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Forum Discussion
Gnome unresponsive icon tray was only "fixed" for Ubuntu
Operating System
Verified on Debian 13, Fedora 43, Ubuntu 24.04/25.10
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
v241.4.4795
Question or Issue
We all know this issue which affects Gnome and the Appindicator of Dropbox, there are multiple discussions about it.
Dropbox Client for Linux on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS- icon not clickable. | The Dropbox Community
Ubuntu 23.10 - No menu | The Dropbox Community
I see no menu after clicking on the Dropbox tray icon on Fedora 43. | The Dropbox Community
https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator/issues/529
https://youtu.be/6a4cvtZsRWo
This issue has also been generally solved by reloading the shell/appindicator extension, so with either locking and unlocking session or with
/usr/bin/gnome-extensions disable ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com
/usr/bin/gnome-extensions enable ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.comNow this works so well that this is actually how the issue was solved on Ubuntu (LTS/interim), YES dropbox on Ubuntu (the repository differs from Debian) is actually reloading the appindicator extension automatically, this is what happens if you remove the extension and start dropbox.
Although I think it's pretty obvious that it's an inelegant workaround rather than a solution, it is an effective one, but I don't understand why it is only applied to Ubuntu, despite being extremely easy to manage. In fact, there are only two extensions on Gnome
- appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com
- ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com
Also Debian actually uses the same identical extension
https://packages.debian.org/trixie/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
2 Replies
Hi Jay, thank you for your reply.
The method itself will work on any distribution with Gnome, also bear in mind that
appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com and ubuntu-appindicators@ubuntu.com are the same extension under different names.
The reason it doesn't work on other distros is that it was not implemented in their repository, but only in the Ubuntu one, which differs from Debian https://linux.dropbox.com/The executable that is disabling and enabling the extension is ~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-version/dropbox.
