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Charles Dickens's avatar
Charles Dickens
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago
Solved

Disable autostart permanently - redux

This issue was raised once before here: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/Disable-autostart-permanently/td-p/238131.  I have the same problem.  I cannot prevent Dropbox from auto-starting.  If I follow the instructions at the link above then Dropbox cannot be started at all.  Suggestions?

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    4 years ago

    Hey Charles Dickens, sorry to jump in here, but could clarify if you're using the full desktop app on your machine or only the CLI version? 

     

    If you have the headless installation, have you tried using the command outlined here to disable the auto-start up of the app?

4 Replies

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    4 years ago

    Hi Charles Dickens, let's have a look! 

     

    Are you also on a Linux device?

     

    You mentioned that when you follow the instructions to disable the app from auto-starting, the app can't be started at all. Just to clarify, do you mean that when you click on the Dropbox icon, it remains unresponsive?

     

    Let me know more!

  • Charles Dickens's avatar
    Charles Dickens
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    Hello Megan,

     

    I am running Fedora 36.  With the change made as recommended in the link in my original post Dropbox does not auto-start(the desired result of the change) nor can it be started at the using the icon.

     

    I researched starting Dropbox in terminal but there are prerequisites.  I do not want complicate this with additional details. 

    The content of the dropbox.desktop file is below.  The line that I changed is in red.

     

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=Dropbox
    GenericName=File Synchronizer
    Comment=Sync your files across computers and to the web
    Exec=dropbox stop
    Terminal=false
    Type=Application
    Icon=dropbox
    Categories=Network;FileTransfer;
    Keywords=file;synchronization;sharing;collaboration;cloud;storage;backup;
    StartupNotify=false

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    4 years ago

    Hey Charles Dickens, sorry to jump in here, but could clarify if you're using the full desktop app on your machine or only the CLI version? 

     

    If you have the headless installation, have you tried using the command outlined here to disable the auto-start up of the app?

  • Charles Dickens's avatar
    Charles Dickens
    Explorer | Level 3
    4 years ago

    I have disabled the auto-start feature by changing the Exec line in dropbox.desktop Exec=dropbox stop.  I'll use the dropbox start and stop arguments to manage the app myself.

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