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Dropbox not uploading/syncing new files after fresh install of Linux Mint 20.1

Hi All,

I recently upgraded my Linux Mint 19 desktop with a fresh install of Linux Mint 20.1. Dropbox worked brilliantly on Mint 19. After the Mint upgrade and installing Dropbox via the Software Manager, my existing 100GB of files downloaded/synced from the server with no problem. However, new files or folders I create on this computer and save to the Dropbox folder are not uploading and syncing. I have tried uninstalling Dropbox, rebooting, and reinstalling (from both the repository and the Dropbox website), with the same result. I have double-checked that all folders except Vault are checked in Selective Sync under Preferences. I get no error messages. The pop-up menu from the icon in the system tray says it is syncing, and the icon has constant spinning arrows, but nothing seems to be happening. New files do not show up in Dropbox online.

I have a second desktop also running Linux Mint, and Dropbox has been syncing on it with no problem for many months, both with an install of 20.1 using the same .iso image I just used on this machine, and more recently after upgrading to 20.3. I can't figure out any differences between the Mint and Dropbox installations. I just experimented creating a new file and folder on that second machine, and it uploaded via Dropbox and synced to my phone right away, but not to this problem desktop.

FYI, if you can offer any troubleshooting, please consider me a linux newbie for anything beyond the GUI. I have no problem using a terminal/CLI, but instructions will have to be clear and complete. Thank you!

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Accepted answers

joekur

Hi @Walter , @Здравко , @Jay , @Hannah ,

For the sake of completeness I just wanted to post a note here that this issue is resolved and what the problem was.

After some initial troubleshooting and repeating another remove and reinstall without resolution, tech support had me enter the following commands:

sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"

sudo chown -R "$USER" "/home/joe/Dropbox" ~/.dropbox

sudo chattr -R -i "/home/joe/Dropbox"

sudo chmod -R u+rw "/home/joe/Dropbox" ~/.dropbox

I saw after entering the *chattr* command that I received pages of errors regarding a Timeshift backup folder I'd previously copied into Dropbox (thinking if I ran into problems later in my upgrading and had to do a fresh reinstall of the OS, I could copy the folder back to its original path to restore from). In hindsight a bad idea, but I didn't give it a thought when the Dropbox issue cropped up later.

So once I removed the Timeshift folder from Dropbox, I re-ran the above commands without any errors, and Dropbox subsequently synced properly.

(I guess there is still an open question about the python script, as I tried to run the testdropbox script file again and still got the error, but since that's not causing me current problems, I'll let it slide for now.)

Thank you all again,

Joe

All comments

Jay

Hi @joekur, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

When you reinstalled the app, did you do an advanced re-installation by following these steps?

This will help me to assist further!

joekur

Thanks @Jay,

I had not done the Advanced Re-installation; I only removed dropbox by right-clicking Dropbox in the GUI panel main menu and selecting uninstall, then reinstalled it (I tried multiple uninstalls and reinstalls using both the .deb package downloaded from the Dropbox site, and installing using the Software Manager). However, I've now completed the Advanced Re-installation steps, unfortunately with the same results: the program says it is syncing but it's not. Thanks again!

Hannah

Sorry to jump in here, @joekur!

When you say that the application shows that it's syncing, but it's not, does it seem like it's stuck on a specific number of files?

What is the exact sync status of the application and the version installed?

You can see that by hovering your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your system tray.

joekur

Hi @Hannah & @Jay ,

Happy to have you jump in, Hannah. I don't know if you'll be able to zoom in on this screenshot enough to be helpful, but I'll try to answer your questions. Dropbox has been stuck on the same number of files in its folder (702,013 and 502 hidden totaling 109.3 GB) all day, not syncing a new folder and file I created on my other desktop last night, nor has it ever uploaded to the server a few new files and folders I created on this computer yesterday. When I hover over the icon it only says "Dropbox", but I captured the popup menu (that shows up with a right or left click) in the screenshot, which shows it supposedly "syncing..." with the spinning arrows on the icon. The Dropbox version according to the preferences window is v146.4.4836. Hope this is helpful.

Thanks again!

Joe

joekur

Hi @Hannah & @Jay ,

I just noticed that the Software Manager shows a different version # than the one I noted from Preferences. Note this is the version from the repository, and the source of the package currently installed is downloaded from the Dropbox website, but the Manager is indicating this is the installed version (2020.03.04). Thanks.

Jay

Thanks for the update, I'd recommend getting in contact with the support team directly for further assistance.

Once you get a ticket ID from the automated response, please let me know the number here so I can locate it in our system.

joekur

Thanks @Jay !

Ticket #16428748

Здравко

Hi @joekur,

Sometimes it's difficult to find out what's exactly the source of troubles. In such situations additional diagnostic information can show some directions you might missed yet. I'm putting here one script targeting such diagnostic information:

