Child Item

Dropbox Context Menu (Including "Copy Dropbox Link") not Appearing in Explorer

Windows 10 Home Edition 64-bit, ver 22H2

Dropbox ver 173.4.6706

When I open up my Dropbox folder from DB desktop app (using folder icon in Dropbox panel displayed):

And then right-click on an item on left side of Explorer (the folder list), a complete Dropbox context menu is displayed:

But if I move cursor over to file pane and do same thing, there is no set of Dropbox related menu items:

So, for instance, I can't "Copy Dropbox Link" for an individual file...frustrating! Any thoughts?

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Windows

GUI

Insightful

Delivered

Accepted answers

All comments

Jay

Hi @mblatz01, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Could you try reinstalling the Dropbox desktop application, without uninstalling it first, by using this link, and then rebooting your device entirely?

This will help me to assist further!

mblatz01

Reinstall and reboot done as requested, using admin rights (not strictly necessary, I understand) and seemed to occur without issue? (If there is an installation log that is human-readable, I'd review or send if you can point me to it)

Nancy

Sorry for jumping in, @mblatz01!

Just to clarify; did reinstalling the Dropbox app resolve the issue you were having?

mblatz01

@Jay @Nancy Sorry for the delay responding (I didn't receive an email notification for some reason?)...no, it did not. Exact same behavior (links presented for folders, not for files) still persists.

And, if it is diagnostically meaningful, the Dropbox app window that appears in corner when I click on QuickLaunch icon also has the "link" icon presenter to right of list of recent files and etc. grayed out/not usable.

Nancy

Hi again, @mblatz01!

Can you send one extra screenshot of the “link icon” that you mention, so that I can have a visual?

Also, did you recently upgrade your Windows OS (right before this issue occurred) or not really?

mblatz01

re: O/S, no, not a major upgrade. Of course, Windoze more or less does whatever it wants re: weekly or monthly fixes/patches/releases. But to be fair, I am not really sure when I lost the DB file level "create link" functionality. And, to be clear, I can get a link if I got to Dropbox on the web and login, it's just a PitA.

The "link icon" I referred to is the middle one when a line item in the app panel is hovered over (the first and second are disabled/grayed out, the third (the ellipsis) is active:

Megan

Hi @mblatz01, thanks for the details!

Keep in mind that his issue may be related to other applications on your computer that use the icon overlay and context menu functionality of your OS.

As you are on Windows, please note that it has a limit of 15 overlay icons that Windows Explorer can load, and the operating system reserves 4 for its own use. If there are more than 15 (which would mean the Google Drive icons), then the Dropbox icons or context menus may not show.

To fix this and move the Dropbox sync icons to the first 15 positions:

Follow the steps in the following article to open your Windows 10 registry editor (applicable to Windows 11 also):- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-open-registry-editor-in-windows-10-deab38e6-91d6-e0aa-4b7c-8878d9e07b11
A “Registry Editor” window will open.
Navigate through the following folders: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” > “SOFTWARE” > “Microsoft” > “Windows” > “CurrentVersion” > “Explorer” > “ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers”.
Rename (right-click and click Rename) the files, so that the Dropbox files appear in the first 15 files in the list. You can do this by putting spaces in front of those file names, so that they move higher up in the list.
Close and restart both of your computer and the Dropbox desktop app.

mblatz01

I'll see if this makes sense...hard to see how it can work for folders but not files, but I'll check it out.

Megan

If you could give it a go, and let us know that'd be amazing @mblatz01!

If this doesn't work, we're here to try out the next steps.

mblatz01

@Megan Before I rename (or delete) anything, I want to ask about the several DropboxExt## entries. Are all of these (10 of them!) normal? Necessary? Also, I note that they are not 15 entries down. Is that relevant? And I don’t use OneDrive or GoogleDrive, really...they just were installed once or possibly without my knowledge...do I need their entries?

Megan

Hey @mblatz01, keep in mind that all the Dropbox entries would need to be within the top 15.

In the screenshot DropboxExt07 through 10 aren't within that top 15. I suggest that you move them all, at least 3 places "up" to see how that behaves.

You can avoid deleting any other entries for now, but if you must you can later bring them back just by running the relevant app's installer again.

mblatz01

@MeganStill no change in behavior, i.e. "copy link" for files still not appearing in context menu. This is after making regiatry edits, re-booting and re-checking that registry mods were still in effect:

Megan

Hey @mblatz01, can I send you a ticket, in order for us to have a closer look into this?

mblatz01

Sure! Thanks...

Jay

Hi @mblatz01, I've sent you an email, please could you reply to it when you get a chance!

mblatz01

Yep...I just responded to email.