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gswave's avatar
gswave
Explorer | Level 4
7 years ago

Dropbox keeps crashing and restarting itself in an infinite crash loop

Since yesterday, Dropbox is stuck in a crash/restart loop, I'm on Mac OS Mojave. I tried: Installed the last stable version and still in the crash loop. Installed the last beta version and still in t...
Delete
desktop
sync
Lusil's avatar
Lusil
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
7 years ago

Hi there gswave, 

As a first step, since the desktop app's startup may be blocked by a third party app like a security program, could you please temporarily disable your antivirus and ensure that you've configured your firewall to work with Dropbox?

If that doesn't do the trick, could you please:

  • Clarify for me if the error message appears after a certain action? For example, does it appear after trying to access files or when attempting to share content?
  • Send me a screenshot (without any personal info) of the error message?

Let me know how it goes!

gswave's avatar
gswave
Explorer | Level 4
7 years ago

Hi Lusil,

There is no firewall or Antivirus blocking Dropbox.

There is no error message, Dropbox just crashes and restarts, and crashes and restart in a loop.

There are log messages in Console that indicate something might be wrong - this is how it looks right after the crash. 


[IMAGE LINK IS BROKEN AND CANNOT BE DISPLAYED]

[IMAGE LINK IS BROKEN AND CANNOT BE DISPLAYED]

  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    7 years ago

    Thanks for getting back to me with the screenshots, gswave - much appreciated. 

    Could it be that you have symlinks in your Dropbox folder?

    Symlinks refer to data in locations outside of the Dropbox folder and can be the cause of various issues such as space discrepancies, poor syncing performance, and high CPU usage. 

    You can check if you have any and how to remove them if you do find some by following the instructions outlined in step (7) of this article. 

    Let me know how it goes!

    • mkoebel's avatar
      mkoebel
      New member | Level 2
      7 years ago

      Hey Lusil,

      I am having the same issues as gswave that only started to happen yesterday (Aug 27th). Dropbox is continually restarting no matter what I have tried. There is no error message. The app will disappear from the top menu bar and after a few seconds show up with a 'Starting' status. I have tried going through the settings to see if anything has changed, but even while going through settings the whole app will disappear and restart the cycle. 

      I don't have any symlinks set-up and nothing has changed in terms of my overall usage. I have dropbox set up on multiple computers and this is only happening on one computer so far. 

      Checked the firewalls and nothing appears to be blocked.

      Any advice would be appreciated! 

      • Lusil's avatar
        Lusil
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        7 years ago

        Hi there mkoebel, 

        Thanks for the initial troubleshooting steps, awesome work!

        Could you also let me know if you've tried disabling any security app or your antivirus, since they may be blocking the desktop app from starting up? 

        Let me know what you find!

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