#!/usr/bin/python3
import os, sys, json; from importlib.machinery import SourceFileLoader
dropbox = SourceFileLoader("dropbox", "/usr/bin/dropbox").load_module()
ignore = [".dropbox", ".dropbox.cache"]
success = ["up to date", "infinite"]
with open(os.path.expanduser("~/.dropbox/info.json")) as js:
  dbpath = json.load(js).get('personal').get('path')
if not os.path.exists(dbpath):
  print(f"Dropbox folder doesn't exist: {dbpath}"); sys.exit(2)
def listIssues(path):
  def getStatus(path):
    try:
      st = dc.icon_overlay_file_status(path=path).get('status', ['unknown'])[0]
      if st not in success: return path, st
    except dropbox.DropboxCommand.CommandError as e: return path, e
  def listDir(path, ignore = []):
    for e in os.listdir(path):
      if e not in ignore:
        e = path + os.sep + e
        s = getStatus(e);
        if s is not None: yield s
        if os.path.isdir(e):
          for s in listDir(e): yield s
  try:
    with dropbox.closing(dropbox.DropboxCommand()) as dc:
      s = getStatus(path);
      if s is not None: yield s
      for s in listDir(path, ignore): yield s
  except dropbox.DropboxCommand.CouldntConnectError:
    print("Dropbox isn't running!"); sys.exit(3)
issues = [*listIssues(dbpath)];
print("Versions:"); dropbox.version([])
print("Status:"); dropbox.status([])
if len(issues) != 0:
  indent = max(len(st)+1 for _, st in issues);
  id = os.popen("id", 'r').read().strip(); print(f"Your id: {id}")
  print("Issues found:");
  for path, st in issues: print("%-*s %s" %
          (indent, st+':', os.popen(f"ls -ld \"{path}\"", 'r').read().strip()))
  sys.exit(1)
print("No any issues found!");

You can copy content above and paste in a file with name like a "testdropbox" (for example) using simple text editor of your choice in your home folder. It's a simple Python script. To do some work this script has to be made executable. This can be achieved using following command:

chmod a+x testdropbox

Now you can run it and receive in terminal different diagnostic information including all files not in sync yet with some additional information. You can run it using following command:

~/testdropbox

While take a closer look on received information you can try find some predispositions able to be source for the issues like owner (mis)matching, permissions, etc. 😉 This same information can be useful to the staff supporting you too.

Good luck.

joekur

Hi @Здравко ,

Thank you so much! I received an error in running the script file and not sure what it means, so here's a screenshot of my terminal window along with the first several lines of the "textdropbox" file I created. I hope this is helpful:

Thank you again! I greatly appreciate the help.

Joe

Здравко

Hi @joekur again,

Wow..., that's something really strange. 🤔 The mentioned class and wrapper module (and package) are something standard to Python (importlib.machinery.SourceFileLoader). 🤷 Seems, your install gets broken somehow. What's the Python version you are using? Take on result from:

python3 --version

It should be some build of version 3.8. In different forums are posts related to some packages disorders observed after upgrade to 20.1. It's good idea to make sure everything is up to date and especially that Python 3 is properly installed. Execute following commands (one by one):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install python3 libpython3.8-minimal

Let's hope the above will fix Python "illness".

PS: By the way, can you take a look - is a file exist or not? Execute following command:

ls -l /usr/lib/python3.8/importlib

Does result contain file "machinery.py" or not? 🧐

joekur

Hi @Здравко ,

Thanks again. Interesting... So I first checked the Python version -- 3.8.10, then ran the update command you recommended. That seemed to go smoothly. My screenshot below shows the subsequent commands and results. You will see it did not upgrade, and that machinery.py is present. I then tried running the testdropbox script again, with the same result, and rechecked the Python version.

Seems my computer is being stubborn.🤐 Again, I really appreciate your help trying to sort this out!

Здравко

@joekur wrote:
...
Seems my computer is being stubborn.🤐 ...

Hah... 😁 Yes, seems so. 🤔 I'm using exactly the same versions, like you do, and everything works.

Just added one more line to figure out where exactly your Python is looking for machinery.py. 🤷 That looks like something impossible - the file is there, but can not be found out.

Let's see what's the script output now. 🧐

joekur

Hi @Здравко ,

Here you go🙂:

Hope this is useful... As always, thanks again!

Здравко

Strange things happen here. All paths (including the importlib one) are correct. Everything seems normal except the error. 🤷 An error saying that is missing something reported already as being there! 😯

I'm out of further ideas. Let's hope somebody else can continue with more "fresh" ideas.

Good luck @joekur!

joekur

Thanks for all your efforts, @Здравко! Much appreciated!

joekur

Hi @Здравко !

Sorry, I thought I had posted a response to you yesterday but I see it's not showing up. I just wanted to thank you again. I really appreciate all your efforts in trying to help me resolve this! Yes, hopefully the tech support team can help me figure it out. All the best to you!

Walter

Hey @joekur, sorry to jump in here and thanks for providing your ticket ID.

I was able to locate it in our system and passed your comments on to the expert handling your case.

You should be hearing from them soon, so keep an eye out on your inbox.

If there's anything else you'd like to ask in the meantime, please let us know.

joekur

@Walter Thank you!

joekur

Hi @Walter , @Здравко , @Jay , @Hannah ,

For the sake of completeness I just wanted to post a note here that this issue is resolved and what the problem was.

After some initial troubleshooting and repeating another remove and reinstall without resolution, tech support had me enter the following commands:

sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"

sudo chown -R "$USER" "/home/joe/Dropbox" ~/.dropbox

sudo chattr -R -i "/home/joe/Dropbox"

sudo chmod -R u+rw "/home/joe/Dropbox" ~/.dropbox

So once I removed the Timeshift folder from Dropbox, I re-ran the above commands without any errors, and Dropbox subsequently synced properly.

Thank you all again,

Joe

Hannah

Thanks so much for keeping us in the loop, Joe!

This will definitely come in useful in case another user comes across the same issue.

We appreciate this and if there's anything else we can do, don't hesitate to come back!