Powerful Dropbox Client for Linux

Dropbox for Linux

Dropbox is one of the storage providers with a Linux client, but their Smartsync technology has never made it over. ExpanDrive is still the most powerful Dropbox client for Linux that supports a full range of powerful Dropbox features. It runs on Ubuntu, Red Hat, Linux Mint, CentOS, Debian, and most other popular distributions. ExpanDrive is currently shipping a desktop app and a server edition for Linux and Windows Server.

Download ExpanDrive for Linux v2023.4.1
Released April 10th, 2023

ExpanDrive runs similarly to a network drive, making your content available on-demand. You can configure ExpanDrive to mount the root of your Dropbox account, or map it to a specific folder. In addition to a Linux client, ExpanDrive also runs on Mac and Windows and supports customization and enterprise distribution to help you deploy into large organizations.

Advantages over sync

Sync clients eat up large amounts of storage, keeping copies of all the files you might have access to locally rather than leaving them in the cloud and only downloading them on-demand. If you’re on the road with limited storage on your laptop, this takes up valuable space and bandwidth – often for files you don’t need.

Additionally, this method of access scales poorly as your organization grows in headcount and file count. Using ExpanDrive as a native client to map a network drive to Dropbox lets you have the best of both worlds.

Getting started – Download ExpanDrive

Desktop based installations

ExpanDrive ships primarily as a desktop app with a user interface for advanced configuration and management. We also have a server edition that runs headless for Windows and Linux Servers.

Debian and Ubuntu based desktop distributions

For Debian and Ubuntu based distributions, the easiest way to get started is to download and install the latest .deb package (64-bit), either through the graphical installer or via the command-line with the following command:

sudo apt install ./ExpanDrive_2023.4.1_amd64.deb

Installing the .deb will also automatically install the apt repository and code signing key to enable easy update using the system package manager.

You can install the repository and key manually with the following script:

curl https://packages.expandrive.com/keys/expandrive.asc | gpg --dearmor > packages.expandrive.gpg 
sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 packages.expandrive.gpg /usr/share/keyrings/ 
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/packages.expandrive.gpg] https://packages.expandrive.com/expandrive stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/expandrive.list'

Then you update the package cache and install ExpanDrive using:

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install expandrive

RHEL, Fedora, and CentOS based desktop distributions

Download our latest .rpm package (64-bit) and use yum to install ExpanDrive and the required dependencies.

sudo yum localinstall ./ExpanDrive-2023.4.1.x86_64.rpm

Installing the .rpm will also automatically configure the yum repository and code signing key to enable easy update using the system package manager.

You can install the yum repo manually using the following script:

sudo rpm --import https://packages.expandrive.com/keys/expandrive.asc 
sudo sh -c 'echo -e "[expandrive] name=expandrive baseurl=https://packages.expandrive.com/rpm enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 gpgkey=https://packages.expandrive.com/keys/expandrive.asc" > /etc/yum.repos.d/expandrive.repo'

Then update your package cache and install ExpanDrive using dnf (Fedora 22 and above):

sudo dnf check-update 
sudo dnf install expandrive

or using yum:

yum check-update 
sudo yum install expandrive

Server/Headless Edition

Head over to our ExpanDrive Server Edition page for instructions and packages for Windows and Linux servers. ExpanDrive Server edition is designed to run unattended, at boot (versus login), and provides drives that can even be re-shared on the network.

Amazing Reviews

“ExpanDrive lets you mount remote sftp drives and it actually works! I.e. no long delays or dropped connection in the middle of a save.”

Allan Odgaard, TextMate

“My first impression after reading ExpanDrive’s promotional description last week was that it sounded too good to be true. One week later, I’m pretty sure it actually is that good.”

John Gruber, Daring Fireball

Box Network Drive

ExpanDrive for Linux has a full-featured file explorer as well as a fast network drive client. This builds support for Box into every application in your environment, including terminal apps and the file explorer.