Child Item

I see no menu after clicking on the Dropbox tray icon on Fedora 43.

Application Affected

Dropbox Tray Icon
Device

ThinkPad 230
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)

Linux Fedora 43
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)

Dear all, after losing many hours, I am getting nearer to make Dropbox work on Fedora 43 as it should. For now, I can see the Dropbox folder, the Dropbox tray icon on the top bar, however clicking on it (left/right click) does absolutely nothing. It means that it keeps synchronising all folders, which I don't want.

I know that when installed correctly, the tray icon does show the sync menu, allowing to select which folders to sync and which not to. So obviously, I've gone wrong somewhere.

Has anyone got a cure for this? I am not an expert, but have really found this very difficult..

All help is welcome.

Thank you. Kind regards,

Christos

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop

Sync

Install

Linux

Insightful

Closed - Partially Delivered

Comments

Walter

Hey @Christos K. - thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Can you clarify the version of the Dropbox desktop app installed on your machine?

Also, have you tried reinstalling it at all since you first noticed this?

Any additional information is more than welcome!

Christos K.

Hello Walter and thank you for trying to help. I can't see how to find the version.

Dropbox tray icon shows no info when lift or right clicking (only shows the blue "sync" symbol). The Dropbox app icon does not appear on the "Apps list" in Fedora, it does appear though when you go to the "Gnome" app (showing "System apps", and all other Apps), but shows no version info.

Does it sound familiar? And is there a "idiot-proof" method to install Dropbox on Fedora 43 (not 42 or 39!!) offering FULL functionality, with the Dropbox tray icon?

Ever so grateful,

Christos

Nancy

Hi Christos, sorry for jumping in here.

To clarify, you’ve hovered over the Dropbox icon in your system tray and you still can’t see the Dropbox app version then, correct?

Can you send me a screenshot of the blue syncing icon that you see, if you try and click on the Dropbox icon?

When installing the Dropbox app, did you use the link provided on this page? If not, can you try and reinstall the app with our Linux installer instead and let me know if that helps?

scarbosheep

I had the same error with the Dropbox menu disappearing. In fact, the icon itself entirely disappeared at first! dnf update on Fedora 43 was not working because nautilus-dropbox would refuse to update, always saying 404.

1/1] nautilus-dropbox-0:2025.05.20-1.fc43.x86_64 100% | 13.0 B/s | 15.0 B | 00m01s

>>> Status code: 404 for http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/43/x86_64/nautilus-dropbox-2025.05.20-1.fc43.x86_64.rpm (IP: redacted)

>>> No more mirrors to try - All mirrors were already tried without success

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sure enough, those mirrors are all invalid. Instead, I managed to download the RPM instead from

https://linux.dropbox.com/packages/fedora/ . Once I did, and installed that RPM, the Dropbox icon came back and the daemon started working again.

However, I, too, no longer have the menu pop up. I used to.

scarbosheep

Dropbox menu works now. Just had to restart the computer after reinstalling nautilus-dropbox.

Megan

Hey @scarbosheep!

Happy to see that your issue is now resolved!

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

Christos K.

Dear Walter, thanks so much for trying to help! Well, I've got some news: I've tried to re-install the Dropbox daemon through the command line (using "live help" help from MS Co-pilot)... after much "ping-pong" between "my output" and what the Co-Pilot was asking me to do, the Dropbox daemon got re-installed.

After a couple of re-starts, the menu finally appeared. So, I can now see that it originally "installed" version v240.3.8407. I've noticed that upon a restart (or a fresh start), the menu does not always appear (though the blue sync symbol comes on, and the blue/green symbols on the sync folders do appear as per normal).

At some point, it appeared again (and when it appears, all menu options are initially "grey" (inactive), and after a minute or two they become black (active), and then they work fine.

Today, the version got updated from v240.3.8407 to v240.3.8460. After the first 1-2 restarts, system tray icon still didn't show-up, however when I've checked Fedora's Apps for any system-updates, it did find an update. Installing the Fedora update and following another re-start, tray icon menu re-appeared and works correctly (which is why I could see the new version installed).

All in all, it appears somewhat temperamental but eventually OK. Will keep an eye on it and I intend to install Dropbox again on my other ThinkPad T430s, also running Fedora 43 and see what happens.

What I find scary, is that I've only managed to install it using Co-Pilot (and it took me nearly 2 hours, exchanging command outputs, till Co-Pilot eventually spotted "the right way" (too complex for me to remember).

Will keep the community posted. Very grateful for all suggestions.

Kind regards,
Christos

Christos K.

