The Dropbox desktop app is stuck on starting on Mac OS

Unbelievable... I'm glad I waited and didn’t update. It’s devastating to know that the Dropbox developers are aware of the issue and there’s no solution yet. Absolutely crazy. Sequoia has been in beta for months and months. Are they kidding?

Thanks for the ticket number, jgoshawk.

I passed everything along and once the team has an update for you, they'll let you know.

Hi jgoshawk,

A quick follow up on this. We understand that this issue can be frustrating.

If you happen to have the time, can you please try the following steps :

• Look for the search bar.

• Then type terminal.

• When the terminal window opens:

• Type the following command:

• sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --add /Applications/Dropbox.app

It will ask you for the password of the Mac. Next, after this is introduced, can you please see if the issue persists in the Dropbox app ?

Can you please test this and get back to us?

Hi Pedro,

I followed your instructions. Even downloaded a fresh copy of the app. It still fails.

JS

Hi jgoshawk,

Thanks for the prompt reply. 

I am sorry to hear this is the case.

We will have to wait for the team to look into this. 

We greatly appreciate your understanding and patience over this period.

I have exactly the same situation/symptoms. It has been going on for a couple of months now. I could not even log into Dropbox through a browser until I figured out that I needed to deactivate my VPN and turn off all anti-virus features in my browser, which is frustrating because to use a secure file sharing service I had to lessen my overall security. So now I can log into Dropbox via a browser but even with the VPN deactivated and all anti-virus turned off, I still can't get the Desktop app to work.

Well, it's comforting to know others have the same problems. BTW, it's been happening with me for many months. I ignored DB entirely for quite a while, but now I need it again. Hoped a new computer would solve the issue, but no. It's not the machine, or the OS, or the network. Putting my hopes on the genius of DB engineers. Yup.

Hi sherlockaudio,

Thanks for sharing your feedback. 

We understand how frustrating this issue is.  Just to let you know the team is aware of this problem and actively is working on it. 

We'll keep you all updated as we have more information to share. 

We appreciate your patience in the meantime. 

Chiming in to say I'm having the same issue.

I was able to install Dropbox v 208.4.5824 about 3 weeks ago on my brand new Mac Studio, running Sonoma 14.6.1.

After a reboot, I noticed the Dropbox icon was not in the menu bar.  Looking in Activity Monitor, Dropbox was not running (although the "Dropbox Finder Extension" is).  I tried manually launching Dropbox, and it doesn't appear to do anything.  No Dropbox process appears in Act.Mon. or in the Force Quit dialog.

I tried reinstalling via Homebrew and it wanted to upgrade to 209.4.3661.  That seemed to work, but launching Dropbox still exhibited the issue.  I tried killing the Finder extension and relaunching Dropbox.  That brought the Finder extension back up, but no main sync process.  When I try using the context menu for the Finder, no options are present.

I tried rebooting, no luck.  I tried doing a manual install from the website, also no.  I even tried getting the manual offline installer, which gave me a DMG for Dropbox 210.3.4786.  That, too, does not launch.

Please let me know if there are any diagnostics I can provide or any steps I can take.  Thanks!

Sorry to say, Dropbox can't fix it. Support says the solution is to install the beta version of OS 15.1. Maybe they're right, maybe not, but I won't play this game. Beta versions are notoriously unstable; they're called beta for a reason.

I run a complex suite of high-demand software and I can't afford the risk that a beta version of OS will mess with my workflow. So for the time being, I'll use work-arounds with my DB folders and forget about the app. Disappointed, yes.