We’re Still Here to Help (Even Over the Holidays!) - find out more here.
Forum Discussion
momsahib
6 years agoExplorer | Level 3
Desktop app shows a blank screen when signing in
This error started after I unlinked Dropbox on my laptop and reinstalled it. Since then, when I click on "Sign in", the "Set Up Dropbox" window that opens is blank, and stays that way.
This is ...
Lusil
Dropbox Staff
6 years agoHey momsahib, thanks for checking in with us and awesome work on the troubleshooting!
Out of curiosity, is the account that you're trying to sign into on your computer a Basic one? You can check this by going to the Plan tab.
If it is, could you make sure that you have two or less already connected devices on your Security tab?
Let me know what you find, cheers!
momsahib
6 years agoExplorer | Level 3
It's a Plus account.
- Lusil6 years ago
Dropbox Staff
Thanks for getting back to me, momsahib.
Are you by any chance remotely accessing the desktop app from another device or using a virtual machine?
Looking forward to hearing back from you!
- momsahib6 years agoExplorer | Level 3Nope is just a regular ol' vanilla laptop running up to date Windows 10.
- momsahib6 years agoExplorer | Level 3
I have also asked Dropbox Support for help with this problem. They just sent me the following (none of which I've tried yet; I copy-pasted this without formatting and inserted line breaks):
To ensure that the software is working correctly, I’d like you to do a complete reinstall to try to fix the problem. This will not affect or remove the files in your Dropbox folder.
Please save and quit all programs accessing files in the Dropbox folder, and then follow these instructions:
Note: Please be sure to take note or take a screenshot of any Selective Sync settings you may have applied as well as the location of your Dropbox folder (if not in the default location) prior to re-installing, as you will need to match these settings upon re-install.
1) Quit Dropbox:
Click the Dropbox icon in the system tray at the bottom of your screen.
Click on your profile picture or initials to the right of the search bar, and select "Quit Dropbox".
2) Uninstall Dropbox:
Click on the Start button in the bottom left of your screen, and select Control Panel (7), or type Control Panel at the Start screen or start menu, and click on it (10, 8).
Click "Uninstall a Program".
Select Dropbox from the list of programs and click "Uninstall".
Or follow the steps outlined in our Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/41
3) When the uninstall finishes, please restart your computer to ensure that the uninstall is complete.
4) After this, please proceed to delete remaining registry entries:
a) Click the Start button. Type REGEDIT in the search box and press Enter.
b) In the Registry Editor, navigate into the following locations until you find the keys for "Dropbox" and "DropboxUpdate", they will be in either or both of the following two locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
c) In both or either of these folders, please delete only the "Dropbox" and "DropboxUpdate" folders by right-clicking on the individual folders and selecting "Delete".
5) Then, please delete the Dropbox remaining folders:
a) Open a Windows File Explorer (not Internet Explorer).
b) Type %LOCALAPPDATA% into the address bar (include the % percent signs) and press enter.
c) Delete the folder "Dropbox" from the resulting window.
d) Please repeat these steps with the following folders as well (it's OK if you don't find a Dropbox folder in any of those locations):
%APPDATA%
%PROGRAMFILES%
%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%
e) Then restart your system.
Please note that deleting any of these folders will not delete the files in your Dropbox folder.
6) Download the newest version of Dropbox from the following website:
https://www.dropbox.com/downloading
7) Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the installation file and double click on it.
8) During the initial setup and sign in process apply any Selective Sync settings you may have had prior to the reinstall and select the Dropbox folder location (if not in the default location).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Because this process removes the previous settings and configuration, if you wish to avoid re-downloading your Dropbox content you will need to manually choose the location for Dropbox to sync to, otherwise you will create a new Dropbox folder and start to download your content again.
To select your already established folder on your drive, after signing in and choosing which folders to sync, and before you click on "Open my Dropbox folder", you should see an "Advanced Settings" link, click on this.
Then you can choose the parent folder of the already established Dropbox folder, for example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path "D:\OtherDrive\Folder\Dropbox (Team)" you'll want to select the folder "D:\OtherDrive\Folder".
At the end of this process, after clicking "Open my Dropbox folder", it might take some time to re-index the files and sync any pending changes.
Please note that any changes made to the files in the Dropbox folder, the web interface or other linked devices while the folder was "off-line", will generate conflicted copies:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/36
Finally, this process only works when linking to the exact same account that was previously linked to this computer. If you'd like to merge accounts, please refer to the following Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/9104
Please let me know if the issue persists, and I will have this escalated to my advanced team. I'd also appreciate if you attach a screenshot of the blank screen, on your response.
- Daphne6 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi there momsahib!
It looks like my colleague suggest an advanced reinstall of the app. It would be a good place to start as this will allow you to do a clean install again on your computer.
Also, would you mind sharing your ticket number with me here so that I can check on this from my side too?
Cheers!
About Apps and Installations
Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.
The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!