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Dropbox installer removes my Windows Defender Firewall rule
Application Affected (Dropbox) Operating System/Browser (if using the web) (Windows 11) Dropbox App Version (if using the app) (244.3.6525) Question or Issue I previously reported this issue a...
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHi Frpx, thanks for messaging the Community.
In general, the Dropbox desktop installation would automatically attempt to create the default requirements to work, which would include any firewall rules in Windows Defender.
This should be similar to other programs that require inbound or outbound connections.
Have you tried using the Windows group policy to prevent the Windows Defender rules from being overwritten?
This will help me to assist further!
Thank you for the reply.
In my environment, the firewall rule was created manually by the user and is not a rule created or managed by the Dropbox installer.
However, when the Dropbox desktop application is installed or updated, this user-created rule is removed. Because my Windows Defender Firewall configuration uses strict outbound filtering (default outbound action is Block), Dropbox cannot connect to the network until the rule is recreated.
From a Windows Firewall design perspective, applications normally should not remove or modify user-created rules unless they are explicitly managing those rules.
This behavior suggests that the Dropbox installer might be deleting existing firewall rules that match the Dropbox executable path, even if they were not created by the installer.
Could you please confirm whether the installer intentionally modifies or removes existing Windows Defender Firewall rules during installation or updates?
Additionally, if the installer attempts to manage firewall rules and fails due to permissions or policy restrictions, does the installer have any mechanism to report that failure to the user?
This behavior can cause the Dropbox client to become unusable in environments with strict outbound firewall policies.
