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Cobalt Praetorian's avatar
Cobalt Praetorian
Explorer | Level 4
2 years ago

DropBox Cannot Connect or Sync Despite Advanced Reinstall - Need Manual Sync Solution

64-bit Win11 PC

Company-provided laptop with firewalls (presumably)

Internet connected

 

My Dropbox desktop app will not connect with the internet, no matter what I do, even though it used to.

 

I have installed the 64-bit version, currently showing as v187.4.5691. The Dropbox updater, on the other hand, runs in the background as a 32-bit task, but that's a question for another day.

 

I have uninstalled and reinstalled and restarted numerous times, including using the Advanced Reinstall instructions.

 

Whenever I start Dropbox, I get the message that I am not connected to the internet. I am, in fact, connected to the internet, because I can post this question. Yet when I click "Sign in" in the app, nothing happens. The taskbar icon stays grayed out, saying "Connecting..." and the app, when opened, says "Starting..." - but again, nothing ever happens.

 

I have added every Dropbox executable to the Windows firewall. And I mean every one - I did a full search of my PC.

 

I'm at a loss as to why this isn't connecting, and now I just need to manually sync my files at this point. I'm not sure the best way to do that.

 

I'm lookng for potential solutions that I haven't already tried for getting the sync to work, or for manually syncing my files. Thanks.

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Thanks for taking the time to post to our Community, Cobalt Praetorian.

     

    It does sound like there's some kind of security app/service that won't allow Dropbox to connect.

     

    Apart from the firewall, do you perhaps have any other programs like an antivirus or VPN that could be blocking Dropbox and its domains?

     

    Can you also try our offline installer to see if that helps?

     

    Keep me posted.

    • Cobalt Praetorian's avatar
      Cobalt Praetorian
      Explorer | Level 4

      Hi Hannah,

       

      Thanks for your reply. Since it's a work laptop, I do use a VPN when I need to connect to a secure server, but the Dropbox app isn't working under either a VPN or non-VPN condition. I have tried disabling the antivirus options I could (see again: work laptop), but that has had no effect either.

       

      I was completely unable to install the app using the online installer, which points to my/your ongoing theory that this is being blocked somehow by my work. I used the offline installer after figuring out how to download the x64 version (it kept trying to automatically download the x86 version, as it did using the link you provided above).

       

      Unfortunately, even after that install I was still unable to connect.

       

      At this point, it appears I may be stuck with manually syncing the files through the web app, which is... suboptimal, to put it mildly.

      • Hannah's avatar
        Hannah
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hey Cobalt Praetorian, thanks for the update on this.

         

        Sorry to hear that the issue persists.

         

        Perhaps if you're able to, check on this with your IT department to ensure nothing is being blocked by your network, etc.

         

        If they find nothing is being blocked then don't hesitate to give us another ping here and we can continue looking into this.