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prc87's avatar
prc87
Helpful | Level 6
5 years ago
Solved

Help! "Couldn't start Dropbox" error (Mac & Big Sur)

Dropbox won't start on my MacBook Air (13" 2018), with Big Sur 11.3.1. Have uninstalled dropbox and reinstalled. Same error Uninstalled again, advanced re-install. Same error AFAIK, vanilla ins...
desktop
Error Messages
Mac
Setting up the apps
  • prc87's avatar
    prc87
    5 years ago

    Ran these changes, but no different.

     

    Tried once more, after double-checking firewall off.

     

    uninstall DB

    reboot

    delete DB folders from local storage, and empty bin

    reboot

    search and delete every 'dropbox' named file in ~/library

    reboot

    advanced reinstall

    reboot

    logoff DB on webclient

    reboot

    start DB

    login

    accept all vanilla (recommended) options

    and it started and seems to be sync-ing correctly.

     

    Not sure what changed this time around, but DB seems to be working again. 

     

    Thanks for your help.

Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
5 years ago
Hey tim_kelley, thanks for the nudge and sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Could you try disabling any antivirus you may have running and try an advanced re-install?
tim_kelley's avatar
tim_kelley
Explorer | Level 4
5 years ago

I gave up and reinstalled my Dropbox files from the cloud. So that was

 

mv Dropbox XDropbox

 

and then reinstall Dropbox and let it move all my files bact to $home/Dropbox.

 

This was several GB of stuff and it took over a day. It seems to be cleaning up now and the files are back where they were supposed to be.

 

 

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