Dropbox required update, but update failed and so does clean install

My system fulfills the minimum requirements, so that should not be the issue. 

While scrolling through the registry, I did notice the new version tries to install a whole bunch of additional features such as backup, binder, external drive, passwords, paper, an office add-in, a lot of context menu handlers, autoplay event handlers and a zillion automatic update services. But I don't need or want any of this stuff.  All I want is a simple app that keeps one folder on my pc synced with my cloud storage.  How hard can it be.

I noticed there is a simplified version of the app for W7/8, any chance of using that on my W10 machine? That is the last thing I am willing to try. I will not be opeing tickets at the support team, it's been taking too much of my time already and I have other things to do. If the simplified version will not work, I will end my dropbox subscription after 6 years and start using a local backup solution on my own NAS instead.

Thanks for getting back to me, mz5.

The simplified version wouldn't be available for your OS version, I'm afraid, but there is another version you can download from the Microsoft Store.

You can read about it, see if you're eligible to install it, and steps on how to install it here.

Hello Hannah,

thanks for your suggestion, but as I mentioned above, I run a very basic Windows. My windows is in fact installed without the use of a MS account, and I do not have or want such an account. All MS Store functionality is therefore disabled on my system.  Any chance of downloading the version you mentioned directly from Dropbox?

Does this page help at all, mz5?

Not really. That pages states that Dropbox requires Windows 10 version 19045.0 or higher, which is the version I am running. That's the good news.

But there is no download possibility on that page. All it says is:

And as I mentioned, I do not have a MS Account nor do I intend to create one. How difficult can it be to make a working executable installer available for your customers without forcing them to use the MS store.

I understand where you're coming from, mz5.

In that case, there's no way to install the Microsoft store version of the app, without the Microsoft store.

I will make sure to pass your comments along to the team, though, and if you want us to continue troubleshooting the installation issue of the desktop client, let us know and we'll be happy to help.

Seriously you have to dig into the Registry and start deleting keys for the **bleep** update to work? WTF DropBox... did you fire your competent developers that do the MSI for the updates? Good lord people.

I have been with dropbox over 10 years, this cluster**bleep** of an update is the worst I have seen them screw the pooch on this.

Seriously DropBox, get your act together and push out another update that fixes this update mess.

Ok, here is a powershell script I had to create to take out everything dropbox related that was preventing a new install to happen. Use this only after you already uninstalled dropbox, and find that the darn thing wont reinstall... (this happened to me)

Mark this as the solution

<# 
Dropbox Deep-Clean Script (PowerShell)
- Removes stray Dropbox processes, services, scheduled tasks
- Uninstalls registered MSI entries bearing "Dropbox"
- Deletes leftover folders (ProgramData, Program Files (x86), LocalAppData)
- Removes stale Event Log source (DbxSvc) that spams errors
- Produces a summary at the end

Run as Administrator. Tested on Windows 10/11 PowerShell 5/7.
#>

# region: guardrails
$ErrorActionPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'
$ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'

function Write-Info($msg){ Write-Host "[*] $msg" -ForegroundColor Cyan }
function Write-OK($msg){ Write-Host "[+] $msg" -ForegroundColor Green }
function Write-Warn($msg){ Write-Host "[!] $msg" -ForegroundColor Yellow }
function Write-Err($msg){ Write-Host "[x] $msg" -ForegroundColor Red }

# Admin check
$principal = New-Object Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal([Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent())
if (-not $principal.IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator)) {
  Write-Err "Please run this script as Administrator."
  exit 1
}

# endregion

# region: tracking
$did = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.List[string]

# endregion

# region: kill processes
Write-Info "Stopping Dropbox-related processes (if any)..."
$procs = Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.Name -match '^(Dropbox|DropboxUpdate|Dbx|DbxSvc|DropboxUpdater)' }
if ($procs) {
  $procs | ForEach-Object {
    try { Stop-Process -Id $_.Id -Force -ErrorAction Stop; $did.Add("Stopped process: $($_.Name) [$($_.Id)]") } catch {}
  }
} else {
  Write-Info "No Dropbox-related processes found."
}
# endregion

