"Dropbox cannot start / Dropbox ran into a connection issue" error (macOS Monterey)

Ok, I can confirm that in my case sluggish Apple Mail loading at startup was causing the issue.

I’ve REINDEXED my mailboxes and now Mail it’s slightly faster but - most importantly - Dropbox loads at startup again!

I followed the instructions under "Reindex your Apple Mailbox” from here: https://macpaw.com/how-to/rebuild-mailbox-mac

Hope this helps most of you! 🙂

Davide

I rebuild & reindexed my mailboxes, but that was not related. Even after a fresh reinstall of Dropbox, it reports the error, published above.

mrumpf maybe in your instance there’s another app bogging your machine at startup? Did you try removing all the "login items" except Dropbox?

Unfortunately today my Apple Mail is slow again when starting up, I guess my mailbox is too large... so I get the “Dropbox cannot start” error dialog again.

But I've found something interesting... if I don’t close this error dialog for long enough (I guess until everything else finished loading) DROPBOX ACTUALLY LOADS!

You guys could try this as well 🙂

Finally, I found a solution Davide_Saraceno mrumpf 

I hope you can read it before they ban my message for criticizing Dropbox support.

After a week of useless "solutions" by email after support issued me a ticket, I had to find a solution myself.

Basically, the problem arises when you update DropBox and the files move to ~Library/CloudStorage.

There was something wrong about that that was cuasing some sort of conflict.

The problem is that Dropbox messes with your hard drive and the permits, and I could not even be able to delete by hand that newly created location.

After the multiple solutions Support offered me (which I already knew and had done like setting full disk access to DropBox or deleting some files) the thing that worked for me was to delete the complete "~Library/CloudStorage" location. I had trouble deleting it since I got the error of not having permissions, probably because Dropbox is running some nasty processes in the back. I had to force empty my Trash by clicking option+empty trash (https://support.apple.com/es-es/guide/mac-help/mchlp1093/mac) After that I did a fresh installation of Dropbox and everything is working perfectly now. I hope they give me a free year after resolving this issue for so many users, the so many hours I have spent on this issue, and a week of not being able to work on my personal computer.

Cheers

I've got the same Dropbox connection issues, but I don't even use Apple Mail, nor I start it at boot up. So maybe it's helping some people, but in my case that is not the issue. My work around for the moment is to go back to the traditional installation with a dropbox folder location outside the "cloud storage" section. Then everything works as usual.

I am having the same issue after installing Ventura version13.5.

Dropbox doesn't start at all. 

below is the log file:

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 174.4.5852
bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 61
bn.is_frozen: True
machine_id: f9c79adb-9d2a-51c1-a2f9-62de58c5c601
pid: 8536
ppid: 1
uid: 502
user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='Suhail', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Suhail Shaker', pw_dir='/Users/Suhail', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='Suhail', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Suhail Shaker', pw_dir='/Users/Suhail', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
euid: 502
gid: 20
egid: 20
group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])
effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
cwd: '/'
real_path='/'
mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
HOME: '/Users/Suhail'
appdata: '/Users/Suhail/.dropbox/instance1'
real_path='/Users/Suhail/.dropbox/instance1'
mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
dropbox_path: '/Users/Suhail/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'
real_path='/Users/Suhail/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'
mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
mode=0o100755 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
not found
parent not found
tempdir: '/var/folders/_8/gtwqgsp575j75gcsx5ql0fg80000gp/T'
real_path='/private/var/folders/_8/gtwqgsp575j75gcsx5ql0fg80000gp/T'
mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 828, in wrapper
File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 6444, in finish_dropbox_boot
File "desktop/dropbox/client/message_queue.py", line 306, in _wrapped
File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 5986, in _init_components_for_account
File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 5910, in create_sync_engine
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine_boundary/factory.py", line 225, in make_sync_engine
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/sync_engine.py", line 243, in __init__
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_client.py", line 324, in __init__
File "desktop/dropbox/client/gandalf/legacy.py", line 296, in add_on_changed_callback
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_client.py", line 487, in _update_feature_configs
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_thin_client.py", line 286, in UpdateFeatureConfigForFswRules
File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/thin_client/fp_client.py", line 236, in __getattr__
dropbox.sync_engine.nucleus.thin_client.exceptions.NucleusConnectionTimeoutError: Nucleus clients are not running. Connection error: Error Domain=com.dropbox.fileprovider.error Code=5 "(null)" UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x600003d3b8a0 {Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "Error while sending fetchServicesForItemID:allowRestrictedSources:completionHandler:" UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=Error while sending fetchServicesForItemID:allowRestrictedSources:completionHandler:, NSUnderlyingError=0x600003d3a1f0 {Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection from pid 8654 on anonymousListener or serviceListener was invalidated from this process." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection from pid 8654 on anonymousListener or serviceListener was invalidated from this process.}}}}}