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My Dropbox shortcut is missing from my user startup folder
I placed a shortcut link to DB in my user Startup folder. I was working fine for weeks then suddenly it was gone! This started happening a few months ago. I researched the issue on this forum and found reference to this and tried the various suggestions. But the problem is still raising its head.
More on my setup and actions I took. I have an administrator user and Std user accounts. My Std user is my main account. The Admin for, well, administration. Because I didn't want DB to run for the Admin user, I turned off the option to launch on startup. I then copied the shortcut to DB into the Std user's startup folder. That worked for awhile, then stopped. I found that the shortcut had been deleted. No other shortcut in the Startup folder was affected. I thought maybe the permissions or ownership was the issue so I made sure the Std user was the owner. Now it's happened again and I'm stumped. Oh, I went to my backups and the file is in the backup. So I know it was installed.
What the heck is going on?
DoctorBashir wrote:
I then copied the shortcut to DB into the Std user's startup folder.
Don't copy or change the original shortcut. The installer and update process tends to replace them with each install or update. Instead, make your own shortcut to the Dropbox executable. If it continues to get deleted, it's not Dropbox doing it.
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- Rich
Super User II
DoctorBashir wrote:
I then copied the shortcut to DB into the Std user's startup folder.
Don't copy or change the original shortcut. The installer and update process tends to replace them with each install or update. Instead, make your own shortcut to the Dropbox executable. If it continues to get deleted, it's not Dropbox doing it.
Thanks, I'll try that.
It happened again! I created a new shortcut using the Explorer 'Create shortcut' as suggested. The shortcut worked for about a week, then it disappeared. No other shortcut in the Startup folder is affected. I'm stumped.
- Rich
DoctorBashir wrote:
It happened again! I created a new shortcut using the Explorer 'Create shortcut' as suggested. The shortcut worked for about a week, then it disappeared.
What are you naming the shortcut? Name it My Dropbox or something other than just Dropbox. I know that was an issue when deleting and recreating the original shortcut on the Desktop. It would get replaced by the original on an update. Maybe it's doing the same thing here.
Done. Now we'll see.
I am also having this issue and will try this suggestion of renaming it to a different name than simply Dropbox.
Specifically I am creating a shortcut (via Send To, not "Create Link") of the shortcut, which I notice copies the Target variable of the shortcut. This includes an argument /home following the executable path, which would be different than making a shortcut of the original executable.
No news is good news!This is the way that I created the shortcut that seems to have worked. I don't quite know if the Create Link method is the same.
- Navigate to the folder: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.
- Right click in a blank spot and select New > Shortcut.
- In the Create Shortcut window navigate to the file: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe" Click Next.
- Type a name other than Dropbox. Click ok.
