All Dropbox Finder sync icons disappeared after updating to macOS Tahoe 26.2.

Just wanted to update everyone because this has fixed it for me after days of trying everything else.

This turns out to be a conflict with the Adobe Creative Cloud File Provider extension not macOS itself and not Dropbox legacy vs File Provider. What worked for me (found by @Juhn huge credit to them):

Open System Settings
Go to General
Open Login Items & Extensions
Scroll down to Extensions
Click By App
Find Creative Cloud
Turn OFF “File Provider” for Creative Cloud

The moment I turned this off all Dropbox Finder sync icons came back immediately (green ticks, blue syncing arrows, cloud icons, folder badges...everything).

I’ve added screenshots below to show exactly where this is.

Important note I use Creative Cloud heavily for my work so I haven’t yet tested what long term impact this has on Adobe syncing. For me this is a temporary workaround but it immediately restores Dropbox’s per file sync visibility which is critical when working with multiple people and hundreds of files a day. Hopefully Dropbox and Adobe can resolve this conflict properly but for now this is the only fix that’s worked for me. Massive thanks again to @Juhn for spotting this!

All comments

Nancy

Hi @consettprint, and thanks for joining our forum.

When saying that you checked the Dropbox app’s permissions, did you follow these steps perhaps?

-Click on the Dropbox icon from your Desktop 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

If yes and that didn’t make a difference, I’d like you to perform an advanced reinstall next.

Let me know how it goes.

AlexSC

Also having the same issue on two Mac's running same versions of the OS and DB app.

I followed the above steps with no success, not keen on reinstalling on the two devices given time implications. Is there something more amiss given multiple reports?

Hi Nancy, thanks for getting back to me.

Yes I’ve already followed all of those steps including fully quitting Dropbox via Activity Monitor, restarting the app from Applications, force quitting and relaunching Finder and checking permissions. I’ve also tried an advanced reinstall and every other troubleshooting step suggested across the forums but none of it has made any difference.

This issue only started immediately after my Mac upgraded to macOS Tahoe 26.2. The Finder sync/status icons were working perfectly before the OS update and disappeared as soon as the upgrade completed. Nothing else about my setup changed. I’m currently on Dropbox desktop app version 240.4.8609 and under Preferences > Sync > Dropbox folder updates it shows only “You are not eligible for Dropbox on File Provider at this time” (no get started option and nothing indicating I’m already on File Provider).

Since the macOS update Finder shows no Dropbox overlay icons at all on any files or folders. Given that this began directly after the macOS Tahoe update and that I’m using legacy sync (File Provider unavailable), I’m trying to understand whether this is now expected behaviour on newer macOS versions rather than a permissions or reinstall issue as all standard troubleshooting steps have already been exhausted.

Megan

Hey @consettprint & @AlexSC!

In regards to your syncing icons, I would like to gather a few more pieces of info and get closer into what happened.

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

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. Could you try right clicking a file or folder to see if get any of the Dropbox options there?

Lastly, when it comes to the File Provider update, please check here and make sure you fulfill the requirements. One more thing that our Community Manager didn't mention in her post is that you need to make sure that the Dropbox folder is not located in an external hard drive in order to proceed with the update.

Looking forward to your reply!

Hi, Megan thanks for coming back to us.

I’ve checked everything you mentioned and can confirm the following

• Sync status when hovering over the Dropbox menu bar icon it shows 'Up to date' so the app itself is running and syncing normally.

• Dropbox context menu when I right click files and folders inside my Dropbox folder I do see all the usual Dropbox options (View on Dropbox.com, Make available offline, Manage folder access, File info etc.). I’ve attached screenshots showing this. The issue is specifically that no Finder overlay icons are appearing at all (no green ticks, blue arrows or cloud icons) which I need for my day to day work.

• Folder location my Dropbox folder is in the default local location under /Users/katie/Dropbox and is not on an external hard drive.

Regarding File Provider under Preferences > Sync > Dropbox folder updates it only shows: 'You are not eligible for Dropbox on File Provider at this tim'. There is no 'Get started' option and nothing indicating I’m already on File Provider so this Mac I presume is using legacy sync. Even though I fulfil all the requirements for File Provider.

My understanding (and from previous Dropbox guidance) is that Finder sync icons should still appear when using legacy sync. The icons were definitely present and working correctly before my Mac upgraded to macOS Tahoe 26.2 and they disappeared immediately after the OS update. No other changes were made to my setup. Given that the app is syncing and up to date, the Dropbox folder is local, Dropbox context menu options are present and another user (AlexSC) is seeing the same issue on multiple Macs with the same OS/app versions this seems related to the macOS Tahoe update rather than a permissions, reinstall or external drive issue.

