How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
Once Dropbox throws you an error that reads “Unable to monitor filesystem. Please run: echo 100000 | sudo tee /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
and restart Dropbox to correct the problem.” you’d better adjust settings in a system config file, to keep changes after reboot.
Open system config (as superuser, of course) in your favorite text editor
$ sudo vi /etc/sysctl.conf
add just one line of code to the end of the file:
fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 1048576
save the file (Shift-ZZ, if you are new to Vi), and reboot computer to apply settings and restart Dropbox.
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Comments (12)
StarQuake to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
Instead of rebooting you might want to try this (after editing the file):
sudo sysctl -p
sudo dropbox stop
sudo dropbox start
almost 12 years ago
letroll to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
merci pour l'astuce
thank you for your tips
over 11 years ago
emi to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
Thank you, this was very helpul ;)
about 11 years ago
Fabi to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
Lifesaver!!
TKS :)
almost 11 years ago
Andlynx to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
¡Gracias por el dato! Thanks for the tip!
almost 11 years ago
Eric to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
Starquake's comment was mostly correct, but I had to run "dropbox start" without the sudo in Ubuntu. This prompted my user password.
Running it with sudo seemed to start Dropbox without the normal settings for my user and gave a "Dropbox isn't running!" warning as well.
over 10 years ago
Luis Abarca to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
Thanks for the info and the "sudo sysctl -p" command
over 10 years ago
exfromtheleft to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
I'm just wondering how did you come with that specific number 1048576? is there any significance to it?
about 10 years ago
Paul Philippov to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
No significance, just a nerdy stuff. 1048576 is (2^10)^2 or 1024x1024. You can change it to any other number that will work for your system. Dropbox suggests 100000.
about 10 years ago
Hari Swaminathan to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
Thanks for the Help..
about 10 years ago
Benita to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
Thanks for this, it solved my issue !!
about 5 years ago
miliu99 to How to solve the Dropbox filesystem monitoring issue
It didn't solve my problem. I'm trying to remote to my linux host at a2 hosting. When I open /etc/sysctl.conf file, I saw two duplicated lines, so removed one line and then added a zero to the limit, then rebooted, but then I got the same error message back. Tried to run sudo sysctl -p and get access denied. I'm stuck. Any idea?
almost 5 years ago
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