The Dropbox desktop application has a delayed startup on Windows

Question

We had some issues installing Dropbox on a laptop, however once we got it on there, we have noticed that it can up to 20 minutes for it to actually startup. We have gone through the below steps to try and resolve, but nothing we do seems to help

* Confirmed firewall is not blocking Dropbox.
* Confirmed antivirus is not flagging or blocking Dropbox.
* Confirmed none of the company's management or security policies are getting in the way.
* Confirmed Memory Integrity was not the cause; we tested with it switched off and the problem remained.
* Confirmed all the supporting Microsoft components Dropbox relies on are installed and up to date.
* Restarted the machine and installed all outstanding Windows updates.

* Fully removed all pieces from earlier failed installations to give Dropbox a clean slate, and confirmed the machine was clean afterwards.
* Reinstalled from scratch, it downloaded correctly and eventually installed (this also took time)

* Confirmed your Windows user account and Microsoft/Azure sign-in are healthy and not the problem.
* Confirmed it wasn't specific to your account, a separate test account on the same laptop hit the same issue, which told us the problem was with the machine's Dropbox install itself, not your profile.
* Confirmed the file permissions on Dropbox's data are correct.

Has anyone encountered a similar issue and resolved it before? Any guidance would be super helpful!

Thank you!

Walter · Answer

I see, thanks for clarifying that for me @KaelFish. Were you able to test another network or another OS profile on the affected computer(s)?

KaelFish · Answer

Hey Walter,

At this stage the user hasn't even logged in yet as we are trying to resolve the issues, so there has been no initalisation of folders or files.

As for the advanced reinstall, apologies, I forgot to mention that we have done that as well in my inital post.

Walter · Answer

Hey from too @KaelFish - thanks for the additional information.

Can you please let me know approximately how many files you're syncing in your Dropbox folder and if you have tried adjusting the 'automatic startup' option in the app's preferences?

If this persists after rebooting your internet router and/or on another network, you can try an advanced reinstall.

Let me know of any updates!