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Forum Discussion
YTLMAX
4 months agoExplorer | Level 3
Dropbox and VPN connection in China.
I was in China and then my Dropbox suddenly malfunctioned. Basically the Dropbox for Windows 11 app doesn't load. I thought it was just my computer or Dropbox being wonky, so after many tries to restart Dropbox, I uninstalled Dropbox and then redownloaded and installed it again. Same issues all over again. And then finally it just wont install.
Gave up for a while and then one day I had problems with my Astrill VPN, so I uninstalled it, and viola, Dropbox just started. So i guess its Astrill VPN conflicting with Dropbox. True to that, after I reinstalled Astrill VPN (VPN being a necessity in China), Dropbox malfunctioned again.
Checked the forums here and found two other people had the same issue with Astrill and Dropbox. There was no conclusion, only that you had to choose either Astrill or Dropbox. Can anybody help with this? I need both Astrill and Dropbox!
2 Replies
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- Mark4 months ago
Super User II
I suspect its due to the fact that the time zones will be out of sync on your device when you use a VPN. That is how Dropbox works out what files are in date etc.
So by using a VPN to say, America, it would be confused as the time on your machine wouldnt match what it was expecting given the connection it had.
- Megan4 months ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey there, YTLMAX let's jump right into this!
Based on all the info you've provided, it sounds like some kind of conflict between your VPN and Dropbox.
As this is beyond our control there is currently no solution we can offer for this problem.
In regards to the error message that you get, it's coming directly from your Windows and not Dropbox. I'd suggest going through the Microsoft forum for some solutions.
If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.
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