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Kester's avatar
Kester
Collaborator | Level 8
10 years ago
Solved

Windows 7 Event Viewer Error "Failed to connect to the driver: (-2147024894)"

Onthe last few startups of my Windows 7 desktop, the EventViewer has shown the following error  and subsequent information logs as the error is corrected by Windows:

 

Record Number: X 95916
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Error
Source: DbxSvc
Category: 3
Event ID: 320

Failed to connect to the driver: (-2147024894) The system cannot find the file specified.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Number: 95931
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Information
Source: ESENT
Category: 3
Event ID: 300

Windows (2500) Windows: The database engine is initiating recovery steps.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Number: 95932
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Information
Source: ESENT
Category: 3
Event ID: 301

Windows (2500) Windows: The database engine has begun replaying logfile C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\MSS.log.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Number: 95933
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Information
Source: ESENT
Category: 3
Event ID: 302

Windows (2500) Windows: The database engine has successfully completed recovery steps.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Number: i 95915
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Information
Source: DbxSvc
Category: 2
Event ID: 258

Pipe server thread started.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems as if the Dropbox service may be trying to start too soon as, after the initial error, Windows seems to be able to correct the problem and everything works correctly.  This is a very recent happening and I cannot relate the change to any system changes.  Is there anything I can do to stop the error - if I didn't regularly check the Event Viewer I would be none the wiser so perhaps I'm being too sensitive.

 

Thanks.

Error Messages
  • bn's avatar
    bn
    9 years ago

    Hi everyone!

     

    Sorry for the delay here -- I usually hang out on the client builds forum and missed this.

     

    This error is expected and harmless. We are optimistically checking for features currently in development and logging an error when we don't find them enabled. We shouldn't be logging it as an error, however, perhaps as an Informational-level event and I'll make sure we clean this up in a future release.

     

    If you're suspicious that this has been causing instability -- this hasn't really changed since last summer so it's probably not the droids you are looking for (combined with the fact that the error is indicative of things not happening, rather than things happening that are potentially destabilizing).

     

    -Ben

  • Ross_S's avatar
    Ross_S
    9 years ago
    Hi all,
     
    First: Many apologies for the delay in jumping in here, I wanted to make sure I had a concrete update for you all.
     
    So, for context: What is Dbxsvc? :
     
    I've added a section to the help center article: https://help.dropbox.com/desktop-web/smart-sync (I say section, it's more of a note at the bottom under the driver FAQ).
     
    The file dbxsvc.exe is a file that we use to install the Smart Sync driver. Should you not be a business user, or not have Smart Sync, then this file will never start operating. It is, however, created at install for all users so if you are not a Smart Sync this file will still appear there.
     
    I see we have a number of pretty interesting, creative suggestions on how to disable, coupled with queries if it's safe to disable it. I'm of course not going to endorse a process that disables part of our software, should a feature or functionality cause user pain then we would want to know. Fixability and timeframes can vary depending on the in-depth technical nature of the problem.
    Should you decide to disable it with one of the solutions here, it will prevent the smart sync feature from working in some cases. We need the service to update the driver, as well as to establish new driver<->client connections. This is the services current functionality. Additional functionality could be added over time. My main concern around anyone disabling it is that in the future you may need this process, Smart Sync won't work correctly, you can reach out to support but this custom change you've made will be hard for us to diagnose as the root cause of whatever issue you experience.
     
     
    Why is it failing to connect / what's going wrong?:
     
    It should be failing to connect. This is by design, the actual issue you’re facing is due to the frequency we're writing to the logs. To address any concerns around error with the application, these errors are in no way indicative of a software issue and do not point to any issues with backing up you data. Because it fails to connect, Windows treats this as a trigger to write to the log. Your data is safe, this process is just used to install a driver. As covered in the above section we expect it to do what you are seeing.
     
    With that in mind, we understand that some of you do wish to see this behaviour.
     
