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Dropbox folder opens on Windows Explorer during startup. How can I turn it off?
Minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless - lately when my system starts up, Dropbox starts, syncs, and then opens itself and the Dropbox folder in Windows explorer. I can set Dropbox to not open...
Hey Turonah, welcome to our Community!
What you described rings a bell! A couple of days back we had a case where the OP reported the same behavior.
You can read more about it here. I was wondering if you could follow the steps the OP mentioned while performing an advanced reinstall, since that seemed to resolve the user's issue.
If this doesn't work, let me know and I'll be more than happy to investigate further. Thanks!
Hi Megan, and thank you for the welcome!
I did check for a Dropbox link inside the %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (I linked to the wrong thread in my opening post), but saw that there may have been keys within the HKEY_LOCAL_USER (and not just HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE as stated in the advanced reinstall). I followed the advanced reinstall steps once again, making sure to check both registry locations this time.
Unfortunately, when trying to re-install Dropbox, I was met with the "Dropbox installer failed to start" message. Attempting to use the Offline installer ran into the same issue. I ended up following the advice in this thread: https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001016/the-dropbox-installer-failed-to-start/197775 (the "nuke it from orbit" option) - I did this manually, but recommend using the suggested program, as manual deletion was time consuming and a major pain in the behind. 😩
I've now been able to reinstall Dropbox, and can confirm that it no longer opens the folder on first startup! (Hurray!) The unfortunate part is I can't confirm exactly which registry keys were the cause of the issue, but adding the HKEY_LOCAL_USER keys to the advanced reinstall instructions may be prudent regardless.
Thanks for the help!
P.S. Separate issue, but attempting to link to the threads mentioned in all of my posts generates the error displayed below. It seems the Rich Text Editor on the forums adds classes to the <a> element which have not been whitelisted.
Theresa
Community Manager
Community ManagerHi Turonah. I’m really glad to hear you found a way to stop that folder from opening on startup – nice work! 🙌 Thanks so much for sharing your solution with us too. Little nuggets like this can be super helpful for others running into the same thing.
I’m Theresa 👩💻, one of the Community Managers in the forum. I love seeing our members learn from each other and share tips that make Dropbox even easier to use.
By the way, is there a Dropbox feature you’ve come to rely on more lately? Always curious what folks are finding most helpful these days.
See you around,
T😸 (Dropbox Community Manager)
Thanks Theresa! Of course, as a coder myself there's nothing more frustrating than finding a thread describing the exact problem you're having and seeing it end with just "nvm, fixed it" with no actual description of the fix 😂
Honestly, my biggest use of Dropbox is to keep a collection of important files synced across multiple devices for convenient access. Not an easy feat between multiple laptops and desktops, with both Windows and Linux!
