Dropbox Finder Extension doesn't work and I have no Dropbox context menu items on new installation

Hey @nathanrogers, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

If you haven't already, can you please restart the device and then reinstall the Dropbox app from this link?

Let me know if that helps.

nathanrogers

No luck, I have no options when I right click on a folder:

I also am having this issue where the Dropbox Finder Extension keeps shutting off. It doesn't matter how many times a select it, it shuts off after I hit "Done".

nathanrogers

I'm resorting to using my Laptop to sync currently, it's running Mac OS Ventura and works perfectly fine.

Thanks for the update, Nathan.

In this case, can you try these steps for an advanced reinstall of the app and let me know how it goes?

@Hannah I have the exact same problem as the original poster. Brand new iMac, latest MacOS 26 (Tahoe). Updated Dropbox to latest version. Restarted everything many times over. When I turn on Dropbox Finder Extension and click Done, then go back to it, it has been turned off again and doesn't work. Can't make it stick.

I'm not prepared to do an Advanced Reinstall unless you can give me confidence it will fix the problem. It's difficult and highly technical, and we should not have to do this to make such a basic function work.

If it helps, I have opted out of File Provider, since I have my Dropbox on an external drive. Could that be a cause of the problem?

nathanwrogers

Hey, I thought I'd pop in here and let you know what happened on my end.

I had to wipe my Mac and revert back to OS Sequoia. It was a major pain in the ass, but it was the only thing that would work. I also have my Dropbox set to an external hard drive. An advanced re-install of Dropbox did nothing, and that little check option in System Settings beside Dropbox Finder Extension never worked in Tahoe.

Everything is good for me now, but I did waste about 2-3 days trying to solve this and re-installing my OS.

Appreciate the update, I feel your pain!

Sounds like Dropbox is not Tahoe-ready at this point.

Nancy

Sorry to hear you’re having the same issue, @ajw31. I understand that all Dropbox options are also missing when right-clicking on the files/folders in your Finder > Dropbox folder. Correct?

If you were previously on File Provider, but not anymore, I’d like to verify first that there are no remnants of any File Provider-linked folders still on your computer.

You can double check this by opening your Finder and pressing Command + Shift + G and enter: ~/Library/CloudStorage. Do you see any old Dropbox folders in that location?

Yes, the Dropbox options are missing when right-clicking on the files/folders in my Dropbox, which is located on an external drive.

Re your second question, yes, there is an old Dropbox folder. However, this may have been created because I have just migrated from an old iMac to a new one and as part of that installed Dropbox from scratch to get it to connect to my Dropbox on the external drive (which was its own nightmare). Once I realised I was on File Provider by default after installing, I followed the instructions to opt out. My SSD is too small to have Dropbox on the same disk, and unless I opted out, would not be able to use Dropbox at all!

Hi @ajw31, is the Dropbox desktop application running normally and isn't paused?

Do you have any sync icons on the files in the Dropbox folder?

Could you attach a screenshot showing what you're seeing when you right click a file?

is the Dropbox desktop application running normally and isn't paused? - Yes

Do you have any sync icons on the files in the Dropbox folder? - No

Could you attach a screenshot showing what you're seeing when you right click a file? - Attached

cheers

Are you certain that this is the Dropbox folder which is currently syncing to the Dropbox site?

Could you confirm the location of this folder when right clicking it and choosing Get Info when compared to the one in the Dropbox desktop application preferences?

Thanks for the info, in order to look into this matter in more detail, I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for them to investigate further.

@Jay @nathanrogers

Just completed a chat session with Dropbox support which has clarified things. Here are the steps and explanation, esp. the note at the end:

Quit the Dropbox desktop application.

Open Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder.

Search for "Dropbox" in the search bar. Force quit out of any instances of the Dropbox application that might be still running by clicking on the double arrow and selecting 'Stop'. (On mine, once the app had quit, they disappeared by themselves). NOTE: Ignore any dropbox processes that relate to web pages (e.g. www.dropbox.com).

Re-start Dropbox from the applications folder by double clicking on the Dropbox application.

Relaunch the Finder: click on the Apple icon in the top left of your screen and select 'Force Quit...' (or press CMD-OPT-Esc). Select Finder. Click on "Relaunch" to relaunch the Finder.

Click on 'Dropbox' in the Finder sidebar under the 'Locations' heading. (This is different to selecting the external drive first and then navigating to the Dropbox folder.) Select a file and right-click. The Dropbox options should now appear.

PLEASE NOTE: As per above, this only applies when you access Dropbox files via 'Dropbox' in the iMac's 'Locations' section in the sidebar, not if you start navigating from the external drive name. If you navigate from the drive name, the context menu does not show the Dropbox options when you right-click a file.

Apparently this is an issue with MacOS Tahoe.

Related to this, the Dropbox status icons operate the same way. They only show if you navigate from the 'Dropbox' location, not from the External drive name.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for sharing this info with us, @ajw31! I'm glad to see that your issue is resolved.

If you need anything else, don't hesitate to let us know.

Have a great day!

Helsinboring

Brand new Macbook, Tahoe 26.1.
Dropbox Extension menus are not loading in Finder. Reinstalls, restarts and enabling/disabling the Dropbox Finder Extension in System settings in not helping.
Cloud-only sync is not working: dropbox is trying to download EVERYTHING locally.
Dropbox is broken, its been 2 months is this still is not resolved?! 🤯

Helsinboring

Nothing helps, except downgrading macos.
How long this will take for you to solve this?

Hi @Helsinboring, as you're still experiencing this behavior, in order to look into this matter in more detail, I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for them to investigate further.

tkimhong

Hello, do you happen to have an old unlinked Dropbox folder in ~/Library/CloudStorage? I was having the same problem until I deleted that folder, now it (~/Users/<username>/Dropbox) works for me on Tahoe 26.1.

Helsinboring

DROPBOX MACOS SYNC ISSUE with Dropbox Finder Extension missing on MacOS 26.1 : SOLVED!

Yes I DID HAVE old unlinked Dropbox folder(s) in ~/Library/CloudStorage!

In order to solve Dropbox Finder Extension not working,

Quit Dropbox.
Used AI to give me Terminal commands to remove all Dropbox related files.
Clicked the small "Delete - Dropbox - Personal" and "Delete Dropbox CompanyName" button in the Finder at the User/Library/Cloud Storage/.
Reinstalled Dropbox. Made sure "Online-Only" was selected in the Dropbox Preferences - Sync settings.

Dropbox is indexing the Folders and Right-click menu items are present. I have no clue how this solved anything or how this came to be in the first place. The current install DID NOT create new directories in the User/Library/Cloud Storage/. No idea how this happened before.