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eater's avatar
eater
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago
Solved

Suddenly, Ubuntu Dropbox wants authentication and won't start

I've been running Dropbox on my Ubuntu 18.04 desktop just fine for months. Today, I noticed the application had stopped, so I tried to start it again and it said "Authentication is needed to run '/bi...
desktop
Linux
Setting up the apps
  • eater's avatar
    eater
    7 years ago

    Hi Emanuele P.1. I went back and forth with the Dropbox engineering team for two months with no solution. Then I finally just randomly on my own tried removing the 10 or so symlinks that happened to be in my Dropbox directories, and that made it all start working normally again.

    I see Lusil gave you that suggestion, so maybe my experience has now made it into the Dropbox manual.

    Hope that helps!

Lusil's avatar
Lusil
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
7 years ago
Sorry to hear that, Emanuele P.1. 
 
As a first step, could you please check if there are any third-party apps that might be blocking/hindering the syncing process, like an antivirus? Try temporarily disabling your antivirus or security program or configure your firewall to work with Dropbox; it just might do the trick. 
 
Also, could you by any chance be you connected through a work network? If you are, check with your company’s IT department, since there may be an update on your firewall settings (or another additional security precaution placed) which could be affecting your connection. 
 
Furthermore, do have a look through this article for more suggestions. Although the errors outlined may not apply to you, you may come across something that might help resolve your concern. 
 
If these don’t come up with any results, please check for any symlinks that may be the cause of this. You can check out this article (step 7) for more relevant details. 
 
If this comes to a dead-end too, please don’t hesitate to get back to me with more info, as well as a screenshot (omitting personal details) of the error message that you’re seeing or illustrating the behavior that you’re experiencing. 
 
Thanks in advance! :grinning:
Emanuele P.1's avatar
Emanuele P.1
Explorer | Level 4
7 years ago

I got the same issue after a fresh installation of Ubuntu 18.10, no additional apps installed.

I observe the same both from my home network and from my office network.

It could be related to some specific files (symbolic links for example) in my dropbox folder as suggested in point 7 of the guide you sent me. Indeed, in all the cases it broke when I was trying to do a quick backup to transfer data from an old computer to a new one, and I simply moved several folders in a Backup folder in Dropbox. There could be any kind of files.

However, since it does not sync, I cannot look for those files as suggested in the guide either.

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