Dropbox desktop app scaling issues on Windows 10

Hey there (@Greyfox), thanks a lot for your detailed report & the video showing us what this looks like on your end- that’s some valuable feedback indeed! Kindly note that I’ve made sure to pass your findings on this post here to our team specialists internally however I appreciate the time you’ve devoted in creating the video, as it could be helpful to other users facing the same discrepancy.

Our Community Wall is always open to your comments or questions, so feel free to drop us a line in case you have any additional thoughts; we’re just a post away. Thanks for choosing Dropbox & have a wonderful rest of your day ahead!

Thank you for replying. Im very happy to help, I just wanted to bring this to the attention of the Dropbox support team in case it might be useful. I suppose I should keep this forum post in an unsolved state untill the issue is resolved in a future release of the Dropbox desktop app. Thank you again for your time and kind response.

Well, this has been very useful indeed (@Greyfox)- in fact we rely on similar reports, as as our team is always looking for ways to improve & your post has been thoroughly detailing us how other users like you could be interacting with Dropbox. From there, I concur with your request to leave this thread open until a future iteration of our desktop app addresses this discrepancy.

Once I have an update, I’ll circle back to you on this discussion. Take care until then & please don’t hesitate to get back in touch with us here!

https://youtu.be/-F7i9gA4D8Q

Untill the issue is resolved, there is a workaround that can be applied for those experiencing high DPI / display scaling related problems with Windows 10 and the Dropbox desktop app.

Compatibility settings can be applied to the Dropbox executable file or application shortcut. This requires ticking the options to override high DPI scaling behaviour.

By right clicking the Dropbox application shortcut or exectuble file, Select the `Properties` option in the context menu. Navigate to the Compatibility tab > High DPI settings > Program DPI and High DPI scaling override options.

Please follow the steps visualized in the screen recording linked below.

Paultimate

Dropbox, please forward onto your QA that this is unreasonable for this issue to still be present in the latest versions of dropbox. Why are we still dealing with something as basic as proper DPI scaling? Figure. It. Out. Please. Have a failsafe dpi that allows the user to at least do what they need to do while a real fix is developed.

Thank you greyfox for the workaround.

Hey @Paultimate, thanks for pinging me back here on this matter! I can see that our desktop app engineers have posted that this should have been improved since our Stable version 73.4.118. As you mentioned that one of your devices has been affected by the issue described here, can you elaborate a bit on what this looks like on your end?

I’d also appreciate a screenshot (omitting personal info), so as to better determine what's happening; please include it in your next message if possible. Thanks in advance Paul!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/36v64ry1ulxtcb9/Screenshot_1.png?dl=0

Jane,

I am still experiencing this issue on 75.4.141, and my scaling settings are not affecting the Dropbox application.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ki1q4t40sf4ljux/Screenshot_2.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x94mw5j7ggm85w7/Screenshot_3.png?dl=0

The Dropbox window is completely cut off the side of the screen and is entirely unusable.

I'm a Dropbox Pro user. Please fix this.

Andres

Just a thought, is the Scaling Behavior set to “System (Enhanced)" ?, If I remember correctly this was the only option that fixed the scaling problem for me. Hoping it gets fixed soon.

Thank you; I did indeed set the scaling mode to System (Enhanced), but it did not fix the scaling. It is one of the screenshots that I uploaded, but unfortunately Dropbox is being slow about uploading my screenshots.

The comaptibility settings should work as I have just tested by downloading the latest dropbox (75.4.141) on windows 10 (1903) with a 1080p display and a display scaling value of 150%.

I am sorry, as the screenshots are still not viewable, ill just make a wild guess, perhaps instead of applying the scaling compatibility fix to the dropbox app shortcut, it might help applying the settings directly to the application executable file (dropbox.exe), the default location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client . Another thought, it might help experimetning with other compatibility settings such as "Compatibility tab->Change settings for all users" and other scaling options other then system enhanced.

Again sorry if none of this helps, I hope the dropbox support team may get a chance to view your support request soon.

Thanks for the suggestions, Greyfox, but unfortunately none of them worked. I still see the same scaling issues. My screenshots have been uploaded, however, so that's good.

Hey @AndresMkesGames, thanks for the nudge & taking the time to compile this detailed description for me! If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to have a closer look on what you’re describing us through our Official Support channel, so I’ve now made sure to create a ticket on our system on your behalf.

Whenever you have some spare time, please have a look at your inbox for my message & I’ll make sure to promptly follow-up with you soon. Thanks again & I’ll be awaiting your next reply!

Thank you, Jane. I have replied to your ticket.

I am in the same boat. For me, even to sign in to dropbox I had to change the Resolution from 4k to 1920 and disable scaling, otherwise Dropbox app wouldn't even show up apart of the taskbar icon.

It is definitely still broken in the latest (As of 14/10/2019) realease.

Actually, just disabling the scaling makes the app work again. With 150% scaling it is broken.

