I get an error message that Windows System Restore failed?

Hey Richard - sorry to hear about this!

Have you asked Microsoft directly as this error is coming from your Windows computer's directly and not Dropbox?

What I was able to find is that this issue can happen in Windows computers due to various reasons. Some of them are:

1. System files corruption or missing
2. Hard disk errors or bad sectors
3. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable
4. Unknown virus or malware infection.

I hope this information helps point you towards the right direction and please keep me posted on your findings @Richard P.44/.

yes followed through the microsoft procedures and not found anything to help

Raised it here as the file causing the error was a dropbox placeholder file. Seems to have only become a problem since smart sync came into operation

Richard

Thanks for the additional info @Richard P.44 - much appreciated.

From what I understand (note that this is not within my scope of expertise in any way) when you run the System Restore your computer tries to restore a placeholder file from your external drive (yes, I noticed the " \ "part on that file's path) and fails for some reason. Do you have that external drive connected to your computer when performing your system's recovery?

At this point and to help isolate this issue, could you please try quitting the Dropbox application when trying to restore by using the following steps?

Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac/Linux)
Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Quit Dropbox"

Let me know if this helped!

Walter

I have to admit that I hadnt taken in that it was referring to D drive. There is one but its just an HP partition for recovery files - so nothing to do with Dropbox

I therefore uninstalled dropbox - tested system restore without it having cleaned out all the dropbox folders - restore worked fine

Then reinstalled Dropbox to a new folder - and restore worked fine as well

So something to do with a corruption in the cache folder perhaps. Anyway problem solved

Many thanks for your help

Glad to hear you managed to resolve your concern in the end @Richard P.44!

Should you ever come up with a question - or issue for that matter - please let me know.

Thanks for using Dropbox and have a lovely day ahead!

I am having the same problem. I followed Richard's instructions, i.e.; uninstalled Dropbox, and reran System Restore from Safe mode. I am still getting the placeholder.bat error.

Any other thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance,

dee

I see a very painful Windows Reset in my future.

I did some testing after I did a Windows Reset and reinstalled all my apps.

first test:

created a System Restore point (with Dropbox installed.)
uninstalled Dropbox
attempted a Safe Mode recovery
results: Recovery failed with "Placeholder.bat error"

second test:

uninstalled Dropbox
created a System Restore point
attempted a Safe Mode recovery
results: Recover succeeded

The results indicate that it's not the restore process that is failing, but the Restore file created with Dropbox installed. This is a VERY bad result for both of us.

I wouldn't put it past MS to do this on purpose, given that you are a competitor for their OneDrive, but this is untenable for me. I have a very tight deadline, and I have wasted 3 days on this process because Dell sent me a crap update.

It is sad to say, given that your software has saved me from myself more than once, but we must part company. I need valid Restore points.

I see my answer awhile back is shown as the accepted solution - but I havent been able to get System Restore to work since then.

I am heavily dependent on Dropbox for work so I cant move elsewhere for cloud storage - so I now make regular system image backups which is a work around

Like DeeRoche I do think this is something Dropbox need to resolve

Hey there folks, thank you for this feedback!

I will make sure your comments are passed along to our dev team for future consideration.

If there's anything else I can do in the meantime, do let me know please.

Ddog800

Would just like to add that I'm having the exact same problem. A user installed a faulty driver this morning and the system won't boot. Trying to use system restore, but it fails with this exact same error:

System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed.

Details:

System restore failed to replace the file (C:\Users\<user>\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgbzfynfuwbof\placeholder(2865).bat) with its original copy from the restore point.

An unspecified error occurred during the System Restore. (0x80070780)

Based on this issue and the OP's issue, it appears that Dropbox has effectively broken System Restore in Windows 10. This is defintely a bit ridiculous. Now, instead of a quick restore, I'm forced to rebuild this laptop, which will cause myself and the user to lose at least a day or more of productivity. Please look into this problem, guys!

Sorry to hear about this @Ddog800 - have you given the suggestions listed in this thread a look?

