/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-79.4.143/dropbox

    but i cant see the dropbox folder in my home directory? pls help

  • @Xiao Guo-An
    We need to install the python3 version of this library on ubuntu 16.10 and lower

    sudo apt install dropbox python3-gpgme
    

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