Hi Nancy, and thanks so much for trying to help me. I wasn't aware of that page above. Instead, I've installed from

https://www.dropbox.com/install-linux

(it was the link from Google Search), and downloaded the one for "Fedora 37 or higher". I then used terminal to install a couple of commands to make the tray icon to appear, and Python3-dkg (sorry, can't remember the exact name, but it certainly needed command line to install 2-3 dependencies to make the tray icon also appear).

I did find very tricky the installation of the daemon (it wasn't starting and was stuck at 0% for very long). One command (from Co-Pilot) seems to somehow make it work and finally start downloading, but as mentioned onto the first post, sync menu didn't appear.

All in all, a very tough experience for a Linus newbie such as myself. It would REALLY help if Dropbox could make a full, auto "trouble-free" way to install the App in Debian/Fedora distros, that gives FULL functionality.

It would help a lot if Dropbox could also provide the default option to "free hard drive space" as per Windows & MacOS, where user can have all folders appearing on the File manager, but without taking the space of the hard drive.

Thank you!

Kind regards,

Christos

Christos K.

Indeed, I've also tried that route, and noticed that there is NO dedicated link for Fedora 43. The last one refers to Fedora 42 (nautilus-dropbox-2025.05.20-1.fc42.x86_64.rpm)

Christos K.

Dear Nancy, having seen the link you are highlight above on your post, is that link the latest "recommended" link to use for installing Dropbox on Fedora 43? I'm asking as I've never seen it before!

Thank you,

Christos

scarbosheep

Actually, unmark it as solved. Every time now I try to do an update of Fedora 43 itself now, the entire update fails because of Dropbox. I just realized the version I can find on linux.dropbox.com/packages is

2025.05.20-1.fc42

but Fedora 43's updater insists on updating nautilus-dropbox to

2025.05.20-1.fc43

which does not exist anywhere on linux.dropbox.com. The file is completely missing. Fedora tries to search in the Dropbox repositories, but it returns a 404. That means the error is on Dropbox's end, not mine!

https://linux.dropbox.com/packages/fedora/ shows Fedora 39 and Fedora 42 packages, but nothing for Fedora 43.

Now the Fedora 42 version will sometimes work on Fedora 43, and sometimes it won't. My menu stopped working again, too.

Christos K.

I have just unmarked it. You are right, and I've just had the same experience. My Fedora just upgraded Nautilus from v 49.1 to 49.2, plus some other key upgrades, and I've lost again the Dropbox tray icon submenu. Seems there is nothing else I can do. Why is that difficult for Dropbox to keep up with Linux? Fedora 43 was out quite a few months ago, so why there is still no RPM for Fedora 43 and we are losing so many manhours trying to figure out what to do? !!

bdmoakley

Application Affected
Dropbox
Device
PC (12700k cpu, 4080 gpu)
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
Fedora 43 (fresh install) - Workstation edition (with Gnome)
Dropbox App Version
Dropbox dameon version: 239.4.8301
Dropbox command-lin interface version: 2025.05.02
Gnome desktop with AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support installed

Question or Issue

I'm unable to access the Dropbox settings from desktop. It is working and the files are being downloaded. Clicking the app icon in the menubar does nothing. Left click, right click, and middle click produce no results. I have no access to the preferences to be able to move my folder to my dedicated Dropbox drive. Clicking on the application icon in my dock does nothing.

This is a new Fedora install. Any help is appreciated. All I really need to do is change the location of the Dropbox sync folder to a dedicated drive as opposed to my home folder.

Note, I was previously on an Ubuntu install. Dropbox worked fine and I was able to access all the settings.

Megan

Hey @bdmoakley, thanks for bringing this to our attention!

Give me some time to check for additional details on this, and I'll reply as soon as I have more info.

Thanks a bunch, hang tight!

bdmoakley

Hi Megan,

Thanks for looking into this for me. Being ever the tinkerer, I was doing some google searches for the issue and managed to stumble into a solution.

I found this reddit discussion about the issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/12z271n/2304_dropbox_icon_is_not_clickable/

This comment solved the problem for me:

It appears that one needs to have the AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support gnome extension installed for the Dropbox menu to work.

However the menu no longer works after Powering Off or doing a Restart. However other forums state that the menu is restored after locking the screen by pressing "Windows+L" or "Super+L" and then unlocking the screen again. This has worked for me.

It seems that Dropbox does not play well with some gnome extensions such as Dash to Panel. However the aforementioned Lock screen trick works with Dash to Panel enabled.

I followed their advice and locked my system, then unlocked it. Voilà, I can access the settings now! Happy days are here again. This sounds more like an issue on the gnome side of things. Thank you for looking nonetheless. It may be beneficial to let users know in the installation documentation about this edge case. In any case, you have this post for reference when it appears again.

Thanks again for your time!

Regards,
Brian

Jay

Hi @Christos K., @scarbosheep, @bdmoakley, I've sent you separate emails, please could you reply to them when you get a chance?