How to Grant Dropbox Access and Create an Access Token

This guide walks you through creating a Dropbox app and generating a long-lived access token for the Paper exporter. It takes ~2 minutes.

Step 1: Create a Dropbox App

1. Go to the Dropbox App Console and sign in.
2. Click Create app.
3. Choose Scoped access (recommended for security).
4. Select your Dropbox folder access: Full Dropbox.
5. Enter a name (e.g., "Paper Exporter") and click Create app.

Step 2: Set Permissions (Scopes)

1. In your new app's page, go to the Permissions tab.
2. Enable these scopes (check the boxes):
   • files.metadata.read (to list files)
   • files.content.read (to export content)
3. Click Submit to save. (It may take a minute to propagate.)

Step 3: Generate the Access Token

1. Go to the Settings tab.
2. Scroll to OAuth 2 section.
3. Click Generate under "Generated access token".
4. Copy the token (starts with sl.)—paste it into the exporter!

Tips:

• Tokens are long-lived but revocable—regenerate if compromised.
• For the exporter, no OAuth flow needed; just the token.
• If errors occur (e.g., scope issues), double-check permissions and regenerate.

Questions? Check Dropbox Docs or the exporter's status logs.