Sync icons missing in the Dropbox folder in Finder

Hey @weiskott, thanks for joining our Community.

And thanks for all the info provided, it's super helpful.

Can you check if you're missing other sync icons, apart from the green check one? For example, when a file is syncing, does it have an icon on it?

And what is the sync status of the application? You can see that, if you hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar.

Keep me posted.

Thanks, Hannah. There are no icons at all in Finder, including when syncing. The syncing icon appears on the menu taskbar briefly before syncing completes, but there's no green check there. (I am not concerned about the taskbar, as I am given to understand that Dropbox redesigned this part of the application -- there is no check on the Dropbox taskbar icon on my laptop at home, either).

The application is working as expected on my work desktop but isn't giving me the feedback I have grown accustomed to in terms of which files have already synced. It's a small thing, but in certain scenarios this would be useful information for me in order to avoid spawning conflicted versions of files in progress. I have read that some people with this problem turned out to have been checking the wrong folder, not the one that Dropbox is syncing, but I've triple-checked that as well.

Hi @weiskott, sorry to jump in here!

Can you let me know your app's syncing status at the moment?

Also, feel free to send me a screenshot as to how the files and folders look inside your Dropbox folder, so I can have visual too.

Thanks!

Hi @Megan. Syncing status is "up to date." Here are screenshots of what I'm seeing.

Screen Shot 2022-05-10 at 9.02.38 AM.png

Screen Shot 2022-05-10 at 9.01.40 AM.png

Thanks for the update and the screenshot here.

Would you mind trying these steps to see if they help?

Click on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and quit the application
Open your Activity Monitor from your Mac Utilities folder
Force quit out of the instances of the Dropbox application that are running by searching for "Dropbox" in the search bar, then clicking on the "x" force quit icon on the top left
Re-start Dropbox from the applications folder by double clicking on the Dropbox application
Click on the Apple icon in the top left of your screen
Click on "force quit"
Relaunch the finder

@Hannah, I have completed the steps you outlined, and it didn't solve the problem alas. I did find "Dropbox Finder Extension" in the Activity Monitor after quitting Dropbox, and I force-quitted it, but I still don't see the sync icons.

Thanks for the update here and happy Friday!

What if you force quit all Dropbox instances except for the 'Dropbox Finder Integration' one and then force quit and relaunch Finder?

Does it make a difference?

@Hannah Alas, no. There were two instances of "Dropbox Finder Extension" running, and I force-quitted one of them, then relaunched Finder and Dropbox. Still no sync icons.

Screenshot below.

Thank you for help. Is there anything else I should try?

Screen Shot 2022-05-16 at 9.46.03 AM.png

GuZ

We have the same issue, since the latest updates Dropbox sync options menu are all different and there are no more sync icons.

All files display as zero bytes now.

Is this a bug, a temporary issue or did Dropbox change?

Hi @GuZ, welcome to our Community!

Have you tried the steps mentioned throughout this thread?

Also, @weiskott, do you still face the same behavior on your end?

Yes @Megan I am.

Walter

Hey @weiskott, sorry to jump in here, but could you maybe try installing the desktop app on a newly created OS profile on your computer and let us know if you notice any difference?

GuZ

@megan yes, I followed all steps.

It seems related to updates to the OS and the Dropbox app.

A lot of functionality has changed, so I am not even sure this is a bug or that the icons are simply no longer part of the integration.

Hi @GuZ!

Can you let me know the version of the app that you have installed on your end?

Also, feel free to send me a screenshot of the visual you see in your Dropbox folder. Thanks!

Hi @Walter, I tried installing Dropbox on a newly created OS profile and it reproduced the problem. No sync icons. Could it be that the most recent version of Dropbox has simply done away with the sync icons?!

Hi @weiskott, can you also try the following?

Click on the Apple logo located at the top-left of the screen.
Click on System Preferences.
Click on Extensions.
Click on Finder Extensions.
Only leave Dropbox Finder Integration ticked.
Once this is completed suggest to close the window.
Click one more time on the Apple logo at the top-left of the screen.
Click on Force Quit.
Look for Finder on the list.
Click on Finder then Relaunch.

@Megan, that worked! Thank you very much! The Sophos Endpoint extension was interfering with Dropbox.

Hi @weiskott, that's amazing news!

Give me a shout if you need anything else!

GuZ

Today it started working again as expected!

😄

Nick S.50

I confirm the chosen solution works for me too. Thank you Megan!

I suspect that the culprit may be Adobe's Core Sync Helper - I am not using Adobe Cloud for file syncing (as I have Dropbox 😉) so I could safely disable it.

We can call that amazing news, can't we? @Nick S.50

Awesome! If you need anything else, you know where to find me.

Paul H.96

Megan,

This solution brought the sync icons back, but they're wrong. Specifically, if I have a folder with some files offline and other files online, that folder will show a cloud (all offline).

Screenshot attached.

Is there any way to know when folders have some files offline and some online without opening them up? I have folders within folders within folders so opening them up is not a practical solution for me to know this.

- Paul

Screen Shot 2022-08-20 at 9.24.09 PM.png

Hi @Paul H.96.

At the moment, there's no way to tell without opening the folder, but I'll pass this along to our team.

We appreciate your feedback about this and I'll make sure your comments are heard.

Paul H.96

Thanks you @Hannah for the quick and clear response! The answer is disappointing so I hope they can resolve this soon.

According to Finder I have 116,293 items in my dropbox, well organized in a structure of folders within folders. There's simply no way I can transverse that tree to see the sync status of all my individual files, I need it summarized at the folder level as in the past.

Peleela

I am having this issue with both of my Dropbox accounts (personal and business). It only just started today when I was moving a lot of files, and I was getting the Finder message about duplicates. Then Dropbox quit unexpectedly. Now, I no longer see the Dropbox icons on my files, nor do I see any of the Finder Quick Actions. And, Dropbox continues to quit unexpectedly.

I have tried everything listed in this thread, in addition to other steps suggested in other threads. This includes:

- uninstall Dropbox, then reinstall

- double-check the System Preferences for Dropbox

- making sure the Finder Integration is checked

- force quit the Finder

- using Activity Selector to force quit all Dropbox processes, then start it up again, then relaunch the Finder

- I even turned off Adobe Core Sync Helper based on Nick S.50's comment

And then I read Walter's note about installing Dropbox on another newly created OS profile. It is working just fine on that other profile. I can also report that the files that I thought I had moved earlier today have not actually been moved. (So perhaps my Dropbox was having sync issues earlier than I realized, and then it crashed because what I was seeing and reality were totally out of sync.)

So far nothing has fixed the problem on my main profile, and Dropbox continues to quit unexpectedly about every 1-2 minutes so I just can't use it right now. I'm hoping someone here might have a suggestion for what I can do on my main OS profile to fix this. Let me know if any other info is needed.

Jay

Hi @Peleela, do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

Peleela

Hi Jay, no I don't have any of that software installed.

Hey @Peleela, sorry to jump in here.

The fact that the application gives an "unexpectedly quit" error, could potentially be caused by the very big move you were trying to make.

Has the app managed to finish syncing? Or is it quitting mid-sync?

When the app is open and running, what do you see when you hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar?

Peleela

When I open Dropbox it says "syncing..." and then shortly thereafter it says your "files are up to date". Awhile after that, it will crash.