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I get an error message that Windows System Restore failed?
Hi
When I run Windows System Restore it fails with this error message
System Restore failed to replace the file (D:\Users\*******\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgbzfynfuwbof\placeholder.bat) wit...
Hi everyone,
We're testing out some changes in v182 (currently in beta) that should hopefully help with this. Let us know if you continue to run into problems.
Thanks
BenDBX
Community Manager
Community ManagerHi greg0422 Mrtatemyballs and RicPennell,
Thanks for your quick reply, and for confirming that this is the case. The team investigating this issue requested that we confirm that system restore was failing entirely, and this info will help us move forward with a resolution.
Richard P.44 You're right. I have removed this as an accepted answer.
I will update this thread when I have more information!
Regards,
Ben
Hi Ben,
I have just run some tests, and this issue might not affect Windows 11. At any rate, I wasn't able to repro the issue on Windows 11.
I'm in the process of testing on Windows 10. I need to install all the updates first to see if Microsoft has fixed it in an update.
I initially had the issue on a Windows 10 computer.
Ah great, just found out that apparently I ran into a major bug that apparently was dormant in dropbox since years. Just wanted to recover with a system restore point from a bricked windows 10 (probably due to an update or so) just to realize, that the restore point is blocked by drobox...
I hope you'll also find a recovery method for computers that are bricked!- At least it looks like Dropbox gives a crap now — hope they come through.
Maybe windows 11 bailed them out though.
Will be interested to see what happens haendy-freak I hate to say this, but I was unable to find a way to edit the restore point and remove the incompatible file.
That means that you can't use the restore point. If you don't have an earlier restore point before Dropbox was installed, and you can't boot the computer, I'm afraid your computer will require a clean install of the OS. This is what happened to me and I worked with devs at Microsoft (where I also work).
I ran some further tests and the problem isn't showing on the latest build of Windows 10 either - which is 22H2.
Can someone who is having the problem please respond and mention the version of Windows you are running?
To see the version, just run "Winver" or type winver at a command prompt. You can also type just "ver" at a command prompt.
If you can't get a command prompt because your computer is bricked, reply and say whether or not you've been installing all the Windows updates. If you haven't done this, then that's likely why you still have the problem. Windows seems to have fixed it in Windows 11 and then back-ported it to the most current version of Windows 10. But you need to be running the current version to get the fix...
- Hi Greg
I'll come back with my Win version, but I did find that restore would work immediately after saving a restore point, but wouldn't after using the computer for a couple of days
I haven't tested it by using system restore for a long time though as relying on system images if I get into trouble. I'll try testing again
Richard Hi
Running Winver 22H2 OS Build 19045.2965
Windows restore did seem to work ok apart from an eset file restore error
Went back ok to a restore point made a few days ago and test programme that I had installed wasnt there after restore
So maybe ok but I will continue to make system images out of safety
Richard
radical_exponentDropbox Engineer
Hi everyone,
We're testing out some changes in v182 (currently in beta) that should hopefully help with this. Let us know if you continue to run into problems.
Thanks
We look forward to hearing more details about how this fix may resolve the problem.
I received an email stating that; "A reply to a topic you are following has been accepted as a solution!" However, I did not see any comments from anyone validating that System Restores work properly now. Has anyone actually tested this?
If you look just above at the last few messages, system restore works on updated builds of Windows. It tested it and didn't have any issues and another person confirmed it.
- radical_exponent
To clarify, we weren't able to reproduce this internally, so it's a little uncertain what's going wrong - and that also means we weren't able to fully verify the fix. In my testing, system restores all worked fine (both before and after the fix).
To answer your earlier question, we went thru the posts in this thread, collected a list of the likely offending files, and made sure we proactively clean those up from the .dropbox.cache folder - such that they can't possibly interfere with the system restore (they don't exist!). Supposing our theory on what's causing this is correct, that should fix it, at least when restoring to a point _after_ the updated Dropbox client has run this cleanup proceedure.
If anyone is still able to reproduce this, that would be helpful to know.
To clarify: The fix was something that either Microsoft or Dropbox could have implemented. It was more on Microsoft though because System Restore shouldn't crash because of one App. I filed a bug on this using Microsoft's Feedback Hub and they appear to have fixed it.
I had this happen on Windows 10 version 22H2, with the one exception that the offending file was placeholder.ico rather than placeholder.bat.
I still have this issue in Windows 11 on 4/2/2024. I needed to do a system restore, and none of them worked because of this and similar Dropbox messages.
What is the status of this fix? How do you work around it?
Thanks.
There's one simple fix that I found after a few days of being stuck with the issue. All you have to do is reinstall Windows and get started from scratch. At least your files will be saved in a backup folder.