Actual version (Had to disable scaling to get it haha) I am running is v82.4.156.

Hey @Hellfire2260, thanks for checking in!

I’m interested in having a second look at your findings if that’s okay with you. Could you include the steps for me to replicate in your next message if possible? Does it bear any resemblance to what others have reported incidentally?

Any other detail &/or visual aid you could include on this discussion would be very helpful (omitting personal info please). Thanks again!

Hi Jane,

It's pretty simple to replicate, don't think visual aids will be needed. Very much the same as what other posters said here.

To replicate simply do following:

1. Have a PC/Laptop with UHD or 4k screen and scaling set up to 150% (Display Settings -> Scale and layout)

2. Click on the Dropbox icon in the taskbar or start menu.

3. At this point you will see that nothing happens. As if your click had no effect or applciation was hang. There are no errors in Event viewer or anywhere else.

4. Change the scaling to 100% (Display Settings -> Scale and layout) and you'll see that the dropbox App is actually up -> It's just not showing at all with 150% scaling.

If that's not clear, please let me know, I can probably screen record a video of this behaviour when I am back home (I don't have 4k screens at work).

Thanks!

Thanks for the detailed message @Hellfire2260 & please accept my apologies for the slight delay in getting back in touch with you!

Let me have a closer look on this matter through our Official Support channel. I’ve now sent you a brief message & once you reply back to me there, I’ll review your account specifics & we can discuss your options together. Please have a look at your inbox whenever you have a bit of spare time & I’ll check back with you asap. Thanks again!

Hello,

Was there ever a definitive solution to this problem???

I'm aware of the workaround by changing the DPI compatibility but it's not a proper fix. It's now March of 2020 and I still have this problem.

It's been so long now that I can't actually remember the last time it worked properly but it definitely used to. It's started around the time the new "Dropbox App" thing launched. I remember that much as I enabled it as an early preview from my Business admin console.

There has to be a solution without clean installing Windows, surely???

This is what I have tried so far:

Uninstall, restart and reinstall.
Advanced uninstall, restart and reinstall.
Advanced uninstall. Remove leftover Dropbox registry folders from Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wow6432Node. Then restart and reinstall.

None of them fixes the problem.

For reference, my main Windows 10 machine is a virtual machine running in Parallels Desktop 15.1.3. I have been using Parallels and this same VM for many years. As of today, it is running the latest Windows 10 updates.

I also have a second Mac which runs a Windows 10 virtual machine in Parallels, which I've also had for a number of years now. It exhibits the same problem.

I have also tried the following:

Creating a new local user account on the same machine. The problem is still there.
Creating a new Windows 10 virtual machine in Parallels Desktop, installing the latest Windows 10 updates, then installing Dropbox. No problems there. All works lovely.
Creating a new Windows 10 virtual machine in VMware Fusion, installing the latest Windows 10 updates, then installing Dropbox. No problems there. All works lovely.
Creating a native Windows 10 partition with Bootcamp, installing the latest Windows 10 updates, then installing Dropbox. No problems there. All works lovely.

So what does this mean??? It suggests to me that the problem is something to do with an "older" installation of Windows 10 and Dropbox. Pre what date I don't know but if I create a new Windows 10 VM or native Windows 10 machine and the problem goes away.

I'm completely stumped and to have to do a clean install of Windows for something like this seems rather drastic. My gut feeling is that there is an old registry key or keys lingering around somewhere on both my machines that's affecting the DPI scaling.

I have been on support chats two or three since the problem started, never coming to a solution other than to use the workaround.

Is there any update whatsoever?

@damienbutt

Could you share your DPI workaround? I didn't find even workaround to get this working.

Provided all that Dropbox supported wanted and it's complete silence for months now...

Open Task Manager and kill the Dropbox processes.
Search for Dropbox in the start menu.
Select "Open file location".
Right-click the Dropbox app shortcut and select "Properties".
Select the "Compatibility" tab.
Select "Change high DPI settings".
In the "Program DPI" section, check the checkbox "Use this setting to fix scaling problems for this program instead of the one in Settings". Leave the dropdown option in that section set to "I signed in to Windows".
In the "High DPI scaling override" section, check the checkbox "Override high DPI scaling behaviour. Scaling performed by:" and then from the dropdown list select "System (Enhanced)".
Click OK.
Click Apply.
Click OK.
Restart Dropbox.

Dropbox will look a little blurry but it works and makes the app usable again. Hence why it's just a workaround. It just doesn't look as sharp as it should.

I'm reluctant to rebuild my VM from scratch for such a small issue. But it is bugging me.

To be fair I also have the same issue with another app that runs from the System Tray. Jetbrains Toolbox. I've had to do the same workaround for that. Which perhaps suggests this is more of a Windows thing. I've done the same test with clean installs of Windows 10 etc and it also works fine, just as Dropbox just.

I have no idea where the problem lies.

@Dropbox

Please can we get some support to troubleshoot this issue?