Can't Drag Files to Dropbox Folder in Catalina

THanks @donawalt, this worked for me.

donawalt wrote:

I thought I would share this - I have been waiting for the permanent fix from Dropbox, which will BE this fix - it has not come out yet, so I thought I would share the fix that worked for me. I think this is all they are going to add into an update but I am not sure about that. Can you see if this works for you? You may have to restart your computer if it doesn't work, but I didn't have to.

Open Terminal, and enter this command (all one line):

IFS=$'\n'; for path in `python -c $'import os\nimport json\nfor key, value in json.loads(open(os.path.expanduser("~/.dropbox/info.json")).read()).items():\n print value["path"].encode("utf-8")'`; do echo "$path"; xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "$path"; done

 

Then try the drag and drop again!

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Its not just drop box.  I can't drag and drop multiple pictures out of an email to my desktop (I can do it one at a time); I can't drag and drop pictures into web apps like auction sites.  When I try the latter, the photo just opens up as soon as I let go of the mouse, and when you close it, it is not in the upload box.  I have to open the file in finder and select, copy and paste in order to upload photos.  It really sucks.

This works! Thank you donawalt! 

This works, thank you donawalt 

Thanks donawalt  this solution worked for me as well on all machines.  Clearly its the resolution needed.  Was much easier to work with than the support.

Oh interesting! I am scared to use Terminal lol. How do you know this will be the Dropbox fix?

For what it's worth, I recently did a full refresh on my MBP and grabbed the latest version of dropbox as a result, and this issue has resolved itself for me. If nobody has tried it yet, make sure Catalina is up to date, and just reinstall dropbox to ensure you're at the latest vrsion.

donawalt i get this message...

zsh: command not found: xattr

Rob C.24 this is a bash shell command not zsh, which is the default. Many people prefer the old bash. Do this to change the default shell to Bash:

1. Open Terminal - see the title in the window? It says zsh right?

2. chsh -s /bin/bash 

3. It will ask for your password

4. Close Terminal window and reopen it - you should see "bash" in the title of the window now

5. Now enter this (all one line, just copy and paste it):

IFS=$'\n'; for path in `python -c $'import os\nimport json\nfor key, value in json.loads(open(os.path.expanduser("~/.dropbox/info.json")).read()).items():\n print value["path"].encode("utf-8")'`; do echo "$path"; xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "$path"; done

6. If you want to change it back to the default zsh after this is done, close the Terminal window, open a new Terminal window, and type chsh -s /bin/zsh. It will prompt again for your password, then close the Terminal window. Next time you will see zsh in the title!

Good luck!