How to Run Multiple Dropbox Accounts on One Computer

Want to use more that one Dropbox account? then you are at right place. Technology has brought many interesting stuff to user’s desktop and Dropbox is one of them. I am sure most of you must already be aware of the usage and advantage of this useful backup service but for new users, let me tell you how good it is. Dropbox is one of the best online storage to keep a backup of your important data that you can share with your family and friends. Not only casually, Dropbox is part of big businesses as well. You can also open your files on any computer/device by using available apps and just signing in your Dropbox at that device (you will have to wait for the Dropbox to Sync all your files). The software works by creating backup of data in cloud and syncing all your different devices.

All of the above mentioned advantages of Dropbox makes it really striking that sometimes you might need to have two accounts at one device. The problem is it is not easy to handle two Dropbox accounts in one instant. In this article, we will show you how to run to multiple Dropbox accounts on one computer.

Use Multiple Dropbox Accounts on One Computer

Create a new user account, you might be thinking that you have to keep on switching to different user accounts in order to use two different accounts of Dropbox but that is not true. With the steps we are telling you, you can actually use both of these Dropbox accounts from your main Windows account.

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  • So, first of all you need to create a new user account on your computer. This can be done by pressing Windows+I keys from keyboad and clicking Accounts option.
  • On the next window select “Family and other users” from left panel and then select “Add someone else to this PC option” available on the right-side under “Other users” section.
    add-account-pc
  • A dialogue box will appear on the screen here, at the bottom select “I don’t have this person’s sign-in information”.
    local-account-without-email
  • On the next window, click “Add a user without Microsoft account”
    add-user-without-microsoft-account
  • Now, enter the username and password details for the user account as showing below. You will be asked to give a password while using multiple Dropbox account, make sure you have written this password somewhere as you cannot afford to lose it.
    create-account-for-pc
  • The new account is created. You can start using it by clicking on start button and going to switch user.

Once you are signed into your new users, you can configure Dropbox account there as well.

  • You will have to download and install a fresh copy of Dropbox for this newly created user.
  • Before installing, go to C: drive and create a new folder for your Dropbox.
  • When you run the Dropbox setup and during installation you will be asked to choose a folder for Dropbox then select that folder you created in C: drive.

Once you have gone through all of the above mentioned steps, log out of this new account and log into your main account where you already using another Dropbox account. In order to do so, you need to create another shortcut of Dropbox.

  • Press Windows key and type Dropbox and from search results right-click on the icon and select “Open file location”.
  • Copy the Dropbox icon and paste it on your desktop or just right-click on the Dropbox shortcut and choose Send to > Desktop. When you see the newly created shortcut icon on your desktop, right click on that and choose Properties.
  • On properties window, add the following command before existing text in the Target text-box and hit Ok to save it.
    runas / user:userdropbox
    run-multiple-dropbox-accounts

    If you created user with a different name then replace username with the name of the new user account that you created above.

This should be enough for you to run the second instances of Dropbox by clicking on that shortcut icon on the desktop. You have to enter password for the other windows user account.

9 comments… add one
Roger September 13, 2016, 8:59 pm

It does not work. U can no longer choose where to install your copy of dropbox.

Hence if you try to install on another user, it ends up installing into the same path

marc June 21, 2017, 4:07 am

Incorrect. I just set this up on a second machine…dropbox allowed me to customize the location of my “second” dropbox folder under the secondary user….I placed it under C:/iwannaputithere/dropbox no problems.

BRandon July 19, 2017, 10:09 pm

Whenever I use the runas it changes the program to a system32 target location instead of bin like the example shows. The shortcut initially shows as a client location, it never shows bin. Would this be why my program is not working?

BRandon July 19, 2017, 10:11 pm

It basically changes the link to a program, and a quick command prompt window will pop up and disappear before I can read it and nothing else happens.

Shin Jie May 15, 2018, 9:32 pm

The reason why there a quick command prompt window popup and disappear is because of the target from the original Dropbox Shortcut which is
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe” /home

Remove the /home to get it working

Basically you should have something like this after you remove the /home
Original Target: C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe”
After Modify it should be something like below
example 1
C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:yourusername “C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe”
Example 2
C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /user:userdropbox “C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe”

After that run it and it will prompt you for password (if you have set one)

Hope it help someone 🙂

Stef January 29, 2019, 4:25 pm

Hi Shin Jie,

This helped but my computer won’t let me type the password into the black box so I removed the password from the other user and tried just pressing enter but this didn’t work either. It seems to then run a few lines but just closes. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Stef

FVR June 11, 2018, 11:02 am

What if I want to install my Dropbox folder in another drive like E: instead of C:? My second Dropbox account has almost 1TB and my C: drive is too small. Will there be changes to the target link?

Ahmed June 19, 2018, 11:32 pm

Yes, you have to mention the folder path of dropbox available on another drive.

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