Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

folder's avatar
folder
Explorer | Level 4
8 months ago
Solved

"Installation failed. The Dropbox installation failed to start" error on Windows 11

Dropbox has worked fine for many years on my Lenovo Thinkpad X1, then suddenly stopped working. The link on the start menu became inactive. Starting Dropbox from dropbox.exe directly said the install...
desktop
Error Messages
windows
  • MasterHD's avatar
    MasterHD
    5 months ago

    I had the same error:

    Installation failed. The Dropbox installation failed to start.

    I also could not run Dropbox nor uninstall it!
    I asked ChatGPT to troubleshoot with me. After spending an hour cleaning registries, folders, repairing, safe-mode, etc. I then tried running the standalone installer from the command prompt with a flag to try and view log output. I started my command prompt and navigated to the location of my installer exe, then ran:

    "Dropbox 228.4.5567 Offline Installer.x64.exe" /log DropboxInstallLog.txt

    This failed even sooner but at least produced an error code 0x80040c01.

    ChatGPT realized this may be an issue with Google Update components. It suggested doing a silent install with the /S flag:

    "Dropbox 228.4.5567 Offline Installer.x64.exe" /S

    And this worked immediately!

folder's avatar
folder
Explorer | Level 4
8 months ago

I do not think so. It is Windows 11 Pro 24H2.

Megan's avatar
Megan
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
8 months ago

Hey folder, let me also jump in here! 

Do you get the error on the screenshot, right when you're about to run the .exe file? 

In any case, can I send you an email, in order for us to have a closer look into this?

  • folder's avatar
    folder
    Explorer | Level 4
    8 months ago

    Windows asks if I want the program to make changes to the computer. Answer yes and the message dropbox installer failed to start appears.

  • folder's avatar
    folder
    Explorer | Level 4
    8 months ago

    Windows asks if I want the program to make changes to the computer. Answer yes and the message dropbox installer failed to start appears. You may send an email.

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    8 months ago

    Hi folder, in this case can I send you an email, in order for us to have a closer look into this?

  • folder's avatar
    folder
    Explorer | Level 4
    8 months ago

    I have now got the installer to run, after using a program to remove every reference to Dropbox. However now I have a problem linking to my existing Dropbox folder. When I go to Advanced Features the dropdown menu for file location says it will create a new Dropbox folder:

    You can see that the existing Dropbox folder is listed but I do not want another one created within it.

    How to proceed to link to the existing Dropbox folder to sync it with the online Dropbox data?

  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    8 months ago

    Hi folder, are you able to select the parent folder in which the Dropbox folder exists?

    For instance, if the folder is C:\Files\Dropbox, choose C:\Files for the Dropbox folder.

About Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!