Dropbox Menu bar app not responding (spinning beachball) on MacOS Mojave (10.14.6)

[Kenton N.]

For the last few days, I've noticed my Dropbox menu bar app shows that it is syncing. But when I hover my mouse over the icon, I see a beachball and can't do anything with it. Also, accessing and saving files in my Dropbox folder is slow. 

I have attempted a reinstall, but that doesn't seem to have helped. 

I just found the instructions for an advanced re-install, but the first step says to Quit the app from the menu bar... except, I can't do that. If I don't quit first, will that mess up my existing files/folders?

The Dropbox app version is 117.4.378

[Walter]

Hi there @Kenton N.; thanks for posting on our Community and sorry to hear about this.

If you can't quit the app from your menu bar to uninstall it, could you try force-quitting it and then perform the advanced reinstall as intended in the first place?

Let me know how you get on!

[Kenton N.]

Thanks for replying. 

When I do CMD+Option+ESC to bring up the Force Quit menu, Dropbox is not listed (NOTE: none of the other services that I have running from the menu bar are listed there either).

So, I'm unable to force quit it in the traditional manner. 

[Walter]

Did you install it with admin privileges in the first place @Kenton N.?

While at it, can you open your Mac's Activity Monitor and try to find any items that may reference Dropbox?

If you find any, force quit them from there and try to uninstall anew. 

Keep me posted with any updates!

[TAY63]

Hi- I am having the same problem as well. I have a Mac and for the past week since the most recent Mac software upgrade, I have the spinning beachball as well. I have tried to uninstall or move to the trash but it won't let me. I have also tried to force quit but Dropbox doesn't appear. The pic below is what appears on the bar at the top of my desktop, not sure what this menu bar is called. When I hover over the icon, I get the spinning ball

When I try to uninstall or move to trash, this is the message I get:

 Thanks for the help.

[Kenton N. · Accepted solution]

I managed to get it solved I think. 

I restarted the Mac and before Dropbox had a chance to get into its Not Responding state, I quickly went up to the menu bar and Quit. 

After that, I was able to do the Advanced ReInstall and it all seems to be working ok now for the past day.  

I'm not quite sure what caused it to have issues in the first place, though. I definitely have admin privileges on this computer. I have not updated my OS is a long time (still on Mojave) and the version of Dropbox that I reinstalled is the same that I previously had. 

[Kenton N.]

@TAY63 

What OS (specific version) are you using? Go to the Apple in upper left corner of the screen and click "About This Mac".

Also, you could try the "solution" that I discovered, which is to restart the computer and immediately quit Dropbox as soon as it appears in the menu bar. After that, you should be able to uninstall/reinstall. 

[TAY63]

Thank you, I will try that!!