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The behavior of Dropbox tray Icon is completely wrong on Windows 10

I can't believe this problem has not been addressed since 10 years ago, and also it get worse with the recent UI revamp of the user interface.

All app having a tray icon agent should follow a well-defined behavior when interacting with the user, depending on mouse gesture:

Right Mouse Button

Expected behavior

Show a contextual menu for selecting options
Current behavior

It opens a popup window, user need to press CTRL+LMB to see the menu

Left Mouse Button (single click)

Expected behavior

Show a popup form if applicable
Current behavior

A form is shown, then it is hidden, then it is shown again flashing

Left Mouse Button (Double click)

Expected behavior

Execute a default action
Current behavior

If both open the dropboox root folder AND flash the main form on and off

Please, it's time to address this issue, comeon dropbox.

Right mouse button should show just the contextual menu
Left mouse button should show the control form, with toggle, but without flashing on/off
Double click should just open the root folder, without showing the form

It's all about very wrong tray icon behavior at this time.

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Comments

Hannah

Hi there, @Paolo M., thanks for taking the time to post to our Community.

Would you mind sending us some screenshots or short video recordings (if possible) of the behavior you're describing, so we can have a visual of the situation?

Have you uninstalled the app, restarted your computer and reinstalled it to see if that makes a difference regarding the flashing issue and any other unexpected behavior?

Also, which version of the app are you using?

Thanks in advance.

Paolo M.

Well... the workflow is so simple and detailed that it's just a matter to try, the behavior on any windows is the same indicated above, and it's inconsistent. No need to file any screenshot or specify any version. It applies to all versions of the window agent product. Just try the effect of left and right mouse buttons on the "box" tray icon.

Jay

Hi @Paolo M., we appreciate the feedback on this matter.
We take all comments into consideration when improving the Dropbox desktop app!

Paolo M.

I also appreciate DropBox listen to loyal customers.

I'm going to hold you to it.

I think the most annoying thing is the double-click behaviour.
The product supposedly open the root folder tracked by dropbox.
It does that indeed, but since the last UI revamping it now show also the main form interface, as it was a single click.
If you use a single click, the main interface is toggled, but flashing few times before opening completely.

So, in a nutshell, try to accomplish the following UI fixes at least:

double click on tray icon --> Show the explorer window, but NOT the main form

single click on tray icon --> Show the dropbox UI with toggle, but without "flashing" the form ON/OFF/ON/OFF/ON when need to be shown (it's ok when hiding)

Maybe you can barely notice the flashing on a very fast computer, but if the single click is done under heavy load, as example at startup, this do strain the eyes and slow down things quite a bit, with unnecessary stress on 2D-GPU. I apologize for my bad english, i can't explain better.

Regards,

Paolo

sarunpm

After the recent update of Dropbox desktop app, it is getting terminated automatically in my windows 10 PC. It was working fine yesterday with old version. I wanted to downgrade the current version to old version.

Walter

Hey @sarunpm - sorry to hear about this.

Do you happen to have any security programs that might be causing this, such as an antivirus etc.?

Also, have you tried rebooting your computer and/or quitting and relaunching the app since you first noticed this?

Let us know more and we'll take it from there.

Nancy

Hey @sarunpm! Can you update us on this, if you’re still facing the same issue?

Paolo M.

I think the sarunpm's problem deserve a separate thread, because here is out of topic.

This thread is all about inconsistent behaviour of the tray icon.

Anyway, i have the newest updated client and Win10, no issues on my side regarding the app unexpectedly closing. I invite the user to have a look into event viewer looking for traces of the crash, and in any case try to uninstall and reinstall the client, as it solved me some issues in the past.

Any news about the expected tray icon UI behavious ? Is this an appropriate site to file a request or better to use a different kind of support to keep in contact with dropbox ?

Jay

Hi @Paolo M., thanks for the update.

The behavior of the tray icon has remained the same for many years, in that right clicking the icon doesn't bring up the context menu.

Only Ctrl-clicking the icon would bring up that menu item. Double clicking the icon should bring up the Dropbox folder, and single clicking would show the interface for the desktop app.

Given the current speeds of devices, there might not be enough time for the second click to be registered before the interface pops up for a brief second, before it opens the Dropbox folder on the second click.

If your interface is flashing when you single click the icon, then it sounds like there might be an issue with your installation. Have you already tried uninstalling and reinstalling the desktop app?

Paolo M.

Absolutely!
I have the dropbox client on 4 computers, all of different generation and different speed, both Win10 and Win11 (started with windows7 since i used the product).
All of them does exactly the same.

It seems that the double click event also fire the single click event, messing up with the form toggle. This is bad expecially because the popup form does not have a close button (thing that is weird on itself) but at least clicking outside the client area it disappear.

As i said, flashing of popup form repeatedly showing and hiding is present is all my installation, and every few years i also change the laptop, such i can experience a new reinstall from scratch as well.

Please, simply double-click on the tray icon (with various speed) and you'll surely see the UI glitch. I know also that CTRL+LMB bring up the menu since the beginning, but this also is out of standard behaviour. What's wrong on using the right mouse button for contextual menu, like any other app on planet ?

Megan

Hey @Paolo M., I hope you're doing well!

As already confirmed in the thread so far, this is what we can reproduce from our side:

-When left or right clicking on the Dropbox icon, we can see the Dropbox app window.
-When double-clicking on the Dropbox icon, we are getting redirected to the Dropbox folder.

Having said that, in order to ensure that we're on the same page with you, we'd really like to have some sort of visual that documents the behavior you've mentioned so far. If need be, this will also help us log your feedback accordingly.

If you don't wish to share that in this thread, we can have someone contact you via e-mail. Once you've let us know what works the best for you, we'll continue looking into this straight away!

Paolo M.

I've used dropbox share to allow you view a small clip of my desktop

[removed to prevent sharing traffic]

As you can see, just double-clicking on the tray icon led to a complete UI mess, and I assume it will happen on your PC as well. It's a so obvious glitch that I wonder why someone is asking me a short video about.

Hannah

Hey @Paolo M., thanks for the clip.

I've passed your feedback and everything about this to our team.

Thanks for taking the time to write to our Community and if you need anything else, let me know.