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Postinstall script isn't working with new 230.4.8797 app version.

I’ve been deploying Dropbox via a custom postinstall script to extract the HelperTools without prompting for admin credentials. This approach has worked for previous versions.

With the current version, however, I now see an admin prompt after installation. If I decline, Dropbox shows the badge:

"Dropbox is not updating automatically. Enable automatic updates so the app works smoothly." (translated from german)

Here’s the relevant part of my postinstall script:

#!/bin/sh
HELPER_SRC_PATH=/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/DropboxHelperInstaller.tgz
HELPER_DST_DIR=/Library/DropboxHelperTools
HELPER_DST_PATH="$HELPER_DST_DIR/DropboxHelperInstaller"

if [ -e "$HELPER_SRC_PATH" ]; then
  [ -d "$HELPER_DST_DIR" ] || mkdir "$HELPER_DST_DIR"
  /usr/bin/tar -C "$HELPER_DST_DIR" -xz -f "$HELPER_SRC_PATH"
  /usr/sbin/chown root:wheel "$HELPER_DST_PATH" "$HELPER_DST_DIR"
  /bin/chmod 04511 "$HELPER_DST_PATH"
else
  echo "Expected $HELPER_SRC_PATH, but it was not present."
  exit 1
fi

This script worked in previous versions, always extracting the helper tool silently. I would like to understand:

Has the HelperTool installation process changed in this Dropbox version?
Is there a supported way to deploy Dropbox without triggering the admin prompt while still allowing automatic updates?

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

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Comments

Megan

Hey @wefjhlagsdfdsf, thanks for posting to our Community!

I'd appreciate some more time in order to check internally with our team about this.

While we're at it, would you mind clarifying the OS version you're using? Also, do you have admin privileges on your OS profile?

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there!

wefjhlagsdfdsf

I’m deploying Dropbox in a managed macOS environment, so I’m speaking from an admin perspective. Our end users do not have admin rights, which is why we pre-install the Dropbox Helper Tool during deployment to avoid the admin credentials prompt on first launch.

Environment details:

macOS version: 15.6
Dropbox version: 230.4.8797
Deployment method: Munki/AutoPkg, using a post-install script to extract /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/DropboxHelperInstaller.tgz to /Library/DropboxHelperTools with correct ownership and permissions (script attached in previous post).
User rights: Standard (non-admin) accounts.

Neal

Hi @wefjhlagsdfdsf,

Looks like you're running into the machine-level auto updater installer, the recommendation here would be to switch to using the enterprise pkg installer, which should install the machine level auto updater automatically.