There is really no doubt about the usefulness of Dropbox. You can backup your files to the cloud and sync your documents across various computers/operating system/devices. While everything is good about it, the bad thing is that you can’t access multiple Dropbox accounts on the same computer simultaneously.
There are plenty of reasons why most of us have different accounts (or need to access different accounts simultaneously). It could be:
1. You are using a shared computer at home and each and every users want to have their Dropbox folder accessible when they are using it.
2. You have setup various Dropbox accounts for different purpose (Home, Work, Leisure etc) and you want to access to the office document when you are working from Home.
3. 2GB is just not enough for you and you are not willing to pay for the extra storage space. The best is to create more Dropbox accounts since it is free to open an account (I don’t really encourage this. Dropbox is a great service. Do pay for it if you need more storage space).
Whatever the reasons, if you have multiple Dropbox accounts, you got to find a way to access them all in the same computer at the same time. In Windows 7, there is a series of steps that you have to do to get this working, but it will be easy if you follow the tutorial here. Here’s how you can do so:
Note: This tutorial assumes that you have administrator rights to your Windows and you have already installed your primary Dropbox account in your system.
Create a new user account
1. Go to “Control Panel ->Add or remove user accounts”
2. Click on the Create a new account link
3. Give your account a name and create the account.
4. Next, click on the New user account and select “CreatePassword“.
Once you are done setting the password, close your Control Panel and switch over to the newly created user account. Go to Start ->Switch User.
Dropbox configuration at the new user account
In your new user account, open a Windows Explorer and create a folder in the C: drive to contain your Dropbox files.
Download and install a brand new copy of Dropbox (You will be asked the Admin password when you carry out the installation).
When it prompts you to choose a folder, make sure you choose the folder (in the C: drive) that you have just created. This will ensure that the folder is accessible by you in your primary account.
Now, log out of your current window session and log back into your primary account.
Accessing multiple instances of Dropbox from your primary account
Open a window explorer and navigate to
C:\Users\new-user\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\bin |
Right click the Dropbox.exe file and select “Send to -> Desktop“.
Now, go to your desktop and find the newly created shortcut. Right click the shortcut icon and select “Properties“.
Append the following to the front of the target field:
runas /user:<em>username</em> |
where username is the new user account that you have created just now.
Click Ok. Now double click the shortcut to run the second instances of Dropbox. A window will appear to prompt you for password.
You should be able to see the 2nd dropbox icon at your taskbar.
Run multiple instance of Dropbox during startup
To start multiple instances of Dropbox when you boot up your computer, simply copy the shortcut file to
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup |
That’s it.
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This is perfect, exept the very last directory link should be: C:UsersusernameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsStartup instead of C:UsersusernameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramStartup (add an “s” to Program).
Thanks. I have corrected it.
When I “double click the shortcut to run the second instances of Dropbox. A window will appear to prompt you for password.” – my problem is this window flashes so fast on and off the screen I cannot change anything. And so I can see the dropbax I want, with all folders and subfolders, but I can only see pdf docs – nor word or excel docs! HELP!! :)
same problem
Do it using the console
my error is 1058: impossible to start the service
no need to do all that stuff…. Just right click on drop box icon and select Run as
when prompted for user name just go with other username and type password(not administrator one)
note: make sure you have created a user from control panel
This didn’t work for me (Windows 7 Home Premium, x64). I had to create a new user, go and install dropbox as the new user, then link to the new users version of the dropbox.exe
Once I did this it worked nicely, except for having to enter the password every time :(
If I find a work around for that then I will post again :)
Thanks. It sure simplifies the process
This is great, but currently I have to then type the password everytime I reboot. Is there a way around this?
Use the /savecred switch (“save credentials”).
The password will be requested only the first time. Thus:
runas.exe /user:dropbox-temp /savecred “C:Usersdropbox-tempAppDataRoamingDropboxbinDropbox.exe”
You are getting the 1058 error because your ‘RunAs’ service is disabled. Within Services, start the ‘Secondary Logon’ service and then try the shortcut.
This didn’t work. Shortcut still only flashes the black screen…
I have gone through all the steps, even successful in getting the second Dropbox icon in the sys tray. My program is the folder doesnt open up when clicking on the 2nd Dropbox icon in sys tray. If I browse manually to the shared folder for 2nd Dropbox, is see the files but I am unable to edit them.
Any ideas?
This has worked great! right up until I have to double click on the shortcut to put the password in. I see the black screen pop and flash away.
There is only one ‘Run as’ option and that is ‘Run as Administrator’ and I’ve even logged off from the other user account. Ideas?
Same as Tekmonkey: all good but second icon will not open.
I have followed all steps (Windows7) and get the second icon but it does nothing
I’m running into the same problem. All the steps are completed, I see the second icon, yet it does nothing when I try to open it. Any solution to this yet? Tks
The new dropbox does not open or sync. Sorry but this is not working. I found an other way that really works; http://www.bustatech.com/run-multiple-dropbox-on-your-pc-at-the-same-time/
Worked for me no problems.
I have the same problem, second instance doesn’t work for me. I can’t even write down the password I was asked for second user after I made all the changes described above. I don’t understand why :-( But I found a silly and simple solution for my problem: the place for second dropbox (on another user) I placed on C disk where I can reach easily from first user and shared this folder. So I can reach my files, edit them and synchronize them in this shared folder. Of course I must be logged on both users, but I don’t need to switch from one to another. So, now I have 3 dropboxes (3 Win7 users) and they work perfect to me…. Sorry for my english.. :-(