Also, as this error message is coming from your Windows device, I'd suggest asking Microsoft directly as well.

In any case, please let me know what you find!

Are you kidding? Have you read this thread? I did a very comprehensive test.

There is no solution other than uninstalling your software.

You had me believe that you were working on this issue. I see now that you were just trying to pat us on the head and say "there, there".

I'm out.

https://www.dropbox.com/support

Sorry to hear you feel this way @DeeRoche - I wish I could help more. Unfortunately, without any additional information, I won't be able to.

Should you need to look further into this, please go ahead and log a ticket with our team providing the specifics of the affected device through the following page:

If there's anything I can help with in the meantime, do let me know.

I am having this problem too. Very unhappy right now.

This issue is not solved - the original author says so. Please get your developers to fix this. It's awful.

Yeah, I am done too. Bye Dropbox.

coxlegal

I’ve got this same problem too. I found this thread right away when I googled the issue. And, so I’m really shocked that it sounds like Dropbox is incompatible with Window’s system restore. And, if I’m wrong, someone from Dropbox please step in and clarify.

Thanks for nudging me here @coxlegal.

Would it be OK if I reached out to your Dropbox associated email address to work on this together?

Hi Walter - this continues to be a problem - I have contacted dropbox support as you suggested previously with the details and received no reply

The error message I get is still the same as before

I only continue to use Dropbox as work uses it - and at work we have had the same issue of restore not working on other computers using Win 7 where dropbox is installed

The error message I get is on a Win 8.1 system is

System Restore failed to replace the file (D:\Users\*****\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgpbzfynfuwbof\placeholder.bat) with its original copy from the restore point. An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x80070780)

I have like other people on here deleted dropbox and all files and system restore works fine - so please dont ask us to contact Microsoft

Drive D has been disabled in system restore - and that made no difference. For information Drive D is a recovery drive partition

I have had to resort to making system images as a work around but this really isnt satisfactory

Why arent Dropbox developers looking at sorting this? My Dropbox contract renews in September - I will be looking elsewhere for the company if it isnt resolved

Richard

Walter, I am a software developer. When our clients say there is a problem, and provide step-by-step instructions on recreating the issue, as I did a few months ago, we don't say "I can't fix it because I can't see your results" we follow the steps given, recreate and fix the issue.

The only bug that can't be fixed is one that can't be recreated. This is a surprisingly easy bug to recreate. It would take less than 20 minutes to produce on any Windows 10 machine.

Dropbox is far superior to anything else out there doing what you are doing. But this issue could be a product-killer for you if it becomes common knowledge.

Justin11

Same issue here. Can't believe it's gone on this long without a resolution. I'm working on a user's computer, I have wasted hours on it because I can't do a simple restore to before their issue happened. The error is the exact same as the others are getting. Stop blaming Microsoft for a clear issue with your software. I have been in IT for over 15 years, and have not seen an issue like this with System Restore. It's quite clearly something with your software causing this. You said back in March you were passing the info on to the dev team but obviously that hasn't happened.

I will be speaking with all of my business customers (approx 500 seats) and letting them know that Dropbox effectively kills System Restore and encouraging them to migrate to another provider unless a solution is reached quickly.

MartyBook

Same issue here, has this been addressed yet or is there an accepted workaround yet?

I've unlinked my account on this machine and deleted the dropbox folder but am still getting the placeholder.bat error message. I had a bsod fail during a vpn install and this bug means I'm now basically screwed if I can't do a system restore.

Have been a happy customer for many years now but this is a BIG problem for me especially given the premium price I pay for the smart sync stuff over onedrive.

Hey there people - thank you all for your constructive feedback and patience on this one.

Apologies for the tardy response but I was checking back on this internally and I just found out that our team are aware and working towards a fix as we speak.

In the meantime, a potential workaround is to exclude the .dropbox.cache from the system restore which can be done via the FilesNotToBackup registry - note that this is not something we support, and should only be completed by advanced users.

We'll make sure to keep you posted on our team's progress on this via this thread so make sure you're subscribed to it so you can receive email notifications (you can do this by clicking on the upper ellipsis button on any thread and then click on 'Subscribe').