I've put the screenshots below.

Thank you again for your help!

I’m having the same issue that consettprint is describing, except that this issue started after the latest Dropbox update. I’ve been running Tahoe 26.2 since it was released in mid-December 2025 and all the online/offline status icons have been appearing normally until just recently when the new look of the Dropbox menu dropdown changed. I tried the usual restarts, etc. and nothing changed. Then I used the Maintenance app from Titanium software to clean system files, caches, etc. After that restart everything with the status icons was normal again, but now they’ve disappeared again. I also can see all the contextual menu items available. My wife’s MacBook Air running macOS Sonoma 15.6 and Dropbox 240.4.8609 has also lost the green check status, so the issue is not just specific to macOS Tahoe.

Thanks for sharing this Med54. Do you happen to know roughly when your Dropbox app updated (was it in the last few days)? I’m wondering if this is tied more to a recent Dropbox update rather than the OS itself. In my case my Mac updated to Tahoe but it's possible Dropbox also updated in the background and I just didn’t notice it. With it also happening on Sonoma makes it sound like the Dropbox update timing could be the common factor.

I think it was in the past week or so after the redesigned Dropbox menu appeared, which I'm assuming was part of the automatic update to 240.4.8609. Running the Maintenance app cache clean, system cleaning, etc. brought the icons back, but the fix was only temporary. Every restart since then has reverted back to having no sync icons. I've run the Maintenance app a few times again, but it's not correcting the problem this time. I think there's some hidden cache file, or preference file somewhere that needs to reset or deleted, but not sure where to start with that. Your issue with the Tahoe update seems to be coincidentally timed to the Dropbox update.

That’s really helpful Med54 thank you. That timing lines up exactly with what I’m seeing too. In my case the Tahoe update happened at the same time so I suspect Dropbox updated in the background too and I just didn’t notice it which makes it look like an OS issue when it’s probably the Dropbox update that coincided with it. What you’ve described with the cache clean bringing the icons back temporarily and then losing them again on restart really does sound like something isn’t reregistering properly on the Dropbox side anymore possibly a preference or cache that gets rebuilt incorrectly each time. The fact that it’s now happening on both Tahoe and Sonoma points away from macOS itself and more toward a regression in 240.4.8609 especially since the redesigned menu appeared at the same time. I really hope this gets fixed soon because it’s genuinely difficult to work without the sync icons. I have multiple people using the same Dropbox folders and hundreds of files going in every day and without the Finder icons it’s really hard to tell which files I’ve created or updated for my part of the job versus what’s just arrived from someone else. Thanks again it’s reassuring (in a frustrating way) to know it’s not just one machine or one setup.

Frustrating, yes. Everything else seems to be functioning normally. It appears that files that I and others in our organization are adding, deleting, moving, or updating are syncing. But like you and your organization, I have hundreds of files/folders that I often need to be able to switch between Make Available Offline and Make Online-Only, and without the presence of the icons, that status is not apparent, which is the whole point of the icons.

Hi everyone.

I'm experiencing the EXACT same issues as everyone else on this thread. This week I had to do a complete Music Studio upgrade for a film composer who was installing a new Mac Studio M4 as the main hub of their studio.

After installing OSX Tahoe and getting the latest updates the first thing I did was install Dropbox as my client works with multiple collaborators.....globally. They have a 3TB limit and had provided me with a 4TB external drive so I could move Dropbox onto it. Heres the steps I took.

Installed the latest version of Dropbox
Synced ALL folders to the Mac Studio HD - Online only! NOTE at this stage there were no Cloud icons
Tried to Move the Dropbox folder to an External Disk, at this point there was no option to move the folder because of the NEW File Provider.
Quit Dropbox, re-opened it, relinked and went to the advanced settings and turned off File Provider.
Moved Dropbox to the External Disk. Move was successful and the "Your files are up to date" was on the bottom of the dropdown menu on the DB icon in the task bar.
After moving Dropbox to the external disk there were still no icons, no dropdown options (View on Dropbox.com, Make available offline, Manage folder access, File info etc.)
Went onto the DB app and added a TEST folder to see if it was Syncing. Test folder appeared on the Desktop version.

So at this stage the DB is syncing but there is no option or way to make any file offline.

So I'm presuming the issue seems to be with OSX Tahoe and this new File Provider update.....which IMO is just ridiculous and pointless.

Also it was somewhat embarrassing whilst doing this in front of a client in the first hour of being there.

