Dropbox not uploading/syncing new files after fresh install of Linux Mint 20.1

Hi joekur,

Sometimes it's difficult to find out what's exactly the source of troubles. In such situations additional diagnostic information can show some directions you might missed yet. I'm putting here one script targeting such diagnostic information:

#!/usr/bin/python3
import os, sys, json; from importlib.machinery import SourceFileLoader
dropbox = SourceFileLoader("dropbox", "/usr/bin/dropbox").load_module()
ignore = [".dropbox", ".dropbox.cache"]
success = ["up to date", "infinite"]
with open(os.path.expanduser("~/.dropbox/info.json")) as js:
  dbpath = json.load(js).get('personal').get('path')
if not os.path.exists(dbpath):
  print(f"Dropbox folder doesn't exist: {dbpath}"); sys.exit(2)
def listIssues(path):
  def getStatus(path):
    try:
      st = dc.icon_overlay_file_status(path=path).get('status', ['unknown'])[0]
      if st not in success: return path, st
    except dropbox.DropboxCommand.CommandError as e: return path, e
  def listDir(path, ignore = []):
    for e in os.listdir(path):
      if e not in ignore:
        e = path + os.sep + e
        s = getStatus(e);
        if s is not None: yield s
        if os.path.isdir(e):
          for s in listDir(e): yield s
  try:
    with dropbox.closing(dropbox.DropboxCommand()) as dc:
      s = getStatus(path);
      if s is not None: yield s
      for s in listDir(path, ignore): yield s
  except dropbox.DropboxCommand.CouldntConnectError:
    print("Dropbox isn't running!"); sys.exit(3)
issues = [*listIssues(dbpath)];
print("Versions:"); dropbox.version([])
print("Status:"); dropbox.status([])
if len(issues) != 0:
  indent = max(len(st)+1 for _, st in issues);
  id = os.popen("id", 'r').read().strip(); print(f"Your id: {id}")
  print("Issues found:");
  for path, st in issues: print("%-*s %s" %
          (indent, st+':', os.popen(f"ls -ld \"{path}\"", 'r').read().strip()))
  sys.exit(1)
print("No any issues found!");

You can copy content above and paste in a file with name like a "testdropbox" (for example) using simple text editor of your choice in your home folder. It's a simple Python script. To do some work this script has to be made executable. This can be achieved using following command:

chmod a+x testdropbox

Now you can run it and receive in terminal different diagnostic information including all files not in sync yet with some additional information. You can run it using following command:

~/testdropbox

While take a closer look on received information you can try find some predispositions able to be source for the issues like owner (mis)matching, permissions, etc. 😉 This same information can be useful to the staff supporting you too.

Good luck.

Hi Здравко ,

Thank you so much! I received an error in running the script file and not sure what it means, so here's a screenshot of my terminal window along with the first several lines of the "textdropbox" file I created. I hope this is helpful:

Thank you again! I greatly appreciate the help.

Joe

Hi joekur again,

Wow..., that's something really strange. 🤔 The mentioned class and wrapper module (and package) are something standard to Python (importlib.machinery.SourceFileLoader). 🤷 Seems, your install gets broken somehow. What's the Python version you are using? Take on result from:

python3 --version

It should be some build of version 3.8. In different forums are posts related to some packages disorders observed after upgrade to 20.1. It's good idea to make sure everything is up to date and especially that Python 3 is properly installed. Execute following commands (one by one):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install python3 libpython3.8-minimal

Let's hope the above will fix Python "illness".

PS: By the way, can you take a look - is a file exist or not? Execute following command:

ls -l /usr/lib/python3.8/importlib

Does result contain file "machinery.py" or not? 🧐

Hi Здравко ,

Thanks again. Interesting... So I first checked the Python version -- 3.8.10, then ran the update command you recommended. That seemed to go smoothly. My screenshot below shows the subsequent commands and results. You will see it did not upgrade, and that machinery.py is present. I then tried running the testdropbox script again, with the same result, and rechecked the Python version.

Seems my computer is being stubborn.🤐  Again, I really appreciate your help trying to sort this out!

---

joekur wrote:

...

Seems my computer is being stubborn.🤐  ...

---

Hah... 😁 Yes, seems so. 🤔 I'm using exactly the same versions, like you do, and everything works.

Just added one more line to figure out where exactly your Python is looking for machinery.py. 🤷 That looks like something impossible - the file is there, but can not be found out.

Let's see what's the script output now. 🧐

Hi Здравко ,

Here you go🙂:

Hope this is useful... As always, thanks again!

Strange things happen here. All paths (including the importlib one) are correct. Everything seems normal except the error. 🤷 An error saying that is missing something reported already as being there! 😯

I'm out of further ideas. Let's hope somebody else can continue with more "fresh" ideas.

Good luck joekur!

Hi Здравко !

Sorry, I thought I had posted a response to you yesterday but I see it's not showing up. I just wanted to thank you again. I really appreciate all your efforts in trying to help me resolve this! Yes, hopefully the tech support team can help me figure it out. All the best to you!

Hey joekur, sorry to jump in here and thanks for providing your ticket ID.

I was able to locate it in our system and passed your comments on to the expert handling your case.

You should be hearing from them soon, so keep an eye out on your inbox. 

If there's anything else you'd like to ask in the meantime, please let us know. 

Walter Thank you!

Thanks so much for keeping us in the loop, Joe!

This will definitely come in useful in case another user comes across the same issue.

We appreciate this and if there's anything else we can do, don't hesitate to come back!