# region: services
Write-Info "Removing Dropbox-related services..."
# Known names + heuristic match
$svcNames = @(
  'dbupdate','dbupdatem',
  'DropboxUpdate','DropboxUpdater','DropboxUpdaterService',
  'DbxSvc'
)

# Add any service whose Name or DisplayName contains 'dropbox' or 'dbx'
$discover = Get-Service | Where-Object { $_.Name -match 'dropbox|dbx' -or $_.DisplayName -match 'dropbox|dbx' }
$targets = @()
$targets += $svcNames | ForEach-Object { Get-Service -Name $_ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue }
$targets += $discover
$targets = $targets | Sort-Object Name -Unique | Where-Object { $_ }

foreach ($svc in $targets) {
  try {
    if ($svc.Status -ne 'Stopped') {
      Write-Info "Stopping service: $($svc.Name) ..."
      Stop-Service -Name $svc.Name -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
      Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 300
    }
  } catch {}
  try {
    $out = sc.exe delete $svc.Name | Out-String
    if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) { $did.Add("Deleted service: $($svc.Name)") }
  } catch {}
}
# endregion

# region: scheduled tasks
Write-Info "Removing Dropbox scheduled tasks..."
# Known task names
$taskNames = @('\DropboxUpdateTaskMachineCore','\DropboxUpdateTaskMachineUA')

foreach ($tn in $taskNames) {
  try {
    schtasks.exe /Delete /TN $tn /F | Out-Null
    if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) { $did.Add("Deleted scheduled task: $tn") }
  } catch {}
}

# Heuristic: delete any task whose name contains "Dropbox"
# Parse CSV output to safely get paths
$tasksCsv = schtasks.exe /Query /V /FO CSV 2>$null
if ($tasksCsv) {
  $parsed = $tasksCsv | ConvertFrom-Csv
  $dropTasks = $parsed | Where-Object { $_.'TaskName' -match 'Dropbox' }
  foreach ($row in $dropTasks) {
    $name = $row.'TaskName'
    try {
      schtasks.exe /Delete /TN $name /F | Out-Null
      if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) { $did.Add("Deleted scheduled task: $name") }
    } catch {}
  }
}
# endregion

# region: uninstall MSI-registered Dropbox entries
Write-Info "Checking for installed Dropbox entries (MSI/uninstall keys)..."
$uninstallRoots = @(
  'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall',
  'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall'
)
$toUninstall = @()
foreach ($root in $uninstallRoots) {
  try {
    $toUninstall += Get-ItemProperty "$root\*" | Where-Object {
      $_.DisplayName -and ($_.DisplayName -match 'Dropbox')
    }
  } catch {}
}
$toUninstall = $toUninstall | Sort-Object DisplayName -Unique

if ($toUninstall.Count -gt 0) {
  foreach ($app in $toUninstall) {
    $name = $app.DisplayName
    $uninst = $app.UninstallString
    if (-not $uninst) { continue }

    # Normalize MSI uninstalls to a quiet form
    if ($uninst -match 'MsiExec(\.exe)?\s+/I|/X\s+({[^}]+})') {
      $guid = ($uninst | Select-String -Pattern '{[0-9A-Fa-f-]+' -AllMatches).Matches.Value | Select-Object -First 1
      if ($guid) {
        Write-Info "Uninstalling MSI product $name ($guid) quietly..."
        Start-Process -FilePath "msiexec.exe" -ArgumentList "/x $guid /qn /norestart" -Wait
        if ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) { $did.Add("Uninstalled MSI product: $name ($guid)") }
        continue
      }
    }