Please advise

Med54 thanks for explaining yes exactly this. Everything appears to be syncing but without the icons there’s no way to visually confirm offline vs online only status which defeats the whole purpose when you’re actively managing large working folders. Just to add another point I’ve just spoken to someone else in our company who’s on macOS Sonoma 14.5 and the exact same thing has happened to her Dropbox tool. What’s strange is that hers seemed to stop showing icons at the same time mine did right after I updated even though she didn’t update her OS at that point. She is connected to my Dropbox account. Out of curiosity is your wife’s Mac connected to the same Dropbox account or is it a completely separate one? Sorry for all the questions I’m just trying to understand whether this is tied to a specific Dropbox app update rolling out across linked devices or something account level that’s being triggered because at the moment it’s a complete nightmare for work.

Lordfader welcome to the club although I wish it was under better circumstances. Thanks for sending over your issue too. What you’ve described matches exactly what the rest of us are seeing which makes it impossible to manage online only vs offline files properly. The fact that syncing works, files appear on other machines but there are no cloud /tick icons and no context menu options, really points to something breaking at the Finder integration layer rather than a basic sync issue. And you’re not alone we’re seeing this across multiple Macs, multiple macOS versions (Tahoe and Sonoma), internal drives and external drives and across different Dropbox accounts. It must have veen awkward in front of a client especially when Dropbox is meant to be a core collaboration tool. Several of us rely on those icons daily to avoid mistakes when hundreds of files are changing constantly. Hopefully Dropbox staff can see from this thread now that this isn’t an isolated setup issue and needs looking at as a wider regression, particularly around legacy sync/File Provider behaviour.

consettprint - in regards to your question about my wife's Mac - she is only signed in to her and my shared personal Dropbox account which we sync across on our own personal computers, iPhones, iPad. And I mistakenly said early she is running Sonoma, but in fact she's running Sequoia. The icons have disappeared in her Finder, windows, too. My work computer is signed into a Dropbox business account that has over 10TB of data shared across dozens of users. At least one other person that I know of on this account is experiencing this issue (running Sequoia 15.7.3). Apparently we're not using File Provider at this time, and I don't really understand what that is or if it's necessary. This is what I see in Dropbox's Preferences > Sync sidebar window.

Med54 thanks for clarifying. The fact that this is now showing up on Sequoia as well as Tahoe and Sonoma pretty much confirms this isn’t an OS specific issue at all. It really does point to the recent Dropbox desktop update for macOS. My work setup is very similar to yours we’re also on a large Dropbox Business account (10tb shared across lots of users) with most files set to online only locally. Like you I don’t appear to be using File Provider and I’m not even sure whether I was before the update. I assume I’m on legacy sync now because Dropbox won’t let me upgrade to File Provider likely due to the file count (we’re well over the 500,000 limit). What’s confusing and frustrating is that Dropbox’s own documentation suggests that Finder icons should still appear on both legacy sync and File Provider so it shouldn’t matter which sync engine we’re on. Yet here we all are, syncing working fine, context menus present but no visual status indicators at all. Hopefully as more people confirm this across different macOS versions and both personal and business accounts it becomes clear this is a wider issue and gets proper attention from Dropbox. At the moment it’s making a normal work day far harder than it needs to be.

I couldn't agree more. Hopefully someone here at Dropbox is monitoring this conversation. A person from our organization with Admin access is planning to submit a ticket if this problem is still persisting tomorrow. Without the icons present in the Finder window, I've resorted to right-clicking a file/folder and selecting File Info... in the Dropbox contextual window. At least it's a way to get some kind of status verification on a single file and will read "Available Offline" if sync'd. Not so helpful or specific if you select File Info on a folder that contains a mix of online-offline files. Then it just reports "Mixed state".

Putra I.

hi Peeps, just letting you know that it only just happens recently. Unsure when, but I remembered even a week ago with macos Tahoe, I was still able to see the icon. But then yesterday it's no longer there (very frustrating). Good thing I tried duplicating this on my son's macbook by downloading dropbox, and guess what. same deal!

Currently the only fix for me is to update my dropbox to "on file provider" which I USED TO HATE A LOT.

I prefer the old Dropbox legacy tbh. But the GOOD THING about dropbox "on file provider" is that I can now see a thumbnail even if the files are offline.

The cons though, when you copy pasted a folder with this new dropbox, it WONT have a blue sync folder next to it when uploading and it wont give you a green tick when its completed. Instead it will just look like a normal folder not knowing if they're fully synced or not. The only way to caught up with sync is just to hover to the dropbox icon to see whether its up to date or not.

