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dropbox hangs on "starting..." in Manjaro and in Fedora 38
currently on Fedora 38, using dropbox installed from Fedora 38 RPM at https://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/38/x86_64/
Observed behavior: Dropbox hangs on "starting"'
Theory: there is something in my Dropbox folder that is hanging Dropbox.
Tried:
Dropbox hangs on "starting". Originally in Manjaro, around May 1, it began to hang when started. Tried fresh reinstall of Dropbox, then fresh reinstall of Manjaro. Once I installed Dropbox on a fresh system, it pulled in all the files without a problem, but when I rebooted, I got the "starting" message again. I thought it might be the maxhandles parameter so set that, but no change.
Rolled back to a fresh install from backup to pre-install state, including config files and no Dropbox folder that I installed and had working until reboot. That still hung on "starting...."
Deleted Dropbox folder, config, and app, from my home folder as per https://help.dropbox.com/installs/uninstall-dropbox, Installed Fedora 38 and Fedora 38 dropbox version from https://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/38/x86_64/, and once I followed the instructions to install topicon to get an appindicator, I was able to set selective sync so it would not download everything, but it froze on starting. Reboot led to same result.
* full remove of dropbox, including Dropbox folder, install from fedora nautilus dropbox rpm at
* install rpm through software gui, it updates itself and starts up, starts syncing everything. no app indicator shows., so no way to get to prefs for selective sync.
* reboot. Dropbox starts automatically, app indicator shows, but stuck on starting again.
I got some help from support. The key piece was to run "chattr -R -i ~/Dropbox" which revealed the problem files. I had created symbolic links from my dotfile settings in .config, .themes, and .local and placed the actual files in dropbox folders so that some of my settings would get backed up to dropbox. One of the applications put unchangeable files in dropbox and that is what caused the problems. Since I reinstalled fresh, once I was able to find the problem files via chattr and move them out of Dropbox, syncing resumed and is now fixed.
21 Replies
- Solution that worked for me is here:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/dropbox-hangs-on-quot-starting-quot-in-Manjaro-and-in-Fedora-38/m-p/697868#M56698 Hey rcrath
I tried the solution listed there but the problem persists. On Fedora, Dropbox daemon looks to work fine, it syncs and the status from the terminal shows the correct status: synching, Indexing, Uploading, etc. The issue is with the icon tray, it shows "Connecting..." and it doesn't display the entire menu.
For me the daemon is still "hanging" as best as I can tell. Running via "~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-197.4.7629/dropboxd" the final lines of the output are:
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/barnetwc/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-197.4.7629/PyQt5.QtCore.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/barnetwc/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-197.4.7629/PyQt5.sip.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/barnetwc/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-197.4.7629/PyQt5.QtGui.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/barnetwc/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-197.4.7629/PyQt5.QtWidgets.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/home/barnetwc/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-197.4.7629/PyQt5.QtDBus.so'
Unable to monitor entire Dropbox folder hierarchy. Please run "echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=100000 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf; sudo sysctl -p" and restart Dropbox to fix the problem.
Running "dropbox status" returns only "Starting..." and the GUI refuses to load.
el-guapo wrote:...
Unable to monitor entire Dropbox folder hierarchy. Please run "echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=100000 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf; sudo sysctl -p" and restart Dropbox to fix the problem.
...Hi el-guapo,
Keep in mind that the message is template and the value 100000 is just an example. This value should be bigger than your Dropbox folder entries count (both files and folders - all together)! If you set a value smaller than total count it's meaningless - it's still not enough. You may want to determine this number - run following command:
ls -ARl Dropbox | wc -l
Here Dropbox above is the default place of your Dropbox folder from your home folder point of view. If you have changed its place use appropriate path there. Use the value received (or better bigger) and don't forget to restart you machine so the changes take effect. To see what's the actual value set and in effect, execute following command:
cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
Also to change this value without restart you can execute following command for immediate but temporary effect (after restart will gets forget):
sudo bash -c 'echo YOUR_VALUE_HERE > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches'
Good luck.
If the chattr or the or the max handles doesn't work, try support--they were quick and sorted things out for me.
- Sadly, I’ve been going back and forth with Support for a week. They appear to be following the same script with me but taking 24 hours or more to provide the next step.
I’m a long time Dropbox customer and like the product but sadly, like for all such services, their support is declining. Thanks Walter. Ticket # 23655183
- Nailed it! Thanks Здравко!
That did it. I ran the `ls` you provided and updated `max_user_watches` value and BANG! `dropbox status` is returning “Indexing…”
Thank you!
