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Is there a way to remove the Dropbox options from the context menu?

Hi, recently Dropbox has started cramming my Explorer context menu with all of these options I mostly don't plan to use:

Come on. Do you think it's ok to just dump all your stuff in there? If every app on my PC would do the same, would I have to manage dozens of entries on that menu? This is terrible UI design, it's bloat, it's disrespectful of your users.

How do I turn that off? I only use "Copy dropbox link", not the others.

Thanks.

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Rich

@pgr wrote:
How do I turn that off? I only use "Copy dropbox link", not the others.

Dropbox has always had options in the Context menus. There's no option within Dropbox to remove them.

pgr

Ok, there have always been items there, just not so many. What would you say is a reasonable limit for any given app to place items on a system menu shared by all apps? I believe this will have to be a very conservative option - one or two at most. Of course, if it is configurable by the user, you can go further and add more.

I have 3 apps placing entries there, and I could easily have 5 or 6 apps doing it. If each would place 9 (!) entries like Dropbox, think of how functional that menu would become...

Also, how common is it for users to actually use some of these things? The vast majority of Dropbox users will simply never click "Send for signature" (or even "View comments", since we're only sharing with ourselves, not teams or groups).

There needs to be some consideration and some humility here from Dropbox developers...

FarelTheGiraffe

Recently I noticed that when I right click objects in Windows, the context menu is bloated with manu entire Dropbox items. This menu is big enough as it is, so I really don't appreciate to see those options everywhere, especially when the online/offline options are all I ever use. Programs like WinRar offer the option to select which items should be visible. Dropbox does not offer that, and it is a problem that I found no solution to. I asked support, but got told that its likely the fault of ... other applications.... and I should apparently ask here. Can I get some help?

Some screenshots with examples can be found here:

https://sta.sh/21eprif3at0e

01) "Send copy...", such a scenario only occurred on a shortcut to a file not on Dropbox. Not necessary to me at all, but of little issue

02) "Send copy..." and "Copy to Dropbox...", such a scenario only occurred on a file or folder not on Dropbox. Not necessary to me at all, but of little issue

03) A unique 7-item case. Within DropBox itself, there was a shortcut file, one set to being available offline, and not only did "Send copy..." appear twice, which is likely a bug, but the first instance comes along with a ton of options:

- Share...

- View on Dropbox.com

- Copy Dropbox link

- Make online-only

- Version history

- Do not sync with Dropbox.com

- Send a copy...

Of these, I would only ever use "Make online-only", so this just causes unnecessary mess, and I'd appreciate being able to remove the rest.

NOTE: On a "half offline file" as I like to describe it, there is both an option for making it offline and online, and that's how it goes from 7 to 8 options

4) Then we have 3 cases where I saw 8 options:

- a shortcut on desktop to a file on Dropbox

- a file on dropbox, which was set to online only

- a file on dropbox, which was set to offline availability

These options are

- Share...

- View on Dropbox.com

- Copy Dropbox link

- Make online-only ("Make available offline" for the online only file)

- Version history

- Send for signature

- Send a copy...

- Do not sync with Dropbox.com

- Send a copy... (this is the before-last option for the online only file)

Of these, I would only ever use "Make online-only" or "Make available offline", so this just adds bloat to my context menu

5) Then we have 3 cases where I saw 9 options:

- a folder on dropbox, which was set to online only

- a folder on dropbox, which was set to offline availability

These options are

- Share...

- View on Dropbox.com

- Copy Dropbox link

- Make online-only ("Make available offline" for the online only file)

- Version history

- Request files...

- So not sync with Dropbox.com (this is the last item on the list for the online only file)

- Manage disk space (googline makes me wonder if this isn't "Manage backup..." in English, but I'm not sure)

- Send a copy...

Again, only those 2 are of any importance to me, so I find the rest completely unnecessary.

NOTE: On a "half offline file" as I like to describe it, there is both an option for making it offline and online, and that's how it goes from 9 to 10

I'll appreciate any help with the issue.

Rich

@FarelTheGiraffe wrote:

This menu is big enough as it is, so I really don't appreciate to see those options everywhere, especially when the online/offline options are all I ever use.

There is no option to modify the context menu items.

FarelTheGiraffe

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind when my subscribtion runs out

rhkrhk

There are 9 (NINE!) dropbox entries on my context menu - none of which I want or will ever use. There's no easy way to get rid of them. I am annoyed by the arrogance of dropbox engineers who clutter my menus without permission. So annoyed that I am ready to drop "dropbox" completely and look for an alternative.

rhk

christianius

I agree - my context menu is suddenly flooded with dropbox items that I will never use.

Walter

Hey @christianius - thanks for joining the discussion here.

Could you let us know your device's OS version and the version of the Dropbox desktop app installed there as well?

When did you first notice this by the way?

pgr

Hi @Walter

I'm the original poster of this thread, thank you for intervening, after so long.

My Windows 11 is version 10.0.22631 Build 22631.

My Dropbox app is version 200.3.7099.

