Lost Dropbox shortcut in Locations

Hey Tacitus24, thanks for reaching out to the Dropbox Community.

I believe this should have more to do with your OS, rather than Dropbox.

If you take a look this or this article, can you find any helpful info?

Let me know how it goes.

I think it's a combination of both the OS and DropBox.   

Thanks for the links but I couldn't find anything that would help.

I downloaded the installer for 162.4.2.5419 arm64 and tried doing a reinstall.  Since the installer would (should!!) see this as a new install then it should create a shortcut to:  ~/Library/CloudStorage/DropBox and place that in the Finder sidebar locations section.

Unfortunately it didn't....  

The only alternative is to use an uninstall app so that all vestiges of Dropbox are removed and then try a completely clean install.  I have a fresh backup of the Dropbox folder so that shouldn't present any problems.  Please can you let me have a  link to an uninstall app for Mac.

MacOS Monterey 12.6.1    Dropbox:  162.4.2.5419 arm64

It appears impossible to remove the Dropbox folder from ~/Library/CloudStorage  maybe because this folder location has greater security.  Drag to the bin doesn't work and there doesn't appear to be any menu command that would override that possibly using Sudo.  I'm not very good with Unix CLI do I won't go down that track.....

The fact the Dropbox folder remains there is possibly fooling the installer into thinking that a shortcut has already been created and so it skips that step in its install routine.  As a result after the reinstall, there is still no shortcut in the Locations sidebar.  

One for the Devs to sort out, but I doubt I'll be the last person to delete the shortcut from the locations panel in Finder sidebar, either accidentally or on purpose.

Anyone else offer any help with this?  Basically I've botched the shortcut in the Locations area of the Finder sidebar, it's now vanished and I can't recreate it.  The only way I can see to do this, is via a complete delete of Dropbox - IE delete *all* relevant files - followed by a clean install.  That way I should ultimately find the DropBox shortcut in the Locations area of the Finder sidebar.  

Moving the Dropbox app to the Bin and then reinstalling it doesn't recreate the shortcut in Locations.

 MacBook Air M1;    MacOS Monterey 12.6.1      Dropbox 162.4.5419.arm64 

Hi Hannah:

I have the same issue (Mac Mini M1, macos 12.6, dropbox app v163.4.5456). I recently followed the update procedure prompted by the dropbox app and it went through fine. I'm not sure whether Dropbox ever showed up under locations, but it doesn't now and I can't seem to get t to show up there (just like the other cloud storages listed in .../Library/CloudStorage/)

Hi Christoph H 2:   I didn't think I would be the only one to experience this problem and I doubt we'll be the last.  

The Dropbox team seem content to see it as a MacOS problem and wash their hands of it.  It should be perfectly possible to reinstall the Dropbox app and have it recreate the link in the proper place.  I doubt this would mean significant mods to the installer package to allow it to do this.  When all is said and done it's the changes to the installer and positioning of the Dropbox folder that is allowing this to happen.

Alternatively a short 'make link' routine to do the same job would be OK.  Either way remediation should be possible without a lot of bother.  

Backup your DropBox contents to a safe place.  Then try booting into 'safe' mode.  Once in Safe mode  remove all references to Dropbox including the app, any prefs etc.  I think that somehwere on this forum there is a complete list of all the components DropBox installs.  

Note that you can delete ~/Library/CloudStorage since when you log out or reboot, the OS will create a fresh empty copy.  Only do this if you have backed up any sub-folders contained in ~/Library/CloudStorage.   If you do delete it other cloud storage folders contained in there will also be deleted and you will probably have to reinstall those cloud apps to recreate the folders.  I only had the Dropbox folder in there so it wasn't a problem as I was deleting it anyway.

Now logout and log back in to user mode.  Download the latest installer from the Dropbox website and reinstall Dropbox.  Depending on the installer you should find either; the Dropbox folder is in the 'traditional' location and you have a message to update the DB app, OR the Dropbox folder is in ~/Library/CloudStorage  You may have to log back in to Dropbox but the Dropbox folder will probably re-populate itself.  If it doesn't you should have your back up which you can use to do it manually.  

As always use at your own risk since I don't accept any responsibility for lost data, although if you've backed up your current DB folder that shouldn't happen.  However the above worked for me and I had a new link in the 'locations' sidebar....

For the record this was on MacOS Monterey 12.6.2  No idea whether the same process will work with MacOS Ventura.

Using Ventura 13.1 on a Mac Studio (M1). The latest update to Dropbox (v164.4.7914) moved the folder and icon to 'Locations' in the Finder window sidebar. However, every restart, it's missing. I've manually set up a new shortcut there, but it disappears without fail on every system restart. Syncing, etc., works, but it becomes problematic to keep trying to locate the folder on the Mac. Seems to be an Apple silicon issue as my Intel MacBook Pro doesn't have the same issue based upon the same OS and Dropbox version, although it doesn't show the Dropbox icon?

Hey there, Yellowfields, I hope you're doing well! 

It might sound trivial, but have you tried uninstalling, and then re-installing the app? 

If you could also send me a couple of screenshots, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch!