all 'FILE EXPLORER' FILE icons flashing whenever dropbox is running

Clearly radio silence from Dropbox.  Probably because it's a hard one that can't be fixed by uninstall install.  The developers actually have to pull their fingers out and do some work :laughing:

I've been dealing with this for months/years. Something just finally made a difference -- it turned out my battery health was bad on my laptop (a Dell Precision 5520). There is some absolutely bone-headed setting where the computer will reduce its performance if the battery is having problems, even when plugged in. Turns out my laptop has been performing at 25% capacity for months.  I took the back off and disconnected the battery from the motherboard for a few seconds and reconnected it (this resets this idiotic BIOS setting or whatever it is). Now my laptop is performing literally 400% better and I don't even notice the icons flashing any more.  I also uninstalled the Intel Thermal Framework drivers, which I think may also contribute to this stupid situation. There is also some dumb Windows 10 setting where Windows reduces your performance if you're on battery and it seems to take on a life of its own and also doesn't reset when you're connected to power. It's under the little battery icon in the system tray...

Hi All, thanks for all your reports on this!

As we'll need to look into this matter with device specific information at this point, I'd recommend that you contacted our support team providing as much information as possible.

Should anyone of you face any troubles doing so, please let us know here so we can reach out via email to the address that's connected to your Community's profile. 

Thanks for your ongoing patience and cooperation!

Thanks for the response but I cannot see how to open a case.  The options are Chatbot or Community.

The same symptoms are occurring on two devices of mine, one running Windows 10 and one running Windows 8.1 using a free Dropbox account.  Remember this is not our problem, it's a significant problem with Dropbox software and it is impacting many of your users.  As a software devleoper I am more than happy to help you to get this fixed, so please help me to help you.

Thank you for the quick response megawhite.

As promised, I just reached out via email so we can look further into this.

Whenever you get the chance, please take a look at your inbox for my message and we'll take it from there. 

Thanks again! 

Please send me a magic link too... BUT just don't expect me to click it.

I've already raced round and round the "tech support" tree for days on end with ever increasing time consuming requests to "stand on my head and spit nickles" without any real help.  

Jeez, this has been reported by dozens of users and probably affects hundreds of users and has been experimented on by tech support with NO PROGRESS since first reported.

Are you going to tell us poor suffering end users that you have actually fixed ANY user's problems with blinking icons in all the years it's been reported?  If you have, then POST THE SOLUTION HERE... and otherwise, how about tech support SOLVE THE PROBLEM inhouse, and then post the product with necessary improvements to ALL USERS who have wasted hours and been frustrated by this DEFECT for month after month after month.  

clevercrow1 Thought you moved to OneDrive 4x weeks ago? Or was that clevercrow ? I so, why do you keep on posting here using CAPITAL LETTERS that some people can interperate as SHOUTING?

I use Dropbox and Dropbox Business on 3x different computers. All the latest versions of Dropbox (Beta) and Windows 10. No Explorer icons flickering. Did it occur to you that it could be related to the hardware you are using? My Surface laptop is 2 years old, the HP one 8 years old and the Desktop 1 year old. But all work just fine. Sounds like an incompatible driver issue or something. 

Just my 2 cents. 

Regards

Casper

Many thanks Walter, I have just responded to your email.  I look forward to assisting diagnosis.

Andrew

Hi CorradoBarbero

Thanks for the email. :-)

All is good. Been a hectic few days and I may have misunderstood the note. 

Regards

Casper

Dear Casper,

Sadly my email program choked when I tried to respond to your message a few days ago.  Since you asked me several questions and made several assumptions about my situation I wanted to still post this as I believe you were sincere in your quiries.

Bounced email follows...

Casper

I do have two accounts (clevercrow and clevercrow1) since my wife and I both have separate accounts.

I don't shout but do try to draw attention to the important points as many people are poor readers. And as an aside, shouting would be appropriate given the lack of support provided by Dropbox TS.

I also have used both Dropbox and Dropbox Business.

I also have a set of 4 different computers plus the two of my wife of different ages and types of machines. All are up to date and ALL SIX exhibit the same flashing icon issues. THAT alone should tell you and tech support that the problem is NOT on my end.

Am I using OneDrive, yes... Correct. Why do I comment here? Because I still receive postings from the community, because I have a time investment in this discussion, and because it is an OPEN forums and I wish to support any poor soul who is struggling with this issue.  I am still a Dropbox user and I am naturally curious about information pertaining to the problem that for so long plagued me.

