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Dropbox fails to start with Windows 10

Dropbox doesn't start at startup in Windows 10.
Tried reboot. No luck.

It's been doing thos for some time and sometimes it does start. But not the last couple of days.

Not listed in services but in Task Manager -> Services but can't be stopped. Thought I'd restart it, but... Does not show up in Notification area.

What to do?

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Accepted answers

occamman

This was happening to me, but I finally found a solution after trying removing and reinstalling, and starting as administrator, neither of which worked.

In Win10 I went to Windows' "Startup Apps" setting, and lo and behold DropBox was set to "off". I set it to "on", and all is well.

All comments

Norah

Hi @bamsematt, welcome to Dropbox Community!

In this case, I would suggest you to reinstall the Dropbox software you have currently installed on your computer.

First, make sure you save and quit ALL programs that access files in the Dropbox folder and follow the steps below:

1) Stop Dropbox (If needed):

Click the Dropbox icon in the system tray at the bottom of your screen.
Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Quit Dropbox".

2) Uninstall Dropbox:

Keep in mind that if Dropbox was installed by a Windows administrator in Program Files, you will need admin permissions to remove the application.

Click on the Start button on the bottom left of your screen, and select "Control Panel" (7), or type Control Panel at the Start screen or start menu, and click on it (10, 8).
Click "Uninstall a Program".
Select Dropbox from the list of programs and click "Uninstall".

3) When the uninstall finishes, reboot your computer. This will make sure the uninstall is complete and then Download and install the newest version of Dropbox here.

Let me know if this helps!

taavi511

I have exactly the same problem, only dropbox shows on notification area. it says starting and after some time starting it just dissapares, I have uninstalled dropbox and installed it agan several times, but still no luck

ebernardino

Yes. This happens to me. Support responded me saying that there was nothing they could do and cancelled my subscription. For some reason I uninstalled Dropbox yesterday all over and started over. Worked again. I had to pause the sync for half a day and when I started again, same problem. The crashing.

occamman

This was happening to me, but I finally found a solution after trying removing and reinstalling, and starting as administrator, neither of which worked.

In Win10 I went to Windows' "Startup Apps" setting, and lo and behold DropBox was set to "off". I set it to "on", and all is well.

taavi511

I have it enabled, windows is tring to load dreopbox, but dropbox does not load itself working, says that is starting and just cloese itself after a little while, there is no crash information or any other report about it and it is in two sepparate computers now.

Lusil

Hi there, @taavi511!

Could you please send me a screenshot (omitting any personal info) of what the Dropbox icon that’s next to your desktop’s clock reads when you hover over it? Maybe a reboot of your computer might do the trick?

Let me know of any updates! :upside_down:

taavi511

There is not much to show on the picture, it only says starting, I have restarted computer, I have done shut down, I have deinstalled and installed dropbox multiple times. Deinstallation was done fully, removed everything. At my home computer it works perfectly, when I changed harddrive on my laptop and installed windows again, after that it does not work on it, I did not use my other PC for a long time and when I turned it on, it did all the updates and I installed the dropbox on it, it did not work, it loads, says starting and in some time later just dissapares and it is not showing on running programs either.

Lusil

Thanks for your swift reply and for the screenshot, @taavi511!

In order to further investigate on this, we’d have to move this discussion to email due to account-specific info that’s required. For this reason, I’ve gone ahead and sent you an email to the email address associated with your Forum profile.

Please check your inbox for my latest message. Cheers!

arthurlr

Great, thanks - that solved it for me!

JIG123

I am having the same problem with a new Dell XPS computer running Windows 10 that I just bought. The Dropbox app is running when I look at Task Manager but nothing is happening, no logo on the tray. Please help. My email is [personal information removed]

JIG123

I four other computers running dropbox and I don't have a problem on those computers.

Lusil

Sorry to hear that, @JIG123.

Initially please note that I’ve removed personal information included in your post for security purposes.

Moving on to your concern, I was able to locate your ongoing request from my end and I can see that it’s being under review by a specialized member of my team. I’ve passed your comments along and when they have more info on the matter, they’ll get back to you as soon as possible via email.

Thanks in advance!

antodi

I had the same problem on Win10, although everything was fine few weeks before. I don't know what happened.

I solved it without reinstalling Dropbox. What I did was to add Dropbox to the startup routine of the computer using this protocol:

https://www.wintips.org/how-to-add-a-program-at-windows-10-startup/

Simply type shell:startup in the command box. Then, instead of moving the program in the startup folder, just create a shortcut to the Dropbox program. For me it was: C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe

Restart your computer and see the magic happen! You should also see Dropbox among your startup apps in the task manager.

Joycegtx1951

Since this solution continued as a private email, can you share? I still have the same problems as mentioned above: sometimes it starts, then it syncs, then it drops out of the systray. I can start it manually but this is all very frustrating. Can you provide some insight?

Lusil

Sorry to hear that, @Joycegtx1951 .

Could you please clarify if you were able to reinstall the desktop app as @Norah mentions in this thread?

If you’re still experiencing the same behavior even after that, could you please send me a screenshot (without any personal info) of what the Dropbox icon shows when you hover over it?

Thanks in advance!

graphicport

I Never think to look there. Gets me too often. THANKS!

MattJKing71

Thank you occamman! Simply making sure Dropbox was enabled for StartUp in Win10 settings fixed the issue (without any reinstalling Dropbox). Simple!

Joycegtx1951

I had to completely uninstall and reinstall it twice. After that the symptoms went away. Thanks

rsbriggs

Ahhh - that did the trick.

Willy C.

Thanks for the tip, @occammam!!!

it was the same in my case, will wait a couple of days to see if it will now start normally every morning, when I boot up my machine.

if it does; many thanks to you!

Will-E-Mammoth

I struggled with all of the above solutions but created my own.

Windows stopped showing DB as an app in any of its lists. My solution is to get the app back in the startup apps list, by pasting the shortcut to the app in the following location:

C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

aka

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

This adds DB to the startup list, then you can enable it.

Hope this helps anyone stuck with this issues. Windows is always trying to shoulder competition out.

yagerc

Thankyou, Occaman!