My screenshot looks very similar to what @christianius posted. The problem has been happening since before April 23, though I can't be precise about when it started.

This is such an abusive occupation of an OS menu... as I wrote above, there needs to be some consideration and some humility here from Dropbox developers... please reach out to them. Thanks

christianius

Hi Walter,
Thanks for replying.
Dropbox V200.4.7134
Windows 10, Build 19045.4412
Noticed problem a few days ago, but not sure how long it's been ongoing.
Best, C.

peachyroar

I also have this problem. I first noticed today, 5/29/24.

Windows 10 Pro 19045.4291

Dropbox 200.4.7134

Pretty frustrating.

Hannah

Hey @peachyroar, are the options you see on your end the same as the ones that the users above are seeing?

peachyroar

Slightly different, still way too many.

Megan

Hey @christianius, thanks for the heads up!

As Rich mentioned earlier, there is no option in the desktop application to turn them off and we would not recommend attempting to manually disable these capabilities.

Your feedback regarding our Dropbox desktop application has been very valuable and I will endeavor to make sure your voice is heard.

I'll forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve.

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

christianius

Hi Megan,
Ok, thanks for listening, and hope you guys manage to fix the issue 👍
Cheers, C.

pgr

Hey @christianius what is your trick to get some engagement here?

I couldn't help noticing that I post my issue, nothing happens for months, but as soon as you wrote "me too!" you got not one, but 3 different Dropbox moderators to participate!?! Great!

And then they write to you like I don't even exist 🙂

How do you do it? Are you a paying customer or something?

christianius

Hi pgr,
I'm sorry that you've had to wait so long for action on your post (assuming action will follow the exchange).
I've done nothing in particular, but yes, I do happen to be a paying customer and maybe that's making all the difference.
I guess what's important is that our issue has received attention, albeit belatedly in your case. Let's hope there's a resolution in the works 🙂
Cheers, C.

PJG

Dropbox has started cramming my Explorer context menu. This is mad. I am thinking of uninstalling the desk app.

Crazy !

Nancy

Thanks for your post, @rhkrhk.

We appreciate your feedback on this and it’s been passed along to our team.

Let us know, if you need help with anything else.

baspo

I also am not happy with all these entries in the context menu when right-clicking a file. I have 8 entries dedicated to dropbox alone, which I cannot disable. This is more than a little annoying. At the very least, could they be clustered into a single entry that could expand when hovered over, similar to how 7zip works in the menu?

midrare

Everyone: I figured out how to do this. Save this as "disable.reg" and double click. You're welcome.

If you want to revert, do the same thing but replace every instance of ="" with =-

NB141

Dropbox menus do look and feel a bit wordy and clunky in Windows 11 especially when compared to the competition.....

The context menu changes when selecting an individual file.

Dropbox tries to use only one context menu for everything ...

christianius

Thanks for the tip, midrare.
Can we trust that your fix is safe?
Best, C

midrare

It's what I'm using with zero issues. All this does is add Dropbox context menu shell extensions to a blacklist in the registry. I'd be surprised if anything happened.

pgr

I agree that the Registry edit should be quite ok. Just a question -

I had previously attempted basically the same as your registry tweaks by using utility apps that allow "editing" the Windows context menus. These are just UI's that tweak the registry for you.

But the problem I had with Dropbox what that it was "all or nothing". You can either remove all option, or get all of them, but you can't remove ones but keep the others. And you can't put them all in a sub-menu.

So, do you know of any way to remove some options but keep others? Until Dropbox fix the blatant mistake, of course.

JohnCoool

I want to remove all dropbox entries from the context menu.

I have used the tips provided by the support here in the forum.

I also used tools to edit the menu context menu and removed several items from there.

But nothing I do is reflecting in the results.

It seems that the new update is not working like it used to.

Please provide a solution that will remove the entries from the context menu.

midrare

You need to edit the .reg file. You see the lines with =""? There's one for each context menu item. ="" adds to the blacklist (disables) and =- removes from the blacklist (enables). You need some trial and error to determine which ones you have to set to what. If you do this, please do report back and tell me which items correspond to which menu items so I can update the labels.

JohnCoool

Are you replying to me?

I don't get how this forum works. Suddenly there are entries that start from even before I posted my question.

If you are replying to me then please give better details.

JohnCoool

Ok I got it. I saved the reg file and ran it.

Seems good so far.

Thanks Midrare

TB_

This is hardly a new problem, but it continues to amaze me. I figured it would have been addressed by now.

How does Dropbox think it's okay to overload the context menu with their garbage?

there is no option to disable in settings
majority of users need all these features
the actions could easily be condensed into a menu (similar to the open-source PeaZip example below)
as a power user I had registry hacks to remove entirely but that ability was removed in a previous update

End result is that I only launch Dropbox as needed to sync. The first time I right click on a file it reminds me to exit the app. Also this has convinced me to never subscribe to a premium plan. I mean, why would I? A large, publicly traded company ignoring years of user feedback about a huge pain in their core service. There's plenty of other options.