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Missing the Dropbox context menus in Mac Finder

Hi everyone - I have been a Dropbox Professional user for about 3 years and 9 years with Dropbox altogether so I have really benefitted from it but recently, a feature I have used alot, the Dropbox Mac Finder context menus (I hope I am describing this correctly) have disappeared.

It seemed to coincide with me opting in as a Beta tester and then opting out, and/or a Mac upgrade to Monterey 12.2, not sure which or if either caused it.

Dropbox support tried to help but to no avail however I was prompted to set up a new user profile in Mac and download Dropbox and see what happened, and sure enough, all the context menu options appeared however I don't want to have to move everything over to the new profile just because of this issue. Plus, I'm interested to find the real solution.

Thanks for any thoughts on this. It's very frustrating as I can't just copy a Dropbox link or select/unselect SmartSync on a per file basis as I have done all the time.

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PeterLM

Walter-after days of searching, support tickets with Dropbox, your simple observation made me think I should clear all cookies, cache and browsing history and it fixed it!! Thanks so much for your comment. Peter

All comments

Walter

Hi @PeterLM, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you please clarify which
version you've got installed on the affected computer at the moment?

Also, since you were able to successfully install the Dropbox desktop application in the newly created profile and the issue was resolved, it means that there may be some sort of mis-configuration, setting, policy, or permission restriction that is affecting the original profile.

Do you have any 3rd party apps or services that might be monitoring your Dropbox folder in the original profile for example?

Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there.

PeterLM

Thanks, Walter! I'm running Dropbox v142.4.4197 and yes I agree my original main profile must have something blocking full Dropbox access but I just can't find what that is...

PeterLM

@Walter thank you!!! You inspired me to check something very simple which fixed it!! Peter

Walter

Glad to hear you're back up and running and thanks for keeping me in the loop too, Peter.

See you around the Community and enjoy the remainder of your week!

britt p.2

I have had the same problem: the non-existing contextual menu. Sadly the cache solution worked only for one interaction and then not anymore. Dropbox support does not seem to understand my problem at all and the answers I get are not helpful. Are there any other solutions to help me get my contextual menu back? I am on a MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) and running the blasted MacOs Monterey version 12.3.1.

PeterLM

Mine has worked perfectly ever since I cleared all cookies, cache, history etc. Perhaps try clearing everything? Good luck!

YuliG

Hi Peter,

I am habing the same problem. Can I just clarify what cash/cookies/browsing history you cleared? For your browser? Safari? Chrome?

And if you indeed meant the browser cash - do you know why that affected the finder context menus?

Also, Have you tried reinstalling dropbox? I mean of the original user.

Thanks a lot!

Walter

Hey @YuliG, sorry to jump in here, are you still having issues with this?

If so, please provide some additional information and let us know any troubleshooting you might have performed thus far.

Thanks so much!

YuliG

Hi @Walter 🙂

Thanks a lot for jumping in!!!

This was the first post I found about the problem, so I haven't tried any troubleshooting yet.

I am running Dropbox on MacOs Monterey (Macbook Pro 13'' 2015).

My Dropbox does not launch after a reboot, and I quit it and start it a lot between reboots.

I can't remember the last time I saw dropbox icons on my files and folders - to the point that I am not sure if you've cancelled them. Lately, I've noticed the dropbox context menus were gone as well.

I can't think of anything I might have installed that might be interfering with dropbox, but I guess that doesn't mean it does not exist. Not sure what other data you might need, but if you tell me I'll provide it:)

Thanks again!!!

Yuli

Walter

Could you try the steps outlined here and let me know if it makes any difference?

Also, have you updated your computer's OS recently? What's its exact OS version?

jmerk1

Hi this is John. I've been a biz user through my firm for a number of years. Today, my Mac stopped being able to utilize Dropbox contextual menu. Can't seem to understand how clearing the cache will help with the Finder. Just upgraded to X 11.6.7 recently so that could have something to do with it. I'm using Dropbox 150.4.5000. I've had a problem with Dropbox Backup, on the cloud side, and don't know if that's the cause of it either. I'm not sure what the Backup does, but I DON'T want any Dropbox backup of my office Dropbox folder - just too redundant. Tried Walter's "Solved" approach using the System Preference/Security-Privacy/Full Access approach, but that didn't do anything for me either. Any help from this community would be appreciated. Thanks

Megan

Hi @jmerk1, welcome to our Community!

In regards to the context menu, have you tried rebooting your device at all? Also what do you see when you right click on a file, or folder in Dropbox?

Feel free to send me screenshots, so I can have visual on this.

As for the Backup, you can see how to disable it, following these steps.

If you have any questions, let me know.

jmerk1

Thanks Megan. That's what I did and the contextual menu is back. Weird thing was that while I didn't have it, I tried to get a link through the webside. When accessing through Chrome, I got to the main Dropbox, but when I selected any of the folder, I got to the "Dropbox Backup" site, which wouldn't let me get any link. I DON"T want to Back up Dropbox, which is a waste of space. Is there a way to turn that stupid thing off? I tried all the self help tabs, but weren't able to grab a link to share the file...Any help would be appreciated.

John Screen Shot 2022-06-20 at 8.05.10 AM.png

Megan

Thanks for the speedy reply, @jmerk1!

You can't share content, because the backup feature is enabled. Due to security reasons, that isn't currently possible.

Have you followed the Help Center steps I provided above as to how you can disable it?