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How to enable Dropbox desktop notifications on MacBook Air?

When I save files on Dropbox, the icon in the menu bar on the MacBook does show that there is activity.

I do have Settings>Allow Notifications for Dropbox enabled to show 'Alerts'.

The problem is that I would like to see the larger 'Alerts' on Mac displayed but I'm only getting the small icon on the menu bar activity alert.

Please can someone advise me?

Thank you in advance.

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Megan

Hey @User34, welcome to our Community!

Would you mind clarifying what you mean by "larger alerts"?

How about your desktop app notifications? How are these set up? If you wish, you can send me a screenshot of your app's preferences, and the alerts you can see at the moment, in order for me to have a visual too.

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

User34

The alerts on the MacBook Air Desktop under Settings>Allow Notifications for Dropbox enabled to show 'Alerts'. Please see attached screenshot.

User34

Please see screenshot attached. I have the settings enabled on MacBook Air for Dropbox. I have it set to show 'Banners' and this is what I thought would displayed if I saved a document to Dropbox. Is there something else I need to do? Thank you.

Megan

Hey @User34, thanks for the added info!

Just to make sure we're on the same page, can you also send me a few screenshots of the Dropbox alerts that you're seeing on your end, and how they appear?

I'd also appreciate it, if you could check your Dropbox preferences too, just to see what notifications you have enabled there.

User34

These are my Dropbox preferences:

Walter

Can you send us another screenshot perhaps, showing your notifications tab this time @User34?

User34

Please see screenshot of the notifications tab:

User34

@Walter @Megan I have provided my settings screenshot above but I still don't get any 'Banners' or 'Alerts on the MacBook Air. Is there something else that I need to do? Please could someone help with some possible advice? Thank you.

Megan

Hey @User34, sorry for the small delay!

We were checking internally about this.

Sometimes Dropbox's ability to trigger alerts is impacted by system permission issues.

- Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access.

- Make sure Dropbox is enabled here.

- If not, click the + icon and add Dropbox manually from the Applications folder.

User34

Thank you for your message @Megan

I am using MacBook Air 2025 M4 with Sequoia 15.5. I have now enabled 'Full Disk Access' as per your instructions. I've retested but it still does NOT display the Alerts or Banners. It seems that when using Sequoia, there is an issue.

The reason I believe there's an issue with Sequoia is that I tested this using Monterey 15.7.2, and found that Banners and Alerts do work on that version. Obviously Monterey is out of date now.

Is there something else that I need to do?

Megan

Hey @User34!

I believe our hands are tied here, regarding the next steps. There's not much that we can suggest.

I will pass your comments on to the relevant department so we can continue to improve.

Thank you!

User34

Do alerts work for anybody that is using MacBook Sequoia? Please post your settings so I can check I have all the settings correct

Thanks