New version of Dropbox completely broken, need to revert to previous version.

Well, it's tough to say for certain, because the following "Can't update Dropbox right now" error message was waiting for me this morning:

I don't know if that means the app was trying to update itself and couldn't or something had gone wrong with the update/sync of the files in their new location. The app is still at 177.3.5390, and from frralt's comment it's clear they've released later versions.

However, 1) the Dropbox menu is still present, 2) it claims "Your files are up to date", 3) it says there are no sync issues, and 4) I still have the right amount of free space on my hard drive.  I also checked recent activity and see that files I updated on a different Mac late last night have been updated on this Mac.  So I cautiously think the problem is resolved.  I'm going to turn on automatic app updating again and see if I can coax it to update to 178.2.763 or higher, and hope this really is fixed.

So in quick summary, what I think fixed the problem was:

* Quit Dropbox

* Trash ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

* Move ~/Dropbox into ~/Library/CloudStorage/

* Re-launch Dropbox

* Select and enable the Sync option to turn on "the updated Dropbox for macOS on File Provider"

* Wait for the sync to complete

And to make one's Dropbox easily accessible from the Finder and in Open/Save dialogs, create a symbolic link from the new CloudStorage location to its original location, such as:

ln -s ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox ~/Dropbox

That seemed to restore reasonably normal functionality.

Note:  It's possible most of my problems were caused by a bad intermediate release of Dropbox (177.3.5390), given frralt's comment, but that symbolic link would be a lifesaver for me even if the folder move and sync had taken place smoothly.

larryy: I'm not entirely sure, but I believe version 178.x is the current beta version. You might have luck updating to that version if you enable "Early Releases" from Account -> Settings -> General in the Dropbox web interface. The usual caveats about beta software apply, however.

Despite the version differences, I posted on this topic, because the common symptoms and timing seemed to me unlikely to be a coincidence (see also the timing described in jffgrffn 's post). My speculation -- and it is speculation -- is that both the release and beta branches had a common security bug (or something) that was patched at roughly the same time, so both were similarly affected. However, it is entirely possible that we experienced entirely different issues that merely had similar symptoms.

In any case, it's great that we all seem to have a functional Dropbox again!

---

frralt wrote:

larryy: I'm not entirely sure, but I believe version 178.x is the current beta version. You might have luck updating to that version if you enable "Early Releases" from Account -> Settings -> General in the Dropbox web interface. The usual caveats about beta software apply, however.

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Ah, that makes sense.   Thanks.  Not sure I want to enable beta, for the usual reasons.  But might give it a try, because it turns out things are still broken.  Dropbox is importing new files to my laptop (generated on a different Mac), but is NOT exporting new files from my laptop to my other Macs (or iDevices).

I checked my Dropbox folder location, and Dropbox still thinks it's in ~.  It won't let me change it to ~/Library/CloudStorage because there's already a Dropbox folder there (which, of course, is true; it was the only way I could prevent it from generating a duplicate Dropbox and eating up all my disk space, and was part of what I thought was the solution, sigh).  I'm out of ideas at this point.

Well, if some expert user or Dropbox staff could tell where that preference option is stored, it's conceivable I could hand edit a .plist or the like and relaunch Dropbox afterward, and it would know to just use that folder in CloudStorage.  I *think* that would fix everything.

My wild speculation is that Dropbox is being triggered into action by a modification date-time change on the Dropbox folder, but the ~/Dropbox location it is currently looking at is my symlink, whose date never changes.  So new files are never noticed.  If I could just tell Dropbox to pay attention to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox is might all just work.

Nothing is ever easy.

Darn, I really thought I'd found it.  I quit Dropbox then edited:

~/Library/Preferences/com.getdropbox.dropbox.plist

Changed this:

	<key>EFSyncRootMountPaths</key>
	<array>
		<string>/Users/<username>/Dropbox</string>
	</array>

to this:

	<key>EFSyncRootMountPaths</key>
	<array>
		<string>/Users/<username>/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox</string>
	</array>

Where, of course, my actual username was present instead of "<username>".

