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Dropbox does not start on system startup (Linux Mint)

I want Dropbox to run always. I tick the little box. "Start Dropbox on system startup" in the "Dropbox Preferences" window and after hitting "Apply" then "OK" the window vanishes. Nevertheless, when I open the window anew, the box is blank. There is a discussion here from five years ago about a bug that had been fixed. Is this the same problem?

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Здравко

@berniewalp wrote:
...
What seems to have worked (why?): ...

Hi again @berniewalp,

I did suppose you have installed the official package and was wrong. You still haven't installed it, but only installed the daemon directly and that's the reason why your autorun didn't work. 🙂 It's a bug in the daemon - expects there is desktop file to be able turn autorun on. This file is part of the package you haven't installed and that's why the daemon cannot turn aurtorun on - it's missing. Would be fine Dropbox developer to embed such a file in the daemon, so everything will work when it's supposed to be installed by hands..., but better don't rely on. 🤷 Dropbox doesn't support very well the application on Linux. The initial version on the file I posted above didn't work for you cosa you haven't installed control script properly! It usually has to be installed on place accessible (i.e. somewhere in a place pointed by the PATH environment) and cutted the ending .py in the name. When official package gets installed the same script can be found on '/usr/bin/dropbox' and that's why can be run from anywhere without pointing the path together with the name. Instead of proper install you pointed explicitly the control script, something that's also fine 😉 - the same file is executed finally.

Hope this clarifies matter.

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Megan

Hi @berniewalp, thanks for posting here today!

Can you please clarify the version of the desktop app that's installed on your computer?

Did you try disabling the option to auto-start through the app's preferences and re-enabling it?

Let me know what you find!

berniewalp

Hi, yes I tried repeatedly checking and unhecking that tick-box, and closing & reopening the preference window; also stopping & restarting Dropbox. No change.

The only version number I can find is the "Dropbox v186.4.6207" printed in that window.

Same story on all 3 of my computers--two Dell lap-tops and a Hyundai minicomputer.

Здравко

Hi @berniewalp,

Are you sure you have installed properly your Dropbox application using appropriate official package? 🧐 Try following command in a terminal to see if correct values will get back:

dropbox version

Post the result for comparison.

If the previous command gives correct result, easy workaround would be following text:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Dropbox
GenericName=File Synchronizer
Comment=Sync your files across computers and to the web
Exec=dropbox start
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=dropbox
StartupNotify=false

... to be saved as file: ~/.config/autostart/dropboxAlt.desktop

Does now everything work correct? 😉

Good luck.

berniewalp

Hello Zdravko,

At a command-prompt, "dropbox version" yields:

Dropbox daemon version: 186.4.6207
Dropbox command-line interface version: 2022.12.05

I installed "headless" Dropbox per instructions at the bottom of https://www.dropbox.com/install :

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x87_64" | tar xzf - # to download from server and unpack

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd # to start

Then I downloaded https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/dropbox.py which I use to invoke Dropbox commands like "sharelink", etc.

berniewalp

I downloaded a new dropbox.py. Now I have the versions:

Dropbox daemon version: 186.4.6207
Dropbox command-line interface version: 2023.09.06

berniewalp

I followed your advice to make that new file ~/.config/autostart/dropboxAlt.desktop but Dropbox still does not start after a boot.

What seems to have worked (why?): I put another file ~/.config/autostart/Dropboxstart.desktop with these contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=/home/bernie/local/dropbox.py start
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
NoDisplay=false
Hidden=false
Name[en_US]=Dropboxstart
Comment[en_US]=Because Dropbox doesn't start unless we improvise this script
X-GNOME-Autostart-Delay=50

Здравко

@berniewalp wrote:
...
What seems to have worked (why?): ...

Hi again @berniewalp,

Hope this clarifies matter.

berniewalp

Yes, I understand. Thank you for the time you have sunk into my little problem

Bernie