How can I prevent dropbox from automatically updating itself? The new dropbox 3 has a very anti-windows-7 UI that I don't like, so I reinstalled 2.10. How do I stop dropbox from continually installing v3?
You cannot disable updates.
The interface (indeed, very much inferior) is the least of the problems caused by this forced downgrade. There MUST be a way to defeat updating. May be worth experimenting with permissions in the Dropbox executable folder or discovering how it connects to download the new software. Maybe possible to block it on the firewall. Anyone any ideas?
I've been holding it off by blocking dropbox's access to *.sjc.dropbox.com but its a very manual process since my firewall doesn't support wildcard domain blocking. At this point I'm just about ready to uninstall dropbox and switch to google drive, since it seems to have all the same features with a native windows UI.
@Mike Thanks Mike I will experiment with this. I am surprised that Dropbox implement uncontrolled updating at all. It is a very unprofessional approach, and is, of course, unacceptable in many commercial environments where any software change must be validated. In this case, version 3 is not an improvement, if only for the rubbish right-click behaviour and the icon. Thanks again James
Anyone found an answer to preventing updates? Both my computers have non sse2 cpu's. I appreciate that dropbox would probably want their software to run the best they can but forcing an update that won't work on types of pc's that can't handle it seems crazy (still many systems in circulation) If you can't disable the updates, it looks like it's time to try a new cloud provider until I can afford to upgrade my machines.
Aside from playing games with its 2000 connections, no. I gave up on it and switched to google drive. It has pretty much the same feature set and updates can be disabled by disabling the google update process. It's still not an option in the program but at least there is a sane way to stop updates if I wish, unlike dropbox.
I want disable auto upgrade too, because V3 don't work on my old Windows XP, last version which work correctly is 2.10.52. But unsuccessfully tries upgrade to v3 still and cause CPU load...
Hey,Yes! Disable this auto update, now!!!!!I am using a screen reader and it crashes with all of the builds in the 3.x series, so I can't use it, every time it updates I have to run the installer again, and that is not fun at all.I also had a very very long discussion with the support about fixing this problem, but nothing has been done!I hope we can do something.Regards,Marc
Dropbox just updated itself from 2.10 to 3.2 which was immediately apparent from the awful icons. Apart from the fact I don't like 3.2 I find it unacceptable that the Dropbox droid determines that it is going to update software on my machine without my permission, not even Microsoft is so arrogant. So its bye-bye nanny Dropbox as soon as I can arrange a more proffessional alternative. My first and sadly last comment...
Hack to stop Auto Update
rm -rf ~/.dropbox-distinstall -dm0 ~/.dropbox-dist
Can you elaborate on the hack, how do you run this code and does this work on Windows? It looks like Linux code.
The hack by Vegan A (copied here) is for Linux.rm -rf ~/.dropbox-distinstall -dm0 ~/.dropbox-distThe first command deletes the .dropbox-dist directory located in your home directory. The second command creates a new empty folder called .dropbox-dist, and it sets the permission of the folder to 0 meaning no one can access it.I have more information on disabling Dropbox update in Linux in my post here:https://www.dropboxforum.com/hc/communities/public/questions/201875625-Unnecessary-Syncing-in-Windows-Linux-shared-Dropbox-since-last-update
So how do we do that on windows? There doesn't seem to be a .dropbox-dist folder in AppData/Roaming
I tried installing a 2.x version. Then I closed immediately. Then I made the following file read only and I denied all permissions to it.C:\Users\brock\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\bin\DropboxUpdateHelperSomehow, Dropbox still managed to update itself. This is definitely the file though that handles updating Dropbox. I also tried another another idea. It somehow still updates itself.
Not looking promising for Windows. I may need to start looking To another cloud provider. Out of interest, with Linux, how do you know if it's trying to update itself? I have been running it for a long time without any issues. I just sync with the cloud though and not across another folder held somewhere else like others have posted. Thinking about maybe moving to Linux full time for work.
I believe 3.x would probably work fine on your Linux distro. I believe I was having an issue because I have my folder placed on a separate NTFS partition. If you did install 2.x on your Linux distro, then you know when it is updating just as you would know by watching it update in Windows. It runs for a bit then on mouse over it will say upgrading database, then the icon/applet disappears for a second, then it reappears and looks different with a white background, just like it does in Windows. At that point it would have updated itself.
It's just absurd. If I choose not to update Dropbox on Android I can do so. So why force users to update on Windows? 3.2.9 isn't auto-syncing properly... "up to date", but it's not updating docs - I have to pause/resume syncing to get it to update. I installed 3.2.4 - great, no problems. Ten minutes later Dropbox automatically updates and I'm back with 3.2.9. Pathetic.