Your DIAGNOSIS is incorrect as I previously went through all that nonsense (drivers, etc., etc.) with Dropbox tech support during the last two years.

Thank you for your interest in my personal situation with Dropbox. I assure you, the problem is widespread and persistent and much more than a nuisance.

Just the thoughts of a software developer and professor of chemical and computer engineering for 38 years.

If you would allow me to conjecture... Sounds to me that you are LUCKY... Continued good luck to you using Dropbox.

clevercrow and clevercrow1

We all envy your lack of soul-crushing icon overlay refreshing.

It happens on multiple machines, very different specs. 

It's clearly a conflict - and clearly doesn't happen on every system (because Dropbox employees would have fixed it by now).

The problem is Dropbox takes no action in resolving it, but rather runs us through hoops to do testing that is their responsibility. It could, and likely is, technically, 'caused' by a conflict with some other software - but this is something Dropbox is PAID to find through TESTING - and RESOLVE BEFORE shipping and charging customers for broken features.

And yes, I am shouting (not at you, or even support) because it makes me angry to be treated as a beta tester and patronized by a company that gives it's support staff (with whom I sympathize - support is not the problem here) inadequate guidance - and they are left to mindlessly run us all through a list of 'fixes' that waste even more of our collective time.

Just read through the thread. This is a ridiculous problem, inexcusably handled. And, honestly, quite simply resolved - for those who have the problems -- at the very least, allow users to DISABLE the feature and get on with our lives.

Until then, we either suffer, move on or hack our registries, and Drobox becomes more of a curse word than a trusted brand.

Hi pepehands,

If you do not want to put the hands in the registry, give a try to ShellExView which is a free tool that can easily enable/disable any unwanted shell extensions for you. This method do not delete those keys so it should be a better workaround :wink:

Hope this will help!

Edit: Be sure that you only disable Icon Overlay Handler as shown below:

Then restart explorer with Ctrl+E to apply the changes.

anonymous This is brilliant. I can't believe it took so long to connect this tool to this problem. Much better than ad hoc registry deletions. ShellExView is good.

With this tool, we can possibly finish our work as croudsourced unpaid Dropbox interns and help them debug their overlay code.

Dropbox support - if you're listening - please send this to tool to the devs who are working on the shell extensions. Also maybe include this link:

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Shell Extensions"

ALSO - 

To those that haven't given up (or can't) - I recommend combining forces with others who have issues with Dropbox's horrible implementation of the icon overlays - I found this thread - there are probably others. This is a request to allow users to disable the overlays:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Add-option-to-disable-icon-overlays-in-Windows-Explorer/idi-p/412106

IMPORTANT: there's a box on that page "vote for this idea" - go vote for it and maybe +1 the thread to give the problem more visibility.

I really hate that we have to do this, but if we're stuck with Dropbox, might as well try to make them do what we're paying them for.

> This is a request to allow users to disable the overlays:

>

> https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Add-option-to-disable-icon-overlays-in-Windows-Explorer/idi-p/412106

>

> IMPORTANT: there's a box on that page "vote for this idea" - go vote for it and maybe +1 the thread to give the problem more visibility.

pepehands, while they're at it, maybe they could even give us a third option for the icon overlays:

1. constantly flickering icon overlays (classic mode)
2. disable icon overlays
3. properly functioning icon overlays

I have been having the flashing or blinking icons in File Explorer for several months now. I have reached out to Dropbox Support and have reloaded and clean installed etc. to no avail.  I have also sent them videos of the screen.  As other have reported I have the idential issue on three computers, quite high end specs, two laptops and a desktop, all Windows 10 Pro and different ages but completely up-to-date. I have 330,000 files (many photos) and 1.2TB of data in Dropbox.  I have virtually all folders as Local on the desktop, and selected folders as Local on the laptops.  If I am oganising files and folders the only way I can manage this and stay sane is to exit from Dropbox, and then restart it when I've finished those tasks.  After exiting Dropbox everything is fine.    

As I have decided I want all my data in the cloud, and selected Dropbox for this, it is very disappointing that this issue continues with no real support from the Dropbox developers it would seem.  All my interactions with customer support have been the "try this" stuff, although it has apparently been sent to the techs, but no response. Maybe they're all working on new features! However, as others have commented, it really is a showstopper and I'm now also looking at OneDrive.