Dropbox Smart Sync Icons Missing on Windows 10 - SOLVED

Hey @JacobRusso, thanks for dropping by our Community!

I just wanted to mention that I moved your post to our Tips and Tricks area as I think many of our users will find it useful.

Thanks so much for sharing your findings and please let us know if you have anything else to add or ask.

Hi Walter,

As long as others can find it, it's all good. I had added it in the Installation section since my problem started as soon as the new version came out, which had "deprecated" the Windows APP, and instead implemented the "Context Menu" options.

Now, here is the part I don't understand, and hopefully Dropbox Development will take up.

I completely uninstalled Dropbox, and used all the options that Dropbox support had provided me, including Command Line commands for clearing registry entries, for flagging "ownership" of all Dropbox directories and files, etc. Even used two (2) registry cleaners, Auslogics Registry Cleaner 9 and Advanced System Care 15 Pro. And also used the Windows repair utilities to restore health and check system files. Below are all the steps I followed.

1. Completely Uninstalled Dropbox using “IObit Uninstaller 11.3 Pro”.

2. Cleaned the registry with “Auslogics Registry Cleaner 9” .

3. Cleaned the registry and file system with “Advanced System Care 15 Pro”.

4. MANUALLY searched for and Deleted any “Dropbox” or “DropboxUpdate” entries I found.

5. Searched for and deleted any Dropbox leftovers in:

%APPDATA%

%PROGRAMFILES%

%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%

6. Opened a Command Prompt as Administrator, and used the following commands:

Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restorehealth

SFC /SCANNOW

7. Rebooted my laptop.

8. After all this, I re-downloaded the Dropbox Installer from https://www.dropbox.com/downloading

9. Double-Clicked on DropboxInstaller.exe

10. Clicked “Yes” to the UAC message to allow changes to the operating system.

11. Answered the Dropbox installer setup wizard prompts.

12. Re-Booted the laptop.

I did all of these, in different orders MULTIPLE times. And yet, even with all of this, the “ContextMenuHandler Class” continued marked as “Disabled”.

Now Walter, what I would really like to know is;

a. What could possibly have caused the “ContextMenuHandler Class” to be marked as “Disabled” in the first place.

b. Why would that entire process I ran through, MULTIPLE times, NOT have corrected this?

c. What can Dropbox development or installer build teams do to prevent this in the future?

Thanks,

Jacob

Thanks for the detailed response, Jacob - most appreciated!

May I reach out via email to forward your questions to one of our experts?

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

Yes, you may definitely reach me via email,

Thanks,

Jacob

No biggie, Jacob - you've got :envelope:

Hi Walter,

I received an email from Simon. But, based on his reply, I believe he is NOT the right person to help me. I asked him to PLEASE escalate this to someone with a much more intimate knowledge and understanding of the inner workings of Dropbox.

Jacob

Hi, I'm having the same issue with the overlay icons not appearing, and context menu also not appearing. However, the Shellexview shows that the context menu is enabled. I have tried all the other 'solutions' that I can find on this forum and nothing is working: no icons, even though the DB icon itself is on the taskbar and everything is synched. This is driving me crazy as I can no longer "view on dropbox" or quickly see if things are synched or not. I don't understand what has suddenly changed. I'm using the latest desktop app version and didn't change anything manually for it to suddenly stop showing the icons.

Any other solutions?

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-tips-tricks/Dropbox-Smart-Sync-Icons-Missing-on-Windows-10-SOLVED/m-p/580036/highlight/true#M2113

Please see my notes above

Context menu is not disabled, but does say 'file missing'. No idea if that's relevant or not.

Hey @emilytimor, could you try the offline installer from this page and let us know if this persists after you've installed that?

Note that you may also need to verify that the Windows UAC levels are set to default levels.

This can be changed in your Security settings in the control panel. For more information about UAC levels on Windows please see this link.

Let me know of any updates!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa..... that actually worked! - EDIT: To be clear, that was the installation that worked, didn't need to do anything with the UAC.

Thank you so much, I've wasted so much time today having to go online.

Thank you!

No biggie, Emily - I'm just glad I could help. Thanks for keeping me in the loop too!

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