    # Non-MSI uninstallers: attempt with common silent switches
    Write-Info "Uninstalling non-MSI product $name ..."
    $exe = $uninst
    $args = ""
    if ($uninst.StartsWith('"')) {
      $exe = ($uninst -split '"')[1]
      $args = $uninst.Substring($exe.Length + 2).Trim()
    } else {
      if ($uninst -match '^\S+\s') {
        $exe = $uninst.Split(' ')[0]
        $args = $uninst.Substring($exe.Length).Trim()
      }
    }
    $silentSwitches = @('/quiet','/s','/S','/VERYSILENT','/silent')
    $tried = $false
    foreach ($sw in $silentSwitches) {
      try {
        Start-Process -FilePath $exe -ArgumentList ($args + " " + $sw) -Wait -WindowStyle Hidden
        $did.Add("Attempted uninstall (silent) for: $name")
        $tried = $true
        break
      } catch {}
    }
    if (-not $tried) {
      try {
        Start-Process -FilePath $exe -ArgumentList $args -Wait
        $did.Add("Attempted uninstall (interactive) for: $name")
      } catch {}
    }
  }
} else {
  Write-Info "No uninstall entries with 'Dropbox' found."
}
# endregion

# region: remove stale Event Log source for DbxSvc
Write-Info "Removing stale Event Log source (DbxSvc) if present..."
$evtKey = 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\DbxSvc'
if (Test-Path $evtKey) {
  try {
    Remove-Item -LiteralPath $evtKey -Recurse -Force
    $did.Add("Removed Event Log source key: $evtKey")
  } catch {
    Write-Warn "Could not remove Event Log source key (will try to adjust ACL)."
    try {
      $null = takeown.exe /f ($evtKey -replace 'HKLM:\\','HKLM\') /r /d y
      $null = icacls ($evtKey -replace 'HKLM:\\','HKLM\') /grant administrators:F /t
      Remove-Item -LiteralPath $evtKey -Recurse -Force
      $did.Add("Removed Event Log source key after ACL fix: $evtKey")
    } catch {}
  }
} else {
  Write-Info "DbxSvc Event Log source not found (good)."
}
# endregion

# region: delete folders (with ownership fix)
Write-Info "Deleting Dropbox folders..."
$paths = @(
  "C:\ProgramData\Dropbox",
  "C:\ProgramData\DropboxUpdate",
  "C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox",
  "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Dropbox",
  "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\DropboxUpdate",
  "$env:APPDATA\Dropbox"
) | Select-Object -Unique

foreach ($p in $paths) {
  if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $p) {
    try {
      takeown.exe /f "$p" /r /d y | Out-Null
      icacls "$p" /grant administrators:F /t | Out-Null
      Remove-Item -LiteralPath $p -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
      if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $p)) { $did.Add("Deleted folder: $p") }
    } catch {
      Write-Warn "Failed to delete $p. It may be in use."
    }
  }
}
# endregion

# region: optional perf counter tidy (no-op if you don't want it)
$rebuildPerf = $false  # set $true if you want to rebuild counters
if ($rebuildPerf) {
  Write-Info "Rebuilding perf counters (optional step)..."
  try { lodctr /r | Out-Null; winmgmt /resyncperf | Out-Null; $did.Add("Rebuilt perf counters") } catch {}
}
# endregion

# region: summary
Write-Host ""
Write-OK "Cleanup complete."
if ($did.Count -gt 0) {
  Write-Host "Actions taken:" -ForegroundColor Green
  $did | Sort-Object | Get-Unique | ForEach-Object { "  - $_" } | Write-Host
} else {
  Write-Host "No Dropbox remnants were found to remove." -ForegroundColor Green
}

Write-Host ""
Write-Info "Recommended next steps:"
Write-Host "  1) Reboot your PC." -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host "  2) Install Dropbox using the OFFLINE installer (Run as Administrator)." -ForegroundColor Cyan
Write-Host "     URL: https://www.dropbox.com/download?full=1" -ForegroundColor Cyan
# endregion

This has been going on for a few months now. What do we pay for if the updates, and presumably security, are at risk?
Download installer doesn't work, on your marks and stops.
since 227.4.4774