     
    Why aren't we fixing this?:
     
    We are, we take our user feedback very seriously and we have spent many hours working on this. As fixes have many dependencies, and are just one components of a version release, I'm always reluctant to jump onto a thread and give a firm release date for a fix as these are regularly subject to change.
    You may have noticed that we took the original connection attempt frequency down from every 1 second to every minute. This was an improvement we took onboard based on the feedback you've supplied here and also via other channels. Our new release, 31.3.15, has further improved this, the process will run 3 times daily. This should reduce the errors written to the logs and not clutter the report.
     
    The new beta version is the first to include a fix:
     

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  • Kester's avatar
    Kester
    Collaborator | Level 8
    9 years ago

    Hi bn,

     

    Thanks for your reply:

    issue (1) was obviously the major nuisance;

    issue (2) is less of a headache but has been going on at least as long as this thread when I originally posted last October - since then, a Dropbox update changed the log status in the Event Viewer from 'Error' to 'Information' - so this problem has been going on for nine months (long enough for a pair of humans to produce baby) :slight_smile:.

     

    I will not try the beta version of Dropbox but wait patiently for the next official program update.  As I have said, I can use the program appropriately for my own purposes with DbxSvc disabled so will continue in that manner until the matter is resolved.

     

  • Kester's avatar
    Kester
    Collaborator | Level 8
    9 years ago

    Hi karp21k,

     

    Thanks for your comment.  In my case my Windows 7 system is fully updated (including .Net Framework) and that has not had any effect on this Dropbox issue.

  • vielmetter's avatar
    vielmetter
    New member | Level 2
    9 years ago

    Not sure whether cumulative update 6 for Windows 10 or the Dropbox v29.4.20 update caused it, but this issue is back with Windows 10. My Application event log is full of these generating one every second. This is pretty annyoing if you're trying to use the event log to for anything but useless dbxsvc events. The only work-around for now seems to be to stop the dbxsvc and set it to manual startup.

     

    Screenshot: http://imgur.com/a/vLHXT

  • vielmetter's avatar
    vielmetter
    New member | Level 2
    9 years ago

    Affecting Windows 10 Pro with all patches applied with Drobpox desktop client v29.4.20 installed and dbxsvc running.

     

    Event log filled with eventid 320 events stating the following:

    Failed to connect to the driver: -2147024894, retrying in 1000 milliseconds

     

    Events appear every 10th of a second and fill event log in a matter of hours pushing out any useable event logs that may have existed there limiting the ability to use the windows application event log for troubleshooting.

     

    Screenshot illustrating the issue: http://imgur.com/a/vLHXT

     

    System details:

    Windows 10 Pro with all patches applied including the latest Cumulative Security Rollup 6.

    Dropbox v29.4.20 client.

     

    Work-around:

    Stop the dbxsvc service and set to manual startup. Once done the events immediately stop logging.

     

    Thank you in advance for looking into this,

    David Vielmetter

  • revjimb's avatar
    revjimb
    Helpful | Level 7
    9 years ago

    Since my client, running Windows 10 with Creator Update, loaded 29.4.20 it logs the following error once per second in application log:

     

    "Failed to connect to the driver: -2147024894, retrying in 1000 milliseconds" 

     

    Source Dbxsvc

     

    Event Id 320

     

    Is there a way to turn error off? Is there some kind of fix coming?

  • revjimb's avatar
    revjimb
    Helpful | Level 7
    9 years ago

    Just started another thread on this, it started on my machine the instant 29.4.20 loaded

  • revjimb's avatar
    revjimb
    Helpful | Level 7
    9 years ago

    Not fixed as of 30.3.15, changed to 60 second interval rather than 1 sec

  • revjimb's avatar
    revjimb
    Helpful | Level 7
    9 years ago

    Also posted on this.

     

    If you install 30.3.15 it will reduce frequency of logging to once per minute.

     

    This is still not a fix. I am leaving it shut down for the time being, hoping the fix is coming soon.

  • CC2's avatar
    CC2
    Explorer | Level 3
    9 years ago
    Same version here
    It started on 6/27 2:46 PM after a dbupdate of which I did not invoke.
    Dbxsvc.exe is file version 1.0.23.0 in case that matters.
    Don't have the time to dig much deeper.
    Plan to shutdown the service till this gets fixed!

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