Child Item

Is it possible to disable the sync icons on files in Explorer?

How can I disable the overlay icons, that are showing the current sync status of dropbox in the explorer? I need them for other applications that I am using. Windows 10 can obvioulsy only handle 15 icons, but the most of them are used by dropbox per default.

The only solution I found is to delete the registry entrys of dropbox in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers, but they were obvioulsy installed again automatically. This is getting really annoying .

Is there a possibility to disable these icons anywhere in the dropbox settings? I did not found an option for it. The only icon that would be helpful is the green "sync OK" icon, the rest of it is not relevant for me. Can I maybe modify some kind of *.ini file e.g. of dropbox to get rid of the useless icons?

Find more posts tagged with

Setting Up the Apps

Desktop

Windows

Spam

Insightful

Delivered

Accepted answers

Rich

There are no options within Dropbox to disable the icon overlays. The only solution is to remove the Registry entries and then remove permissions from the Registry key so that nothing can write to it again. This is NOT supported by Dropbox, or likely Microsoft for that matter. Use caution if you proceed.

All comments

Rich

Briskola

Hi, Can I remove the check mark on every sync on my Windows and Mac pc ?file ?

Daphne

Hi @Briskola!

It seems you have a similar question to the OP here, so I've moved your post to this thread.

When you have the chance, please check out the info here and let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

StopMessingWithOverlayIcons

Hello! I created idea to solve this issue and have been collecting votes for it since April 2020.

It has 44 votes but still remains in "Needs more votes" status.

Please take a look and place your vote. Together we will win https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Add-option-to-disable-icon-overlays-in-Windows-Explorer/idi-p/412106

Mr T

Why is this marked as "accepted solution" and the topic set to "solved"? :laughing: I did not accept it, since it is no solution for me...

I would like to avoid to remove any permissions of this registry key. Who knows what will happen at the next installation of any tool that tries to write any new data there. :zipper_mouth:

At Anyone who reads this topic: please let a vote in @StopMessingWithOverlayIcons idea, if you are having the same issue.

Mr T

uninstall dropbox or delete regularly the registry entry @Briskola

wrxmarcus

I have a OneDrive subscription that came with O365.

I will likely stop using dropbox and use OneDrive (😪) if there is no way to disable the overlay icon overwriting in the registry.

This is very frustrating. I need overlay icons for other programs; I do not need them for dropbox.

Is this feature in-the-works?

NigDig

Forget it. People have been on at Dropbox for years about this and they do nothing about it. I uninstalled dropbox years ago, but had to start using Dropbox again because an annoying co-worker uses it. It came as no surprise to find that it still had not been fixed.

L. M.1

I understand why you have them, but there should be an option to turn them off. I have my Windows Desktop within DropBox, and they get in the way. I keep turning them off via Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers or using autoruns, but they keep reappearing.

The user is right.

Hannah

Thanks for taking the time to post to our Community today, @L. M.1.

We really appreciate your feedback about this.

I will personally make sure that your comments are passed along to our team.

If you need anything else, please let us know.

Have a great day!

L. M.1

If this was a new topic then I would accept your response. However, multiple users have requested this many, many times before and DropBox has never done more than a polite "We hear you". Do you really?

Please explain why this option has not been incorporated years ago, and there are multiple pages on this. However, because of how you update they are not robust.

https://superuser.com/questions/1193399/how-to-stop-showing-the-dropbox-green-checkmarks-across-every-photo#:~:text=If%20you're%20just%20browsing,works%20with%20Mega%20cloud%20storage.

https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/content/en-us00688417/#:~:text=Right%2Dclick%20the%20Windows%20icon,to%20disable%20the%20check%20box.

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/Is-it-possible-to-disable-the-sync-icons-on-files-in-Explorer/td-p/415475

https://www.tenforums.com/customization/190302-change-remove-dropbox-sync-icons-explorer.html

A few examples (there are more).

jonobo

Exactly. We PAY for your product. This overlay issue has existed for years now. It interferes with version control overlays which are much more important for my company. It is unacceptable that this hasn't been fixed yet. This may seem trivial to you, but we are looking into different options now.

L. M.1

It is worse than "not fixed". If you use the standard methods to remove them, e.g. delete or change the Registry entries, DropBox will recreate them. Therefore there is no question that they know about this and have deliberately chosen not to fix it.

Related, they have also recently (I think) added entries to the Right-Click-Mouse which are only added after DropBox starts. Similar, this is deliberately forcing the customer.

The customer is right, except with DropBox?