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The sync icons don't show up in Finder (macOS Sequoia 15.7.1).
Dropbox Desktop
Mac Studio Ultra M1
Sequoia 15.7.1
237.4.5655
Several of us in my company are having this problem. In finder, the sync icon (showing whether something is online or offline) no longer shows up. Huge problem for those of us sharing a zillion gigabyte dropbox and constantly syncing and unsyncing.
There have been lots of reports on dropbox support page and no apparent solutions.
'Advanced Reinstall' has been suggested, but those who have tried that it did not fix it, and that would be a full day operation to re-sync my 2gb of locally synced files for something unlikely to fix it.
Unlike with some others with this issue, my icons neither show up in finder OR within the dialog box of an app (like when opening a file from within an app
Hi steveohm33, thanks for reporting this issue.
On macOS Sequoia, Finder can sometimes stop showing Dropbox sync icons even when Dropbox is running normally. We're exploring a permanent fix for the issue. In the meantimem restarting Finder should help bring the icons back.
Please try the steps below:
Option 1. Restart Finder through the menu
- Open the Apple menu and choose Force Quit
- Select Finder
- Click Relaunch
- Wait a few seconds for Finder to restart
- Open your Dropbox folder again and check if the sync icons appear
Option 2. Restart Finder using Terminal
- Open the Terminal app
- Run this command: killall Finder
- Finder will close and restart automatically
- Check your Dropbox folder again
If the icons still do not show, try restarting your computer and then reopening Dropbox.
Give these steps a try and let me know how it goes!
26 Replies
Thank you!! Relaunching Finder worked for me just now (Sequoia 15.6) even though it had not worked a few weeks ago. My db icons are finally all back.
If anyone reading tried in the past, maybe try again. HTH!
Okay, thanks!
It seems this issue is more widespread than I thought. What's extra confusing is that two of my computers running different macOS versions on different architectures (x86 vs ARM) have the same issue at the same time. My guess would be that Dropbox app is causing the issue, given that it's the only common variable.
Hello,
one of my customers still has the same issue even on 4 MacOS devices after 2 months. They contacted Dropbox support which only tried do uninstall and reinstall the Dropbox application. I've already tried everything but it didn't changed everything. Don't know if upgrading MacOS to 26.x could fix the issue.
I have Backblaze and Adobe Creative Cloud which has a bit of cloud functionality.
I tried quitting both and relaunching Finder, but it didn't help.- Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Do you have any other cloud providers running on your machine?
Could you try temporarily quitting them to see if this helps to bring up the Dropbox icons?
Hi, I reinstalled the Dropbox desktop app without uninstalling it first from the link. The sync status icons did not appear.
I also relaunched finder, but that didn't help either.
Hi,
I know, Hannah asked me to hover over the Dropbox icon in menu bar, which is why I posted the screenshot.
No sync icons are visible in Dropbox folder in Finder, as I stated in original report. I also reported steps I tried to troubleshoot.
I've been using Dropbox for 13 years on multiple platforms, so I noticed when the sync status icons in Finder disappeared.
- Jay
Hi MattEU, you're viewing the Dropbox desktop app, and not the Dropbox folder in Finder, which is where you'll see the sync icons.
Could you locate your Dropbox folder and see if the icons are visible?
