Backup your files to dropbox using BASH

Download the dropbox-uploader script by Andrea Fabrizi from github as root

make it executable and run it

when executed for the first time you will be prompted with some some instructions to be able to upload/download to your dropbox account.
In short, you need to create a developer account and create an app that this little script will talk to.
So, head over to :

https://www2.dropbox.com/developers/apps

and click on “Create an App”, fill in the form with the following data:

App name: MyUploader<number>
Description: What do you want…
Access level: App folder or Full Dropbox

Now, click on the “Create” button.

When your new App is successfully created, please enter the App Key, App Secret and the Access level into the script:

The script will then show a confirmation question, if all information is correct, enter “y”
The script will now display:

while requesting access and if all is well it will turn into:

A URL is now displayed that you need to visit to confirm access for the Dropbox Uploader to your dropbox account.
it will look something like this:

Press enter when done…
If you take to long time to visit the URL, you will need to CTRL+C and start over again. If everything went ok, you will see this:

You can now upload/download files to your dropbox account with cli.

5 comments for “Backup your files to dropbox using BASH

  1. maillot psg
    June 4, 2013 at 00:07

    wow, awesome blog article.Really looking forward to read more. Awesome. maillot psg http://maillotpsg-2013.tumblr.com/

  2. June 10, 2014 at 19:00

    Finally something which is working . Tried so many methods. And this worked perfectly. Thanks

  3. July 19, 2016 at 07:57

    When i’m using ‘upload’ it said DONE. but where’s the file that i’ve been upload sir? i check datastores in my dropbox, and there’s nothing over there.

    • July 19, 2016 at 08:06

      ah… my mistake,

      there’s folder Apps on my dropbox, and the developer folder is inside there.

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