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Can Dropbox be used with multiple accounts on one computer?

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    I assume you want this to get more free storage? If that's not the reason, then maybe all you want is to share folders with other people's accounts: dropbox.com/help/19
    – Arjan
    Commented Jan 29, 2010 at 0:01
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    @Arjan: Phew, quite the assuption there! I can think of at least one simple legit reason: two Dropbox users sharing the same computer user account (for conveniency) but having individual Dropbox accounts because they're meant to be personal. It's really not a very nice idea having to individually set each folder under Dropbox root as shared. Commented Jan 7, 2011 at 7:41

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Maybe you're looking for Dropboxen?

There is a plethora of information on that page regarding multiple accounts as well. To use Dropboxen and avoid the "access denied" errors, you'll need to use symlinks. The symlinks method is also explained on the page.

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    It seems to be Windows-specific. Any hints for Linux users?
    – geek
    Commented Mar 30, 2010 at 5:04
  • @geek: For Win7 and Vista, the Dropboxen page describes running multiple instances with different computer user account credentials. Maybe this method could work on linux as well? Commented Jan 7, 2011 at 7:49
  • that doesn't seem to work for two users using the same login account on the same computer though (e.g. a shared computer with just one user name)?
    – Kirt
    Commented Jan 9, 2011 at 13:47
  • @Bec that's a whole different beast.
    – user1931
    Commented Jan 9, 2011 at 18:32
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Instead of using multiple dropbox accounts on one computer, I have multiple accounts, and a different one on each computer. E.I., I have a work account on my work computer, a personal account on my personal computer, and a shared "Work" folder on my personal account which the work account is connected to. I have a similar "Family" share which my family's accounts each have.

Protip: Each time you setup a new account use a referral link from your main account to get extra storage :)

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  • @Protip That is just plain evil. :) Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 2:03
  • It's not evil, I actually am referring each of my family into a new dropbox account -- and I don't think the purpose of dropbox is to sync all my personal files to my work machine. Commented Mar 28, 2012 at 2:29
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You dont 'need' dropboxen or any other application to do this. You can do it by hand, its not that hard. If you are adding multiple accounts I have written instructions on my blog http://globalcynic.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/script-to-enable-multiple-dropbox-accounts-in-windows-7/ on how to do this. If your just doing it once, you can create a new user account and install dropbox in the new account, then log into your other account using the runas command to start the application for your other user. Then you have simultaneous instances of dropbox for two different accounts.

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