How do I programmatically locate my Dropbox folder using C#?

Question

How do I programmatically locate my Dropbox folder using C#? * Registry? * Environment Variable? * Etc...

Answer 1

UPDATED SOLUTION

Dropbox now provides an info.json file as stated here: https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/4584

If you don't want to deal with parsing the JSON, you can simply use the following solution:

var infoPath = @"Dropbox\info.json";

var jsonPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("LocalAppData"), infoPath);            

if (!File.Exists(jsonPath)) jsonPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AppData"), infoPath);

if (!File.Exists(jsonPath)) throw new Exception("Dropbox could not be found!");

var dropboxPath = File.ReadAllText(jsonPath).Split('\"')[5].Replace(@"\\", @"\");

If you'd like to parse the JSON, you can use the JavaScripSerializer as follows:

var serializer = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();            

var dictionary = (Dictionary < string, object>) serializer.DeserializeObject(File.ReadAllText(jsonPath));

var dropboxPath = (string) ((Dictionary < string, object> )dictionary["personal"])["path"];

DEPRECATED SOLUTION:

You can read the the dropbox\host.db file. It's a Base64 file located in your AppData\Roaming path. Use this:

var dbPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(
                    Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), "Dropbox\\host.db");

var dbBase64Text = Convert.FromBase64String(System.IO.File.ReadAllText(dbPath));

var folderPath = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(dbBase64Text);

Hope it helps!

Answer 2

UPDATE JULY 2016: THE CODE BELOW NO LONGER WORKS DUE TO CHANGES IN THE DROPBOX CLIENT, SEE ACCEPTED ANSWER ABOVE FOR UP-TO-DATE SOLUTION

Reinaldo's answer is essentially correct but it gives some junk output before the path because there seem to be two lines in the host.db file and in this case you only want to read the second one. The following will get you just the path.

string appDataPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(
                                   Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
string dbPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(appDataPath, "Dropbox\\host.db");
string[] lines = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines(dbPath);
byte[] dbBase64Text = Convert.FromBase64String(lines[1]);
string folderPath = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(dbBase64Text);
Console.WriteLine(folderPath);

Answer 3

Cleaner version based on previous answers (use var, added exists check, remove warnings):

    private static string GetDropBoxPath()
    {
        var appDataPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(
                                           Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
        var dbPath = Path.Combine(appDataPath, "Dropbox\\host.db");

        if (!File.Exists(dbPath))
            return null;

        var lines = File.ReadAllLines(dbPath);
        var dbBase64Text = Convert.FromBase64String(lines[1]);
        var folderPath = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(dbBase64Text);

        return folderPath;
    }

Answer 4

This seems to be the suggested solution from Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/help/4584?path=desktop_client_and_web_app

Answer 5

Dropbox has added a new helper, there is a JSON file in either %APPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json.

See https://www.dropbox.com/help/4584 for more information.

Answer 6

public static string getDropBoxPath()
    {
        try
        {
            var appDataPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData);
            var dbPath = Path.Combine(appDataPath, "Dropbox\\host.db");
            if (!File.Exists(dbPath))
            {
                return null;
            }
            else
            {
                var lines = File.ReadAllLines(dbPath);
                var dbBase64Text = Convert.FromBase64String(lines[1]);
                var folderPath = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(dbBase64Text);
                return folderPath;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw ex;
        }
    }

Answer 7

I'm posting here a solution that does not use Dictionary; so many years after original answers, every time that I try to use answers from Reinaldo and Derek, I get a Could not load type 'System.Web.Util.Utf16StringValidator' from assembly 'System.Web, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=... using both LinqPad 7 (.NET 6.0.9) and VS 2022 (Net Standard 2.0),

I do not know if this error is because I'm already referencing Newtonsoft.Json in Assembly as suggested in this unaccepted answer.

Anyway, here is 2022 piece of cake way to do it:

private static string GetDropBoxPath()
{
    // https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/4584 says info.json file is in one of two places
    string jsonPath = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(@"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json");
    if (!File.Exists(jsonPath)) jsonPath = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(@"%APPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json");
    var dropbox = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DropboxRoot>(File.ReadAllText(jsonPath));
    return dropbox.personal.path;
}

And these are the auxiliary classes:

public class DropboxRoot
{
    public Personal personal { get; set; }
}

public class Personal
{
    public string path { get; set; }
    public long host { get; set; }
    public bool is_team { get; set; }
    public string subscription_type { get; set; }
}

Answer 8

The host.db method has stopped working in later versions of dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/4584 gives the recommended approach.

Here is the c# code I wrote to parse the json and get the dropbox folder.

       // https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/4584 says info.json file is in one of two places
       string filename = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables( @"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json" );
       if ( !File.Exists( filename ) ) filename = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables( @"%APPDATA%\Dropbox\info.json" );
       JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
       // When deserializing a string without specifying a type you get a dictionary <string, object>
       Dictionary<string, object> obj = serializer.DeserializeObject( File.ReadAllText( filename ) ) as Dictionary<string, object>;
       obj = obj[ "personal" ] as Dictionary<string, object>;
       string path = obj[ "path" ] as string;
       return path;

Answer 9

It's not stored in the registry (at least it isn't in plain text). I believe it's stored in the following location.

C:\Users\userprofile\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox

I would say it resides in the host.db or unlink.db file.

The config.db is a sqlite file. The other two are unknown (encrypted). The config.db contains a blob field only with the schema version.