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Forum Discussion
Mike G.
12 years agoNew member | Level 1
Disable automatic updates
How can I prevent dropbox from automatically updating itself? The new dropbox 3 has a very anti-windows-7 UI that I don't like, so I reinstalled 2.10. How do I stop dropbox from continually install...
id019019824984
9 years agoNew member | Level 2
For Windows OS, I have done two things to prevent the automatic update and it seems to work for now, as of 2017-04-28.
For Mac OS, I am assuming that similar procedure may be possible.
1. Go to "Computer Management" inside Start Menu>Programs>Administrative Tools; Go to Services and Applications>Services; Find "Dropbox Update", right click, go to Properties, and select Disable Service.
This will disable dropbox update from running upon boot. However, this alone does not prevent the updater from running when Dropbox runs. To prevent updater from running when Dropbox runs, do the following.
2. Go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Update" from "File Explorer". Change the name of "DropboxUpdate.exe"--I changed mine to "DropboxUpdate.exec".
After #2 was done, I find that "DropboxUpdate" no longer shows up in "Task Manager" even when Dropbox application is running and I no longer gets a pop-up message to allow administrative permission to the updater. At the same time, my Dropbox is running normally.
protagonistic
9 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Yeah, you can disable the auto update through a similar process on OS X but I suspect Windows, similar to OS X minus the registry part, will leave traces in the registry. I could have blocked it with my Firewall as well but I shouldn't have to. I chose to uninstall the app entirely as I do not need the sysnc feature in the app. I have a program that allows me to upload without the app and capture a share link if I need that. Personally I don't like apps that phone home without asking me if I am ok with it and giving me a chance to turn it off.
id019019824984 wrote:
For Windows OS, I have done two things to prevent the automatic update and it seems to work for now, as of 2017-04-28.
For Mac OS, I am assuming that similar procedure may be possible.
1. Go to "Computer Management" inside Start Menu>Programs>Administrative Tools; Go to Services and Applications>Services; Find "Dropbox Update", right click, go to Properties, and select Disable Service.
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