Re: Dropbox says my environment doesn't support tray icon, by it does

Hey Extaff​ 

To clarify what's happening: Dropbox relies on AppIndicator support to display the system tray icon on Linux. This is the modern standard for tray icon integration across most desktop environments. If AppIndicator support is not available or not properly detected, Dropbox will show the “environment doesn’t support tray icon” message — even if the icon seems to appear in some form.

That said, many lightweight or custom window managers like iI3wm or AwesomeWM don't include native AppIndicator support out of the box.

They may display icons via alternative means (likeI3status or stalonetray), but this doesn't guarantee full compatibility, especially with how Dropbox checks for and uses tray features.

If you find the tray warning popup distracting, you can choose to suppress it after clicking the “Learn more” link within the message.

The message popped up for me this morning too, and the Dropbox tray icon no longer shows, even though my environment is compatible:

Distro: Debian 12
Destktop Environment: Gnome 43.9
Windowing System: Windows X11
Window Manager: mutter (the default, when the above options are chosen on install)

$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE x11

$ sudo apt install libappindicator3-1
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'libayatana-appindicator3-1' instead of 'libappindicator3-1'
libayatana-appindicator3-1 is already the newest version (0.5.92-1).
libayatana-appindicator3-1 set to manually installed.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

# dpkg -l | grep libgtk-3
ii  libgtk-3-0:amd64                               3.24.38-2~deb12u3                   amd64        GTK graphical user interface library
ii  libgtk-3-bin                                   3.24.38-2~deb12u3                   amd64        programs for the GTK graphical user interface library
ii  libgtk-3-common                                3.24.38-2~deb12u3                   all          common files for the GTK graphical user interface library
# dpkg -l | grep libgtk-4
ii  libgtk-4-1:amd64                               4.8.3+ds-2+deb12u1                  amd64        GTK graphical user interface library
ii  libgtk-4-bin                                   4.8.3+ds-2+deb12u1                  amd64        programs for the GTK graphical user interface library
ii  libgtk-4-common                                4.8.3+ds-2+deb12u1                  all          common files for the GTK graphical user interface library
# dpkg -l | grep libglib2.0
ii  libglib2.0-0:amd64                             2.74.6-2+deb12u6                    amd64        GLib library of C routines
ii  libglib2.0-0:i386                              2.74.6-2+deb12u6                    i386         GLib library of C routines
ii  libglib2.0-bin                                 2.74.6-2+deb12u6                    amd64        Programs for the GLib library
ii  libglib2.0-data                                2.74.6-2+deb12u6                    all          Common files for GLib library

AppIndicator:

Name: AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support
Description: Adds AppIndicator, KStatusNotifierItem and legacy Tray icons support to the Shell
Path: /home/myuser/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/appindicatorsupport@[removed].gmail.com
URL: https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
Version: 53
State: ENABLED

I've also raised the issue with AppIndicator on github too (issue #583) to help people who also encounter it.

It seems that AppIndicator support is "not properly detected" in my case, as you said. Can you help?

Hi Andsmi​,

I've checked with the team and they said that Dropbox uses DBus to find the app indicator services, so you'll have to make sure that the org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher service is running. You can do that by running the following command in your terminal:

dbus-send --session \ --type=method_call \ --print-reply \ --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus \ /org/freedesktop/DBus \ org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames

You should get a list of service names returned, and you should find org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher in that list.Assuming you see that, you can then query the status of the service using the same DBus message that the Dropbox app uses with the following command:

dbus-send --session \ --type=method_call \ --print-reply \ --dest=org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher \ /StatusNotifierWatcher \ org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \ string:org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher \ string:IsStatusNotifierHostRegistered

If Gnome is properly using the service you should see something like this:

method return time=1748612867.079169 sender=:1.25 -> destination=:1.239 serial=4372 reply_serial=2 variant boolean true

That boolean true is the important part that tells you the service is running and a host is registered.If the appindicator shell extension is properly registering a host and the DBus service is exposed then you should not see that error message.Gnome is currently on version 48, and the appindicator shell extension is currently at version 60, so updating those items may help resolve the issue.

Thanks for the insight into this. Neal Mc.

This is the output from your commands, that show that the service is indeed running.

~$ dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames | grep StatusNotifierWatcher
      string "org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher"
~$ dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher /StatusNotifierWatcher org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get string:org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher string:IsStatusNotifierHostRegistered
method return time=1748671496.836229 sender=:1.43 -> destination=:1.5702 serial=221064 reply_serial=2
   variant       boolean true
~$ 

That said, the Dropbox icon is showing now, so maybe there's a bug in how Dropbox detects it in some instances.

I'll let you know if the message shows again.

Thanks for your help.

NealMc

Sadly, the message has appeared again...

The tray icon still appears and is functional. This is definitely a bug that needs to be fixed.

These are the results of the commands you posted:

`dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames`

Output:
```bash
      string ":1.74"
      string ":1.76"
      string "org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Keyboard"
      string ":1.77"
      string ":1.78"
      string "org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher"
      string "com.rastersoft.ding"
      string ":1.79"
      string "org.freedesktop.secrets"
      string ":1.244"
      string ":1.246"
      string "org.freedesktop.IBus.Panel.Extension.Gtk3"
```
(see attached file for full output)

`dbus-send --session --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher /StatusNotifierWatcher org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get string:org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher string:IsStatusNotifierHostRegistered`

Output:
```bash
method return time=1749709304.710873 sender=:1.43 -> destination=:1.4230 serial=203406 reply_serial=2
   variant       boolean true
```

I hope you can help!

Hi Andsmi​,

Thanks for letting me know! I'm checking with our team internally to see if they can offer any insight into the results you received.

I'll let you know if I have an update!

Hi Andsmi​,

We've taken a look and we think it may be a bug too. We'll file a bug report internally so it can be properly investigated.

Let me know if you need anything else in the meantime.

3 months has passed, and it's still happening. Has any progress been made?

Hey Andsmi!

Since you're still facing the same issue, I went ahead and reach out to you via email.

That'll help me investigate further. Reply back to me, and we'll take it from there. Thanks!