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Duplicate Dropbox Options in Context (Right Click) Menu - Windows 11

Title pretty much sums it up. When I right click a file in dropbox or Winblows explorer tree, there are 2 sets of Dropbox options.

With other installed apps and options I've enabled, right click menu is quite long, (full menu no shown below).

How do I consolidate these 2 Dropbox option trees into 1?

Thanx

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Sam DBX

Hi everyone,

Our team has implemented a fix for the duplicate context menu items in Windows 11 that you reported.

Please let us know if you still encounter this issue.

Thank you,
Sam

All comments

Jay

Hi @BD_CSB, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Could you try quitting and restarting the Dropbox desktop application?

I'd also recommend rebooting the entire machine as well to see if this helps.

Keep me updated with any progress!

BD_CSB

Hey,

Thanks for the reply.

The issue has existed since getting this machine new last March.

Many reboots and restarts of the program since then.

Issue persists.

Walter

Thanks for clarifying that for us @BD_CSB

Could you also let us know the app's version and status as shown in your taskbar?

Also, have you tried reinstalling the app since you first noticed this?

Spektr48

Hi,

I have those entries too. This is not a one user issue, it's a "feature" of your desktop client. I wonder why the people at support don't know that this is not an error, but something embedded into the software.

Please, correct it or, at least, tell us how to consolidate the Dropbox entries, because this is ridiculous and quite annoying to have all those options (many of them duplicated) bloating the context menu.

Fix this ASAP, please.

BD_CSB

Exactly!

Whenever I'm told: "Uninstall and reinstall", I'll ways take that to mean: "We've got nothing really and/or we don't want to spend much time sorting it out."

If this is by design, the team at DB needs to shake their collective head.

rwl

Hi,
I have the same problem. Any solutions available?

Rene

Spektr48

Don't hold your breath, Dropbox is infamous for not correcting any user-reported problem, ever.

Hannah

Hey everyone.

This is a known issue that is currently being addressed.

Our team is working on it, so once we have more info, you'll be updated as well.

Spektr48

Thank you for the info. This should be an easy update, since, IMHO, it is about a simple registry hack, isn't it? Yet, many days have passed, and no update has been launched for the Dropbox client. So, I'll believe it when I see it.

The certificate error when launching Dropbox has not been solved yet, and this was reported ages ago.

I truly hope I'm wrong, but allow me to remain skeptical about Dropbox's user support.

Sebastien L.

Same problem here. Very annoying.

brankogrbac

I've just downloaded and clean-installed newest beta build 171.3.6135 and I can tell you this issue has not been resolved. Three weeks ago a community moderator assured us this was a know issue and was being worked on. Three weeks later and no progress has been made.

What a slap in the face of the community and all the paying customers.

Nancy

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all doing well!

Please rest assured that our team is aware of this issue and they’re still working on a fix, so that this gets resolved as soon as possible.

When there are more updates on this, we’ll let you know in this thread.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

dzdhr

I also noticed duplicate dropbox lists in the context menu, and I resolved this by removing the following folder in the registry.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt

It is advised to back up this before removal, which can be done by right click the folder and then "export".

brankogrbac

Are you sure a new update or a fresh install would not recreate the key?

I've backed up and removed HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt key as per your instructions, then I've ended and restarted explorer process. Unfortunately, this has made zero impact on the situation and there are still two context menu sections dedicated to Dropbox.

The following keys remain as reported by Sysinternals Autoruns:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt

Are we supposed to remain assured that the Dropbox team is working on this? There have been 4 stable builds and 11 beta builds since 171.3.6135 and the issue has not been resolved.

Walter

Hi all, thanks for your reports so far.

I just wanted to mention that we're aware of this issue and working towards a fix, but we don't have an ETA to provide at this time.

We'll keep you posted as soon as we have an update on this.

dzdhr

I just updated the key needed to be deleted, the following works for me:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt

Even with restarting windows explorer or the system, the duplicate menu doesn't show up for me. I am not sure about uninstall/reinstall dropbox though.

brankogrbac

Apparently all three keys are used for different things:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt - used when a file is selected

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt - used when a folder is selected

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt - used when nothing is selected (background)

Backing up and deleting all three keys, then ending and restarting explorer has finally removed the duplicate context menu section. Now there is only one context menu section and it is only present while Dropbox is running on my Windows 11 machine.

I have not tried reinstalling Dropbox, but I suspect these keys would be recreated.

@dzdhr

Thanks for sharing this information.

dzdhr

Thanks for the summary! Unfortunately, the context menu for items in the navigation pane still has duplicate dropbox list for me. I couldn't find a registry entry for this context menu.

I can confirm reinstall Dropbox will restore those settings.

pritz54

This worked for me, thank you!

I didn't have to restore the registry backups, i just closed DB app, deleted keys, restarted explorer, started DB app, Good to go!

Megan

Awesome news @pritz54!

If you need anything else, we'll be one post away.

brankogrbac

Desktop client stable build 175.4.5569 doesn't seem to be adding these three registry keys during installation on Windows 11. I think we may be one step closer to resolving this issue.

However, while the client is running, it is still possible to sometimes get double context menu entries, specifically on local user's desktop shortcuts (not on public user's shortcuts or other files or folder).

Screenshot 2023-05-31 110125.png

We need a community moderator to comment on the status of this bug in their tracking system and confirm or deny my findings.

SubzeroDev

Well, look at this mess.

I think I asked like years ago, why not just group all the items into sub-menu.

Having all these items fill up the context menu makes no sense at all.

I can see why Microsoft makes Win11 to show basic context menu by default.

Apps just like to pollute the context menu with no regard.

BD_CSB

@Jay

Dropboxer

February

Hi @BD_CSB, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Could you try quitting and restarting the Dropbox desktop application?

I'd also recommend rebooting the entire machine as well to see if this helps.

Keep me updated with any progress!"

FOUR MONTHS AND NOTHING DONE!

WHY would anyone pay for Dropbox?

Hannah

Thanks everyone for bringing this to our attention.

Just wanted to let you know that our team is aware of this issue and are currently working on a solution.

Once we have more news or updates, we will let you know.

remizik

How is this still not fixed? What the hell are you doing?

NicoQu

Same problem. It's been like this for many months!

peacelake

Some problem here. Very annoying.

My solution is to use the right menu apps to remove the Dropbox entries. It works but the duplicated entries will appear again after some time.

uszer

Same issue here:

When is this going to be fixed? Thanks!

Nargus

At this point, I'm inclined to say that Dropbox could just use an AI Chatbot for customer support, since it's obvious the only thing they do is reply "our team is aware of this issue and are currently working on a solution" without actually doing or explaining anything, or even give some customer updates.

Or maybe that's what they already do and their dev teams are just the Google AI?

Really, the only thing keeping me on Dropbox at this point is inertia. Since it's a pain switching, considering their price is also more expensive than Google's.

donwright

I've had this issue since Christmas, and it's now august . . . . no amount of uninstalling or reinstalling has fixed it . Screenshot 2023-08-24 043037.png