Thanks so much for explaining this Putra. The fact that the icons were still showing on Tahoe up until very recently (the same as Med54) then suddenly disappeared really does point to this being a recent Dropbox desktop update rather than anything OS related. That’s reassuring in one sense but also frustrating. It’s interesting what you’ve said about File Provide and while it’s good that icons/thumbnails appear there losing the clear blue sync and green tick visual feedback when copying folders is exactly the sort of thing that makes my work harder. Having to constantly hover over the menu bar just isn’t a practical replacement. What I’m going to try next is installing a previous version of Dropbox to see if the Finder icons come back. I’ll report back here either way so everyone knows whether that’s a viable workaround or not.

Morning All.

So after doing some digging about I might have possibly found a solution.......thats an emphasis on the possibly. As I'm not on Tahoe yet and this problem is on a clients machine that I don't have access too could one of you try this for me and see if it works???

Got to System Settings -> General
Under the All In Background menu make sure Dropbox it ticked (slider to the right)
Now scroll down further to the Extensions Menu
Find where it says File Providers and click the small "i" icon on the right
Make Sure the Dropbox slider it on

Screen shots attached.

Let me know if this works.

Just wanted to update everyone because this has fixed it for me after days of trying everything else.

Open System Settings
Go to General
Open Login Items & Extensions
Scroll down to Extensions
Click By App
Find Creative Cloud
Turn OFF “File Provider” for Creative Cloud

The moment I turned this off all Dropbox Finder sync icons came back immediately (green ticks, blue syncing arrows, cloud icons, folder badges...everything).

I’ve added screenshots below to show exactly where this is.

Morning @Lordfader thank you so much for taking the time to dig into this. I’ve checked those exact settings on my Mac and unfortunately Dropbox was already enabled under All in Background and also switched on under Extensions - File Providers so in my case that wasn’t the cause (I wish it was). I have managed to get a temporary fix working which might help others. It turns out there’s a conflict with the Adobe Creative Cloud File Provider extension. As soon as I turned that off all Dropbox Finder sync/status icons came straight back (green ticks, blue syncing arrows, cloud icons, folder badges the lot). Path for anyone who wants to try it: System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → Extensions → By App → Creative Cloud → turn File Provider OFF No restart needed icons reappeared instantly for me. I use Creative Cloud a lot so I can’t yet say what the long term impact is on Adobe Cloud Documents specifically but for Dropbox heavy workflows like mine this has completely restored normal behaviour for now. Thanks again for posting your findings really good to see people sharing ideas and narrowing this down together 👍. Think we need to be employed by Dropbox 😂.

AlexSC

Thank you! resolved it on both macs here, was driving us up the wall so appreciate you takin the time to not only troubleshoot it but also post your workaround

No problem. I know for a fact that in my situation Adobe Creative Cloud isn't installed so will investigate further as it could be something else doing the same thing.

It seems like this might be a File Provider conflict more generally rather than Adobe specifically almost like when multiple apps are using File Provider at the same time, Dropbox loses its ability to show the overlay icons. It might be worth checking whether there are any other apps on your Mac using File Provider (cloud storage apps, sync tools etc) and trying toggling them off one at a time to see if anything changes. That’s the only consistent pattern I’ve been able to spot so far. I really hope you manage to get a fix oatn your side too I know how maddening it is when everything’s technically syncing but you’ve got zero visual confirmation. Fingers crossed for you 🤞.

Thanks mate. I have a zoom with my client tomorrow so will report back if your suggestions fix the issue.

YES! Thanks @Juhn and consettprint for discovering and sharing! I'm also heavily immersed in Creative Cloud apps which are critical for my work. So far I have not seen any limitations to turning off the Creative Cloud extension. I'd much rather see the Dropbox status icons! 😀

Juhn

I guess it is only relevant for those using creative cloud for file storage and sharing. Mainly, enterprise licenses, I assume. Don't believe, they use both: Adobe and Dropbox at the same time...

But that's just a speculation... 😅

vladgasan

Hi everyone, thanks for flagging this and for the detailed reports.

We’re aware that some users are seeing Dropbox sync status icons disappear in Finder after recent macOS Tahoe updates. We’ve been able to reproduce this behavior and are actively investigating what’s causing Finder icons not to display as expected in certain setups.

In the meantime, file syncing itself should continue to work normally, even if the Finder icons aren’t visible. We understand how frustrating it is to lose that visual feedback and will share an update here as soon as we have more information.

Thanks again for your patience and for helping us track this down.

Putra I.

I am glad you found a fix! Though, I have tried this on my son's computer which did not have a creative cloud, and fiddling around extensions toggling dropbox on and off, and looking for any other apps that may have a file provider (none of them has it) brought no luck. ah well

just a quick question if you dont mind me asking, when you have the online files only do the thumbnail shows? because when i was on dropbox legacy until I updated few days ago, this has always been the issue for years. whenever i need to look at a file (images - as i am a photogapher) i would always have to make it available offline first as online only files showing blank thumbnails