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Forum Discussion

Sol Lee's avatar
Sol Lee
New member | Level 1
2 years ago

"Dropbox is running in compatibility mode" error on Windows 10

I am a user currently running Windows 10 Pro, x64 system. Until yesterday, the Dropbox desktop app was working perfectly fine. However, today, the app suddenly stopped working, and I encountered an...
desktop
Error Messages
windows
Hannah's avatar
Hannah
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
2 years ago

Hi there, Sol Lee, thanks for letting us know about this error.

Did you recently install or started using any security programs, like an antivirus, VPN, firewall etc?

If so, can you temporarily disable them, to see if that helps?

Let me know how it goes.

CydweliMez's avatar
CydweliMez
New member | Level 1
2 years ago

Have a look at the properties of the Dropbox.exe and change the compatibility mode there. I had a similar problem yesterday and RoCol suggested that fix.

https://www.dropboxforum.com/discussions/101001016/dropbox-desktop-app-213-4-4597-thinks-i-have-win8-and-wont-start/811855/replies/812097

  • Sol Lee's avatar
    Sol Lee
    New member | Level 1
    2 years ago

    Hi, CydweliMez

    I followed the reply you suggested from RoCol and changed the compatibility mode to Windows 7, but the same issue occurred with the compatibility mode error window.
    Still, thank you so much for giving me your opinion and trying to help resolve the issue.

    • CydweliMez's avatar
      CydweliMez
      New member | Level 1
      2 years ago

      Can you remove running it without any compatibility mode completely and try that?  I had to click on the "Change settings for all users" at the bottom of the compatibility tab for it to allow me to do that.  I think what is happening is Dropbox is checking that to see how it is running on the computer and if it sees Win7 or 8 it just puts up the message and won't start. 

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