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Dropbox Won't Start - Stuck on Connecting / Starting

Out of the blue, Dropbox stopped syncing on Monday and now, it won't even connect and gets stuck on starting. It sometimes gives me an error that there is no internet connection (and there is). I've tried reinstalling and restarting and uninstalling and re-installing to no avail. I'm running Catalina 10.15.7. Both my personal and business accounts are working fine and on my laptop, but not my desktop. I've tried turning off proxy, but that makes no difference either.

HELP!

Thanks!

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HTDUCK

Hi Walter - None of those things worked. I was however out of the office for a few days and it looks like Dropbox updated to a new version and it now lets me sign in and has re-synced. It's back working again. Looks like the team at Dropbox fixed whatever was causing the issue. Thanks!

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Walter

Hi @HTDUCK; welcome to the Community!

If you've ensured that there's no antivirus, a firewall or even a VPN/proxy setting that could be causing this, you may need to perform a clean, advanced re-install.

Before you get to that though, could you try unlinking and relinking your account through the app's preferences? Maybe that will do the trick.

Keep me posted!

HTDUCK

Hi Walter - Thanks for the response. There are no anti-virus, firewall, VPN or proxy settings on my home network (I've tried connecting with the Mac's built-in Firewall both on and off, and it makes no difference). My latpop is setup exactly the same as my desktop and it connects without issue. I did try unlinking from dropbox.com. But unfortunately I cannot relink my account through preferences as the Dropbox app simply will not connect to the Dropbox server. It gets stuck on "starting" nor will it connect when I try to sign in to my account through it. I will try the advanced re-install and see what happens. I suspect the real issue was an Apple update over the weekend that changed something... but I can't pinpoint it.

Walter

Thanks for keeping us in the loop @HTDUCK.

Whenever you get the chance, please let me know how the advanced reinstall worked out for you and we'll take it from there.

Enjoy the rest of your day in the meantime.

HTDUCK

I tried doing the advanced uninstall/reinstall with the recommended Mac terminal entries, and that didn't work. Same result. The Dropbox app cannot connect to its server. Tried another solution from the community here, removing everything including files stored locally on my Mac, etc. and that didn't work either.

I'm at a loss other than upgrading to Catalina 10.15.7, nothing on my computer has changed since Sunday (when it last worked). Every other internet connection works just fine. I have tried turning off the Mac's built in firewall, etc., and that made no difference for Dropbox (when installing and otherwise). I have tried setting Dropbox to "no proxies" and that didn't work. I am running on a home network, with other computers that can access Dropbox without issue, so I know it's not the router, including a MacBook running High Sierra.

The only conclusion I can come to is there is some issue between Dropbox and OS Catalina 10.15.7. The previous version of Catalina was working just fine (10.15?).

Walter

Thanks so much for keeping me in the loop on this one @HTDUCK.

At this point, could you try the following:

Click on the apple icon in the top left hand corner of your screen
Select "System Preferences..."
Then "Security & Privacy"
Select the Privacy tab
Select "Files and Folders"
Under Dropbox ensure all folders are checked

To make changes you will need to click on the lock icon and enter your macOS password.

Now attempt to restart the Dropbox desktop app.

Let me know how you get on!

HTDUCK

Walter

Thanks for keeping me in the loop @HTDUCK; I'm glad to hear it's working fine again!

Enjoy the remainder of your week and see you around the Community :coffee:

lumaimone

I'm having the same problems, but with windows 10. I tried all steps mentioned in this thread, downloaded updated app and reinstalled it, disconnected the computer from the website, restarted the computer, nothing seems to work...

Jay

Hi @lumaimone, if you disconnected the app from the site, then it will take time for the app to index and re-sync the files.

How long have you left the computer running to see if this helps?

Are you connecting via a work or personal network connection?

LeilaDunningProjects

Hey, I have a major issue, where my dropbox desktop app. thinks I am offline, and there seems to be no way I can start up the app, let alone sign in. Anyone else had this?

Many thanks, Leila

Megan

Thanks for posting today @LeilaDunningProjects! Let's see what we can do here.

As a first step, can you let me know the OS installed on your device?

Also, what is the syncing status of the app?

Let me know more.

LeilaDunningProjects

Hi Lori!,

Thanks so much. I have Mac OS Big Sur — 11.2.3 (20D91)

LeilaDunningProjects

Oh, and there is no syncing status, the the dropbox syncing status Icon is going around and it says 'waiting to be linked to an account', but I can't sign in.... catch 22

Megan

Hi @LeilaDunningProjects!

It sounds like you're using the beta version of the Dropbox desktop application.

I'd suggest you go into your account settings on the Dropbox website and turn Early releases off.

After that, install one of the stable builds of the Dropbox application.