Relaunched Dropbox.  It quickly synced and uploaded my new file from my laptop.  Yay!  But...

Checking the preferences it still showed my Dropbox folder location as my home directory, and a new new file I created was not synced.  So there's another preference somewhere I haven't found.  Sigh.  Help, please, someone from Dropbox?

Well, I surrender, but happily...

I never could find a way to hand modify Dropbox's path to the Dropbox folder.  I remembered that some preferences are stored in a binary format rather than a plain text .plist format, so maybe that's why I couldn't find it.

I could find no way to tell Dropbox to store its files in ~/Library/CloudStorage using its own preferences.  This produces an error saying it can't create a folder in the requested location.  (Even though this obviously can happen when the new "File Provider" option is chosen.)

*But*, having gone through the "advanced reinstall", downgrading to a lower version of Dropbox, then automagically updating to 177.3.5390 (this mess started on 177.3.5380), it turns out I was able to:

* Quit Dropbox.

* Move my complete Dropbox folder out of CloudStorage, back to my home directory.

* Restart Dropbox.

Et voila.  Everything is back to its original functionality, exactly as I'd like it to be.  This whole nightmare seems to have been caused by an intermediate release of Dropbox that triggered the transition to "File Provider" / CloudStorage mode without my interaction or permission.

Things now appear to be stable and working correctly.  I've confirmed that files are syncing to and from my nice new 15" Air, with Dropbox in my home folder.  I've lost the nice, convenient contextual menus providing the various Dropbox services, which is a royal pain, but survivable.  I'm not on the new "File Provider" path, but that's good for now.

I don't feel like I can mark anything as a solution.  I don't know if my speculations here, about the problem being in the release cycle of the Dropbox app, are correct, and I wouldn't have had to move my Dropbox folder back from CloudStorage to my home directory if Dropbox hadn't forced it to be relocated to CloudStorage in the first place.  So this is where I'll leave things, for now at least.

I have the latest Mac OS and a relatively new macbook air. I changed the name of my user folder from a former clients name back to my name and now I can't launch dropbox. it's looking for the old user file name. I worked with their support live chat for hours with no luck. This is crazy that I can't even launch the app on my desktop. any suggestions? supposedly I will hear back via email from support.

Hi Helenfpm, sorry to hear about that! 

Can you send us the ticket number reference of your communication with our Support, and the start-up error you get on your end, when trying to launch the app?

Keep me posted, and we'll take it from there!

Helenfpm You should probably have started a new thread, since your problem doesn’t look related to the one I posted about, but fortunately someone from Dropbox noticed your query and is stepping up to help you.

I wanted to go ahead and make sure, though…. You did “change the name of [your] user folder” using System Settings’ “Users & Groups” settings, I hope?  If you just changed the name of your home folder in the Finder (if it will even let you), the next attempt to reboot is going to be painful.  Instructions for changing your username and home folder name are given here:  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548

If you did somehow just change the name of the home folder, before you reboot or log out you should probably change the name back to what it was and follow the above instructions to change it correctly.

Hi - I think I also started a new thread but I am not sure. I am so frustrated and I can't keep it all straight. I worked directly one on one with Apple to change the user folder name - I did NOT just change the name myself. Now you said it looks like someone stepped up to help but I don't see it?

Hi Megan,

The ticket number is #22429141.

When I open the dropbox app on my macbook air (after dropbox support via chat guided me on uninstalling the dropbox app and reinstalling it) I get a message that says: "Dropbox needs to change permissions for the Folder:/Users/theranica/.dropbox with a request to enter my computer password - the screen shot is in the ticket notes. "Theranica" is my FORMER username folder and has since been changed to my name. Dropbox can't find the permissions for that folder because it no longer exists. HELP!!