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Dropbox Desktop App 213.4.4597 thinks I have Win8 and won't start

I have an upgraded (from Win8 to Win10 Pro) PC and this evening Dropbox won't start and pops up the 'Dropbox is removing support for Windows 7,8 and 8.1. Exit Dropbox' popup box. I have downloaded the offline installer (Dropbox 210.5.4894 Offline Installer.x64.exe). I am loathe to do this as I don't know exactly what it will do.

My system:

Device name DESKTOP-4GQEAED
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.70 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB
Device ID B438E20E-A68C-4A4E-8477-D1E0E0F88C4E
Product ID 00330-80000-00000-AA762
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎28/‎03/‎2023
OS build 19045.5131
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19060.1000.0

Any ideas?

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RoCol

Hi Megan,

One of clients is having the same issue, and when I installed the "Long Term Support" client there was a notification that the version of Windows would no longer be supported, moment later the Dropbox installation updated and cannot longer be run.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2
OS Build 19045.5011

Advanced re-install had the same result.

Device was restarted multiple time

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update:

I was able to resolve the issue.

For some reason the application had been set to run in Windows 7 Compatibility mode.

Once removed the application launched successfully.

All comments

Megan

Hey @CydweliMez, thanks for posting here today!

It might sound trivial, but have you tried restarting your device at all?

It might be worth performing an advanced re-install using these steps too.

Keep me posted on your progress!

CydweliMez

Yes I have done the turn it off and on again first resort approach !!! I will read through the advanced re-install and try that next. Thanks for the speedy response

Megan

My pleasure @CydweliMez!

Once you've tried it, give me a shout and let me know how it worked for you. 😀

CydweliMez

Before I do that, as I have a lot of files in DB - all my work! - and it would take days to re sync everything, what would happen if I installed the offline installer Dropbox 210.5.4894 Offline Installer.x64.exe? Could that be a workaround?

Jay

Hi @CydweliMez, you can try to reinstall the older version of the Dropbox desktop application to see if this helps, though we can't guarantee the results of reinstalling an older version of the app.

CydweliMez

I have completed the advanced reinstall and the estimate is 5 hours for the re-sync. It is showing a note about not supporting Win 7 and 8 at the top of the system tray pop up. But I will see what happens once everything has synced and I have restarted the PC.

Jay

Thanks for the update, keep us posted.

RoCol

Hi Megan,

CydweliMez

Thank you for this - I checked the Dropbox.exe and it was set to run in Win8 combability! I don't know why this was because I had done the advanced reinstall as advised in this thread and nowhere had it asked about compat mode, so I think something gets left behind with that process.

I had also checked the logs and could see the DbSvc error but couldn't work out from that what to do about it!

I am going to give it a few restarts and if it sticks, I will mark this as solved with a big thanks to RoCol

mitgeek

Just curious but has this issue been resolved. My dropbox issues started about 2 months ago and I am still not able to resolve them. Dropbox support email has been telling me that their engineers are aware and an update is being worked on. But I'm losing a ton of productivity and seriously considering switching to OneDrive.

Nancy

I'm sorry to hear that, @mitgeek.

From my side, I can see that your case is in progress, so once the assigned team has an update they can share, they'll get back to you via e-mail.

Speaking of, I've made sure to add an internal note from my side that highlights your comments.

Now, as much as I'd love to help expedite matters on your behalf, issues of this nature demand the appropriate investigation.

That said, I really appreciate the fact that you decided to share your experience with us here, and thank you for your ongoing patience.

mitgeek

By the way, I was able to install Stable Build 194.4.6267 and got my system to sync all files. But then after 20min the DropBox app self updates itself to 216.4.4420 and it stops working. I wish I could keep it at this old version!