# Problems with using Dropbox for Windows and Android client

**URL:** <https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [28 October 2025 12:15 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711 "2025-10-28T12:15:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rened](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@rened](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/rened)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 12:15 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/1 "2025-10-28T12:15:40Z")

</div>

### Operating system

Windows

### Joplin version

3.4.12

### Desktop version info

Joplin 3.4.12 (prod, win32)

Gerät: win32, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9850H CPU @ 2.60GHz  
Client-ID: 0ce48060675944879ebd0aa3939040bd  
Sync-Version: 3  
Profil-Version: 48  
Unterstützter Schlüsselbund: Ja  
Alternative Instanz ID: -

Revision: e9a9f68

Backup: 1.4.3  
Freehand Drawing: 3.1.0

### Sync target

Dropbox

### What issue do you have?

Hi,  
I’m Rene, I have installed Joplin on my Windows 11 laptop (ver. 3.4.12) and on my Android phone (ver. 3.4.7), wanted to use Dropbox to sync my notes between the two devices.  
When I start configuring the sync on the desktop app, I’ll go thru authorization and do a first sync. All seems to work fine. But when I open my Dropbox online I can’t see any Joplin connection or Joplin under settings/Apps or any folder and files under the Apps folder. What I do see is a Apps folder with an Joplin folder inside in my local Dropbox folder structure on the Windows machine. When clicking on the sync button I see no change of in the cloud just changes in the local Dropbox folder.  
When doing the same under Android, I’ll go thru the authorization and do a first sync, also here is everything fine. This time a Joplin connection was created in the cloud and also a Joplin folder was created under the Apps folder. When doing a sync I can see timestamp changes in the cloud folder.  
The issue is that both instances of Joplin do not sync with each other, they use two different synchronization targets.

Sync log from console:  
12:01:09: Preparing scheduled sync  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Starting scheduled sync  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Synchronizer: Sync: starting: Starting synchronisation to target 7... supportsAccurateTimestamp = false; supportsMultiPut = false} [1761649269144]  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Synchronizer: Indexing resources...  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: ResourceService::indexNoteResources: Start  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Performance: ResourceService/indexNoteResources: End at 89.22s (took 112.2ms)  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: ResourceService::indexNoteResources: Completed  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Synchronizer: Sync target remote info: {version: 3, e2ee: {…}, activeMasterKeyId: {…}, masterKeys: Array(3), ppk: {…}, …}  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Synchronizer: Sync target is already setup - checking it...  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Synchronizer: Sync target local info: {version: 3, e2ee: {…}, activeMasterKeyId: {…}, masterKeys: Array(3), ppk: {…}, …}  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Synchronizer: TaskQueue.stop: syncDownload: waiting for tasks to complete: 0  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:09: Synchronizer: TaskQueue.stop: syncDownload: Done, waited for 0  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: Synchronizer: supportsDeltaWithItems = false  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: Synchronizer: Sync: fetchingTotal: Fetching delta items from sync target  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: Synchronizer: Sync: finished: Synchronisation finished [1761649269144]  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: Synchronizer: Operations completed:  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: Synchronizer: fetchingTotal: -  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: Synchronizer: Total folders: 1  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: Synchronizer: Total notes: 4  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: Synchronizer: Total resources: 6  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:10: checkDisabledSyncItemsNotification: No errors: Hiding notification  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:11: DecryptionWorker: starting decryption...  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:11: DecryptionWorker: completed decryption.  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:19: SearchEngine: Updating FTS table...  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:19: Updating items\_normalized from {updated\_time: 1761598645974, id: 'e40a6e3e4aa54c81ac7c6888798adb02'}  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:19: SearchEngine: Updated FTS table in 3ms. Inserted: 0. Deleted: 0  
Logger.ts:317 12:01:19: Performance: SearchEngine/syncTables: End at 99.34s (took 105.6ms)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mrjo118](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/mrjo118/32/23404_2.png) [@mrjo118](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/mrjo118)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 13:47 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/2 "2025-10-28T13:47:25Z")

</div>

What do you mean by your local Dropbox folder? Are you using file system sync on the Joplin desktop app?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rened](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@rened](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/rened)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 14:24 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/3 "2025-10-28T14:24:44Z")

</div>

It seems that the Joplin desktop app chooses file system folder by default, I simply downloaded and installed Joplin desktop app, added a master key for encryption and then used the Sync-Assistant to configured Dropbox as synchronization target.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mrjo118](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/mrjo118/32/23404_2.png) [@mrjo118](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/mrjo118)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 15:38 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/5 "2025-10-28T15:38:27Z")

</div>

Ok, but what do you mean by this?:

> What I do see is a Apps folder with an Joplin folder **inside in my local Dropbox folder structure** on the Windows machine

If you mean a folder structure from Dropbox for Windows, that structure will match what you see in Dropbox online. Are you sure you actually logged into the same Dropbox account for both Joplin clients?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rened](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@rened](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/rened)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 17:13 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/6 "2025-10-28T17:13:46Z")

</div>

thats not the case, this is what see online:

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/3/9/3966cbff38e8c72636d5d63f4c0529ef051a9e6e.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rened](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@rened](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/rened)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 17:14 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/7 "2025-10-28T17:14:31Z")

</div>

and this is what I see local:

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/0/9/096d5c4204a93a1b01a2d9a0747ce6bff85d47bf.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rened](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@rened](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/rened)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 17:21 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/8 "2025-10-28T17:21:44Z")

</div>

As I started to move data from my OneNote under Windows into Joplin, the structure in the local Dropbox for Windows is understandable larger. At the beginning I thought this Apps folder in the Dropbox for Windows structure is the same as the one I see in the cloud, but as the time stamp on the files and folder were always different it turned out quickly that they can’t be the same.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![\_vg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/user_avatar/discourse.joplinapp.org/_vg/32/27067_2.png) [@\_vg](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/_vg)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 17:46 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/9 "2025-10-28T17:46:38Z")

</div>

This is strange. The most likely explanation is that you are using two different Dropbox accounts, or that Dropbox sync has been paused on your local device.

Do the following both on your local folder and in the cloud: go to Apps, Joplin, create a “test-local“ and “test-cloud“ folders from local and cloud respectively.

Do both folders get synced to the other side? If not, your Dropbox sync is not working (nothing to do with Joplin).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rened](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@rened](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/rened)\
**Post date:** [28 October 2025 19:04 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/10 "2025-10-28T19:04:51Z")

</div>

This was the missing link, thanks, after looking into the credentials I noticed that my mobile phone used a google account for connection to Dropbox. Thanks a lot 🙂  
This is now solved and can be closed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex028/uploads/cozic/original/3X/1/c/1c948e33314e232a0927789508474d8624f4270b.png) [@system](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [27 November 2025 19:04 UTC](https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/problems-with-using-dropbox-for-windows-and-android-client/47711/11 "2025-11-27T19:04:54Z")

</div>

Closed on 27 November 2025 19:04 UTC

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.