The Dropbox desktop application will no longer be supported for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 on October 22nd

Hey lycra, can you check Ben's reply here, to see if it helps even though it's not specific to Windows Server 2019?

Hi and for the hint regarding early releases.

I changed the toggle to stable and installed the LTS version. Is is currently indexing 360.000 files. Lets see if is working afterwards. I will keep you informed.

Hi. I am on Win 10 & not using Dropbox in compatibility mode. Infact, I uninstalled Dropbox as per ur support page, deleted all folders, reg edit entries and reinstalled using the latest installer 1.3.911.1, ins

talled Dropbox files in a different folder but still I am getting the same Support error.

I am using Windows 10 Enterprise for Virtual Desktops OS Build 19045.5131   

Please check and fix the issue as I am unable to use Dropbox due to this.

I wanted to attach the logfile but the attachment button is also not working here. I tried 2 different browsers. So have to make a fresh post.

I then tried the offline Dropbox installer which also failed to work on my Win 10. The error log is copied below as attachment button here is not working.

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 210.5.4894
bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 76
bn.is_frozen: True
machine_id: 992fa5ef-c5cd-44aa-bc73-45bcc1f54162
pid: 4748
cwd: 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Update\\1.3.911.1'
     real_path='C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Update\\1.3.911.1'
               mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
     parent    mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
HOME: None
appdata: 'C:\\Users\\Home\\AppData\\Local\\Dropbox\\instance1'
         real_path='C:\\Users\\Home\\AppData\\Local\\Dropbox\\instance1'
                   mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
         parent    mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
dropbox_path: 'E:\\Dropbox'
              real_path='E:\\Dropbox'
                        mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
              parent    mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
sys_executable: 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\Dropbox.exe'
                real_path='C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\Dropbox.exe'
                          mode=0o100777    uid=0    gid=0
                parent    mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
trace.__file__: 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\210.5.4894\\python-packages.zip\\dropbox\\client\\ui\\common\\boot_error.pyc'
                real_path='C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Dropbox\\Client\\210.5.4894\\python-packages.zip\\dropbox\\client\\ui\\common\\boot_error.pyc'
                          not found
                parent    not found
TMP: E:\Temp;
TEMP: E:\Temp;
tempdir: 'E:\\Temp;'
         real_path='E:\\Temp;'
                   mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
         parent    mode=0o40777    uid=0    gid=0
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "desktop/dropbox/fs_api/lifecycle.py", line 235, in client
  File "desktop/dropbox/fs_api/lifecycle.py", line 283, in _create_thin_client
  File "desktop/dropbox/fs_api/fs_api_adapter.py", line 50, in __init__
  File "desktop\extensions\fs_api\fs_api_python.pyx", line 63, in fs_api_python.FsApiServer.__cinit__
fs_api_python.FsApiError: "Initializing fs api |>> Initializing application filesystem |>> Attempting to initialize dbx cache directory |>> NtCreateFile syscall: open_unchecked |>> ACCESS_DENIED |>> Permission denied"

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 950, in wrapper
  File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 7136, in finish_dropbox_boot
  File "desktop/dropbox/client/message_queue.py", line 306, in _wrapped
  File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 6583, in _init_components_for_account
  File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 6504, in create_sync_engine
  File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine_boundary/factory.py", line 212, in make_sync_engine
  File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/sync_engine.py", line 243, in __init__
  File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_client.py", line 294, in __init__
  File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/base.py", line 242, in __init__
  File "../win32_x86_64_dropbox_virtual_env/python38/Lib/functools.py", line 967, in __get__
  File "desktop/dropbox/fs_api/lifecycle.py", line 259, in client
dropbox.fs_api.lifecycle.FsApiClientCreationException: "Initializing fs api |>> Initializing application filesystem |>> Attempting to initialize dbx cache directory |>> NtCreateFile syscall: open_unchecked |>> ACCESS_DENIED |>> Permission denied"

Hey Clive48 - thanks for all the additional information there.

Could you try an advanced reinstall and let us know if you get the same results? 

Hi

I had already tried Advance Reinstall option wout any luck. Infact, post Adv Reinstall, I was getting a different error popup with the link to logs to share with Dropbox support. Logs are as above. Now Dropbox doesn't start only as per screen shot below. There is some bug in your app which you need to fix. Till then disable the Windows 7 etc support popup.

HelloClive48 

Based on the log that you provided, it appears that you are trying to setup your Dropbox folder on your E: drive. Dropbox is failing to start because it cannot create the E:\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache folder due to insufficient permissions.

What kind of drive is the E: drive? Is it internal or external? Does it use NTFS as file system? I am trying to figure out what is different about it that would lead to the failure of creating the “Dropbox” and “Temp” folders on it.

When you try to install Dropbox with default settings (so standard location for the Dropbox folder) does it still give you this kind of failure when starting up Dropbox?

Thanks,
Andrew (DBoxTips)

Well the day has finally come when the tray icon got a great big red alert thing on it saying it was no longer going to work in my Windows 7 OS because… enshïtification of everything these days. Everyone knows there's no technical reason why it had to stop working. Indeed, if the owners of Dropbox actually wanted it to keep working, it would, without any modification work required at all. The truth is that they've actually had to engineer the code to make it stop working and they've done that to hold to ransom all the users who trusted them to keep a useful utility working. Now they want the money and so the enshïtifcation has begun.

The 'workaround' everyone is asking for is to ditch Dropbox entirely and start a free account with Sync instead. Sync is everything Dropbox used to be before they went all corporate and spamming their users to get them to upgrade and then now finally killing them off entirely with enforced obsolescence of the software. Sync is free, it works on Windows 7, they don't spam their users and it has iOS apps that work just as seemlessly as the Dropbox one used to. Best of all, Sync offers even more free storage space than Dropbox ever did too, so there really is no excuse not to ditch Dropbox entirely. Oh and Sync doesn't try to force itself into scanning all newly connected USD drives you plug into your computer either, so that's a nice little bonus too.

Deleting Dropbox has been a delight. I just swapped everything I had stored in Dropbox straight over to Sync and it's up and running again completely seemlessly. Bye bye Dropbox!

I haven't received that notification, and I just made a change to a file on my Windows 7 machine and checked that my Windows 11 laptop picked it up, which it did.

Sync is not free for the amount of storage space I need, but I'm happy to pay $8 a month or whatever to know my storage is safe.

When the time comes I need to move I will certainly consider it. 

I recently had an issue of Firefox not giving me any sound now on Windows 7. For what is supposed to be a "frozen" version, they insist on keep changing these things, including Spotify teling me my operating system is out of date. These companies trying to control what I do on my home computer And the reason I like Windows 7 is it never crashes and I don't get restarts when I didn't ask for them.

I'm with you. I will be dropping drop box

exactly right