Child Item

Dropbox is running in the background, but the Dropbox icon doesn't appear on my macOS Tahoe 26.3.1.

Description

I’m experiencing a persistent issue where Dropbox will not start correctly on macOS. The app launches background processes, but the UI never appears, the menu bar icon does not show, and I cannot open Dropbox preferences.

System Information

Device: MacBook Pro 14-inch (Apple silicon)

Chip: Apple M5

Memory: 32 GB

macOS: Tahoe 26.3.1

Dropbox version: 244.4.6580

Behavior

* Dropbox processes are running in Activity Monitor and via terminal

* No menu bar icon appears

* No UI window opens

* Preferences cannot be accessed

* Files may partially sync in the background

Error Message

"Couldn't start Dropbox. This may be a temporary error. A provider with ID com.getdropbox.dropbox.fileprovider was found, but is in the process of being invalidated."

Troubleshooting Performed

* Full uninstall and reinstall of Dropbox multiple times

* Deleted all Dropbox-related folders:

~/Library/Application Support/Dropbox

~/.dropbox

~/Library/Group Containers/G7HH3F8CAK.com.getdropbox.dropbox.sync

* Restarted the Mac multiple times

* Reset Finder, fileproviderd, and bird

* Reset SystemUIServer (menu bar)

* Verified processes via terminal (ps aux)

* Manually launched Dropbox binary

Key Observation

When I create a new macOS user account, Dropbox works perfectly:

* Menu bar icon appears

* UI loads normally

* No errors

This suggests the issue is isolated to my primary user environment.

Request

I need assistance fully resetting or clearing the File Provider integration and user-level Dropbox state so Dropbox can launch correctly in my main user account.

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Error Messages

Mac

Comments

Nancy

Welcome back to the Community, @skillet!

It sounds like this is related to your primary user profile indeed.

When saying that you fully reinstalled Dropbox multiple times, do you mean that you followed these steps for an advanced reinstall?

Other than that, I’d like a screenshot of the error message you mentioned. Does it contain any hyperlinks that you can click on perhaps, in order to receive a more detailed error log? This is the case for many startup errors, so I’d like to check that, too.

Let me know once you're ready.

skillet

I am going through the process at that link so thank you for sharing. Of course the first step was not possible for me to quit Dropbox since the icon doesn't show, but I did go to the Activity Monitor and close it there and threw it in the trash.

Hopefully that's OK and that works just fine. There are no error messages it is just not showing the icon in the menu at the top.

skillet

Found it after hours of searching and uninstalling and reinstalling eniter os etc.

The big one: macOS Tahoe has a new "Allow in the Menu Bar" setting

macOS Tahoe introduced a new section in System Settings called "Allow in the menubar." It's a list of every app that wants to be included in the menubar, and each app has an on/off toggle. Apps you turn off here can no longer force their way onto your menubar. AppleInsider This toggle may have defaulted to off for your missing apps during the Tahoe upgrade.

Go to System Settings > Menu Bar and scroll down to the "Allow in the Menu Bar" section. Find TextExpander, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and Keyboard Maestro and make sure they are all toggled on.

Nancy

Thanks for the update, @skillet! So, it’s my understanding that your Dropbox icon is now back in the menu back, correct?

NotYourUserAccount

This was it for me! Thank you. It was driving me crazy.