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Dropbox not showing in Mac finder sidebar after a restore from Time Machine
I had to do a restore of some of my Dropbox folders from time Machine. Dropbox is no longer showing in the
Finder sidebar and its lo longer an option in sidebar preferences. I can view Dropbox in my user section, but it is greyed out and shows a green dot with a checkmark. I can open Dropbox by clicking the folder icon on the menu bar, it opens in finder and shows all my folders. How can I solve this?
I finally took drastic measures. Copied all my Dropbox files/folders to the desktop, deleted Dropbox app and re-installed. Copied everything back to Dropbox and got everything working again. Had to manually move Dropbox to the sidebar because it doesn’t show as an option in Finder preferences. Also had to copy Dropbox to my home folder. There were a few other hiccups, but AFAIK, everything is back to normal.
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- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi pierre007, I'd be happy to help!
Have you tried a quick reinstall of the app to your device? Also, what is the syncing status while we speak?
Feel free to send me a screenshot of the green dot and checkmark, so I can have visual of this too.
Keep me posted!
Sync status: everything is up to date. I reinstalled Dropbox, still geyed out, see attachment.
- Megan
Thanks for the screenshot, pierre007!
Can you also try signing out of the desktop app, then back in?
I tried that and it didn't help;
- Walter
Hey pierre007, sorry to jump in here, but can you clarify if you installed the desktop app with admin privileges in the first place?
If you did, could you try these steps and let us know if they improved matters at all?
- Click on the Apple icon in the top left hand corner of your screen
- Select System Preferences...
- Then Security & Privacy
- Select the Privacy tab
- To make changes, you will need to click on the lock icon, and enter your macOS password
- Select Full Disk Access
- Check the box beside Dropbox
- Select Accessibility
- Check the box beside Dropbox
- Now please, attempt to restart the Dropbox desktop app.
All these settings are correct. As previously noted, this began after I did a restore of Dropbox from Time Machine.
- Walter
Thanks for clarifying that pierre007
Dropbox automatically normally adds a shortcut to the "Places" menu in the sidebar in Finder when it is installed, but if you don't have one for whatever reason it is simple to add it back.
To do so, just drag the Dropbox folder itself into the sidebar. The Dropbox folder can be found in your "Home" folder, the folder named after your computer user name. When you drag it in, you should see a blue line with a dot at the beginning indicating where the shortcut will be placed.
Just be careful not to move the Dropbox folder itself (such as to the Desktop, or any other location on your computer) because then the Dropbox software won't know where it is.
Let me know if this helps!
I tried that and Dropbox shows up in the side bar, but when I click on it, nothing happens. One thing I find strange, one of the folders I restored from Time Machine shows up if I click on it when I open Dropbox and all the files are there, but when I look at activity, the folder is not there and not all the files are listed. Other folders I restored do show up.
What if I delete Dropbox and re-install it, will I be able to restore my files/folders (I can copy files to another drive). More importantly, will I lose all the bonus storage that Dropbox allocated me years ago.
I finally took drastic measures. Copied all my Dropbox files/folders to the desktop, deleted Dropbox app and re-installed. Copied everything back to Dropbox and got everything working again. Had to manually move Dropbox to the sidebar because it doesn’t show as an option in Finder preferences. Also had to copy Dropbox to my home folder. There were a few other hiccups, but AFAIK, everything is back to normal.