Maybe 3.4.3 would help. It was released on 4-2-15.https://www.dropbox.com/release_notes
I use ESET Smart Security. I turned the firewall rules on manual confirm. While it's a pain sometimes (confirming the 100s of things that call home in the background), you can set rules to remember. Everytime dropbox attempts to modify itself, ESET post a dialog and I deny it. Unfortunately, I've had to reboot as the installed version logs out and says "connecting" indefinitely.
The only way I could get the updates to stop was uninstalling the program. Which was a shame, since I've always really liked Dropbox. But I won't tolerate any software which won't let me opt out of automatic updates!
[Had to delete and post once again to correct a character eaten by the publishing system, couldn't find a way to just edit my post]
A way to block updates is called "Software Restriction Policies" : see https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457006.aspx#EJAA for Windows XP/2003 or https://technet.microsoft.com/fr-fr/library/hh994597.aspx#BKMK_Path_Rules for later versions. It may not work with basic versions of Windows ("Home", "Starter"...) .
What I did on XP Professional (tried to guess the English because I'm on a French version) :- Start > Run : secpol.msc- Software Restrictions Policies > Additional Rules- Right click > New Path Rule- Path : {YourPathToDropBox}\ .dropbox.cache\dropbox-upgrade-*.exe- Security : Disallowed
Then when the rule is matched, an event ID 866 with the source "Software Restriction Policies" is written in Windows event log "Application".
Stephan F.'s solution works brilliantly for me in both a Win 7 Pro and an XP Pro environment. The key is certainly the secpol.msc security policy preventing the automatic upgrade from executing.
My problem was that 3.6.7 stopped reliably syncing on the XP based VM, and the newer beta releases similarly failed. You already know the drill when I uninstalled Dropbox and re-installed earlier versions -- 30 minutes later I'm dragged back kicking and screaming to 3.6.7, but now with hundreds of "conflicted" files to deal with. I finally saw Stephan's answer and decided to try it by dropping all the way back to 2.10.52.
When installing 2.10.52 I disabled the two upgrade services that it registers, and deleted the upgrade "helper" exe and added the security policy per Stephan's instructions. The security policy totally prevents 2.10.52 from executing the downloaded upgrades (even though its is apparently regularly trying hard to do so). Note that even though the "hover over" system tray/notification area pop-up status balloon may say that Dropbox is upgrading, it is in fact not doing so. And the 2.10.52 syncing is continuing despite the upgrading message (which eventually clears).
All is well. Nice work Stephan!
Merci, Stefan! I don't think the * blocked it, so I made it an explicit file name (...3.6.7), which worked and showed up in the log as you said. Here's fingers crossed that the * version I left works in the future.
if x64 - HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\currentVersion\Runif x32 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\currentVersion\Run
sc delete <service name>
SchTasks /Delete /TN DropboxUpdateTaskMachineUASchTasks /Delete /TN DropboxUpdateTaskMachineCore
Tom B., did you remove the space between "{YourPathToDropBox}\" and ".dropbox.cache\dropbox-upgrade-*.exe" ? I put this space to avoid loosing some characters when publishing in the forum. Then, which Windows version are you using ?
You could also try with just "upgrade-*.exe" without path, but this will even block manual updates launched from anywhere.
Stefan, thanks for the idea, but I copied and pasted the path from my file explorer, and the path proved correct when preventing 3.6.7 from running. This is an XP box I"m running only as a printer due to lack of Win 7 drivers for a workhorse printer. I use selective sync to deliver the files I need to print. Sadly, selective sync reliably crashes the machine with any of the version 3's I tried, even early ones. I'll tinker with that security policy some more, though, thanks for an inventive way to deal with it!
Sciensys, I haven't tried yours...I'll investigate that as I play with Stefan's way some more. Thnx for the alternative.
And Stefan F's brilliant solution will even work on Windows versions where Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, have omitted secpol.msc. I have a Windows 7 Home Premium that lacks secpol.msc. Luckily I also have Windows 7 Professional machines where I have added Stefan's policies. I simply exported the registry entries created by Stefan's hack and imported them to the Windows 7 Home Premium machine's registry. The registry entries are located in HKCU and HKLM in:
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects{ ... UUID ... }Machine\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Safer\CodeIdentifiers\0\Paths\
You will see the ".dropbox.cache\dropbox-upgrade-*.exe" path included as part of the entry. Once imported my Windows 7 Home Premium laptop is also cured.
Thanks again, Stefan!
Seems to work on XP Ver 3.
They say they are working on fix in New Program who cares it works great in old version. Thanks again
Hello Stefan F.
I have Windows XP Pro SP3 installed and Dropbox Dropbox 3.6.9 Offline Installer.exe installed.
I cannot find this path and this *.exe file on my win installation
"- Path : {YourPathToDropBox}\ .dropbox.cache\dropbox-upgrade-*.exe"
Can you please explain me how to stop auto updates ?
Thank you. Merci.
Fabrizio