I hope this helps to some extent!

MartyBook

Have added the .dropbox.cache folder location and the same folder location with a *.* wildcard to the FilesNotToBackUp registry key as suggested by Walter above.

Though I suspect this might help people moving forward when creating and subsequently restoring from a *new* restore point created *after* making the suggested registry changes, it does nothing to rescue the poor victims, including myself, that are trying to restore from an *existing* snapshot. It looks like the process restores the registry first which effectively wipes the new key entries and then just goes ahead as before trying (and failing) to restore that **bleep** placeholder.bat file, with the same fail outcome.

A complete wipe and rebuild is looking increasingly likely at this point which, frankly, is a disaster.

Please can someone at dropbox give us a step by step to get us out of this? Have you guys reached out to microsoft to request a best practice way of excluding a file or folder already contained in a snapshot? If it turns out this is not possible due to a 'microsoft thing' rather than a 'dropbox thing' and out of your control then it would be great to know sooner rather than later so I can bite the bullet and get on with a rebuild.

mmkkkkk

yes having the same issue here . . . windows system restore broken by dropbox . .

I had to do a complete reset of my machine, and I am disappointed this hasn't been resolved yet. Its good that there is a possible workaround. It would be better if it were verified, and it would be of course better if it were fixed completely.

Let me complain for a moment. I am also a software developer. This isn't the type of issue that the companies I have worked for would let "sit". We would work on it until it was fixed; at most of couple of days.

For a company like dropbox, when your system is not only just not working, but your service prevents the host operating system from functioning properly - that's terrible. Your service is harmful, at best negligent.

sprgroup

We are also having the same issue with system restore failing on Windows 10 Pro (Build 1903) systems with Dropbox installed. We had a faulty driver installed on one device which caused a BSOD loop and so the device needed a simple system restore, however, that failed with the same error mentioned previously in this thread. We eventually had to restore the device from a disk image after all else failed.

This issue has caused us to lose about 3 days worth of work on that device, as well as almost 2 days attempting to troubleshoot the issue and finally restoring from a backup disk image after reading this thread. We are still attempting to locate/restore newer documents, work, and program files that were not included in the latest disk image.

For the moment, we have modified registry values on all devices to exclude the Dropbox cache folder from system restore points, however, this obviously can not be a permanent fix for this issue! Please update your software to resolve this issue, or we will begin looking elsewhere for cloud backup services (OneDrive is now syncing for the first time as I write this post), and we will be advising our business partners to do the same.

This is a very serious issue that should not be taken lightly, as anyone who has created, or is about to create, a system backup while this issue remains unresolved will be unable to restore their system if it fails at any point in the future. Your team should at least make an announcement on the app so that users are aware of this issue, and can create regular disk images until the issue is resolved, or at the very least they can be cautious and temporarily avoid unnecessary software/driver installs or any other risky activity that could result in a system failure.

Please consult your dev team and let us know in the thread when this issue is expected to be resolved. I've just realized that the initial post is from October 2018, and so the issue has been around since at least then. This is completely ridiculous. It has been almost a year now. This is something that should be a quick, simple fix on your end for a very serious issue that could affect any of your Windows users at any point in time and cause them to lose their system builds and program files. Please keep us updated.

Thanks for the extensive report @sprgroup!

I have already relayed all the details of your problem to our engineering team.At this point, they’ll evaluate the problem and work toward a solution.

Apologies for any inconvenience this might have caused and while I can’t say exactly how long this is going to take, I’ll make sure to keep an eye on the team’s progress and let you know as soon as I have an update.

In the meantime (as you mentioned) the best way to tackle this is to keep excluding .dropbox.cache from the System Restore (see my previous reply for more info).

MartyBook

So I ask for an update or a step by step or just a simple "we don't anticipate having a fix for this issue soon" over a week ago and am ignored completely. @sprgroup asks much the same thing and gets a response in a few hours. Thanks dropbox, way to treat the little guy.