Dropbox app won't start on M1 Mac running Big Sur

[MikeLV]

I just got a new MacBook Air M1 running BigSur.  Dropbox does show up in the Finder sidebar and it appears the Dropbox files and folders on my Mac have synced with Dropbox.com.  However the dropbox icon does not show up in the tool bar at the top of the screen.  Plus, I downloaded the Dropbox app but it won't start.  error message is shown below.  I am not on a network share.  Don't know what is the deal with permissions.  Suggestions?

[Megan]

Hi @MikeB2, thanks for the info! 

Would it be okay for me to reach out to you via email, so we can have a closer look into this together? 

[MikeB2]

Absolutely OK.  I assume you can get my email from my account info...

[MikeB2]

@Megan 

OK, weird.  After a few more tries, it magically started working...

(Might be due to temporarily changing an account to administrator, see my next post).

[MKschmitt]

I am having major issues with it as well.  Just updated to BIG SUR and I can't even download the app.  I can't find the folder in FINDER, nothing and nobody to call and talk to.  I have been messing with it for the last week and am beyond frustrated.  Sorry this doesn't help you but know you are not alone.  

[MikeB2]

@MKschmitt 

What "might" have worked for me... I changed my regular user account to an administrator and ran through the Advanced Reinstall.  I'm pretty sure it failed the first time through, but then I removed administrator from the user account, rebooted, and suddenly it was working properly...

(To change administrator status, log out of the account, log in as an administrator, open System Preferences, select Users & Groups, click the padlock icon if needed, then select the user account and check/uncheck "Allow user to administer this computer").

[victoriabaum]

Lori, et. al,

I can only get Dropbox to work from going directly to the website, I still cannot get the icon at top of the screen to enter.

I still get the same "Dropbox can't start" message upon start up.

Completely baffling and frustrating.

Thanks, everyone, for their assistance.   I have taken all suggestions and directions, yet am still in this spot.

Victoria

[Megan]

Happy Monday @victoriabaum, I hope you're doing well! 

Could you share the precise error with me? 

You can obtain it by clicking on the blue link within the error message pop-up. This will open a file with the full text of the error.

Also, have you tried performing an Advanced re-install on your end? 

Keep me posted.
 

[Tim T.]

Can anybody help? The advanced reinstall no longer works. At the end of the installation, when the app tries to open, I get the same error message. This worked for months on the M1 with Big Sur, with Antivirus on the computer, with no changes to my Dropbox folder location, etc.  Then, a few weeks ago, Dropbox stopped being able to start. The first time I tried advanced reinstall, it worked, but a day later, the error appeared again. Similarly, I used a Time Machine backup before the problem started (reinstalled the system!!), and that worked for about a day, then the error appeared. Now, nothing I try of the solutions offered in this thread work.

Here is the log:

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox

bn.VERSION: 126.4.4618

bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 48

bn.is_frozen: True

machine_id: 70cb2f9b-0398-5ffb-bcd1-06f602617645

pid: 9339

ppid: 1

uid: 502

user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='tntozer', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='T N Tozer', pw_dir='/Users/tntozer', pw_shell='/bin/bash')

effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='tntozer', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='T N Tozer', pw_dir='/Users/tntozer', pw_shell='/bin/bash')

euid: 502

gid: 20

egid: 20

group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'tntozer', '_nsurlstoraged'])

effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'tntozer', '_nsurlstoraged'])

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None

cwd: '/'

     real_path='/'

            mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0

     parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0

HOME: '/Users/tntozer'

appdata: '/Users/tntozer/.dropbox/instance1'

         real_path='/Users/tntozer/.dropbox/instance1'

                mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20

         parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

dropbox_path: '/Users/tntozer/Dropbox'

              real_path='/Users/tntozer/Dropbox'

                    mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20

              parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

                real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

                      mode=0o100755 uid=502 gid=20

                parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

                real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

                      not found

                parent not found

tempdir: '/var/folders/nb/wl1n6xsd5f9__bw4ldx8gl9w0000gp/T'

         real_path='/private/var/folders/nb/wl1n6xsd5f9__bw4ldx8gl9w0000gp/T'

                mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20

         parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 834, in wrapper

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6625, in finish_dropbox_boot

  File "dropbox/client/message_queue.pyc", line 307, in _wrapped

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6158, in _init_components_for_account

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6084, in create_sync_engine

  File "dropbox/sync_engine_boundary/factory.pyc", line 225, in make_sync_engine

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/sync_engine.pyc", line 278, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_client.pyc", line 219, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/base.pyc", line 149, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/thin_adapter/in_proc.pyc", line 223, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/thin_adapter/in_proc.pyc", line 591, in _init_new_engine_locked

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/thin_client/client.pyc", line 182, in __init__

  File "extensions/nucleus/nucleus_python.pyx", line 76, in nucleus_python.NucleusSyncEngine.__cinit__

nucleus_python.SyncEngineError: "Initializing engine |>> Initializing filesystem |>> Attempting to initialize dbx cache directory |>> Marking ApplicationFilesystem cache directory as ignored |>> Writing to xattr |>> fsetxattr syscall: write_xattr |>> Permission denied"

[MikeB2]

Out of the blue, with no changes to my system or environment, the startup failures have returned.  This is extremely frustrating!

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox

bn.VERSION: 127.4.4265

bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 48

bn.is_frozen: True

machine_id: 81473c3e-02f8-54bb-bc0e-2632fb565d70

pid: 754

ppid: 1

uid: 502

user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='user', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='User', pw_dir='/Users/user', pw_shell='/bin/bash')

effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='user', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='User', pw_dir='/Users/user', pw_shell='/bin/bash')

euid: 502

gid: 20

egid: 20

group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'mjbunnell', 'user', 'mike', 'boinc_master', 'boinc_project'])

effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'mjbunnell', 'user', 'mike', 'boinc_master', 'boinc_project'])

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None

cwd: '/'

     real_path='/'

            mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0

     parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0

HOME: '/Users/user'

appdata: '/Users/user/.dropbox/instance1'

         real_path='/Users/user/.dropbox/instance1'

                mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20

         parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

dropbox_path: '/Users/user/Dropbox'

              real_path='/Users/user/Dropbox'

                    mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20

              parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

                real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'

                      mode=0o100755 uid=502 gid=20

                parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

                real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'

                      not found

                parent not found

tempdir: '/var/folders/vw/hs31tvjn26d1mypmb2zsztn80000gp/T'

         real_path='/private/var/folders/vw/hs31tvjn26d1mypmb2zsztn80000gp/T'

                mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20

         parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 827, in wrapper

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6650, in finish_dropbox_boot

  File "dropbox/client/message_queue.pyc", line 307, in _wrapped

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6147, in _init_components_for_account

  File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6073, in create_sync_engine

  File "dropbox/sync_engine_boundary/factory.pyc", line 225, in make_sync_engine

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/sync_engine.pyc", line 278, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_client.pyc", line 219, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/base.pyc", line 150, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/thin_adapter/in_proc.pyc", line 223, in __init__

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/thin_adapter/in_proc.pyc", line 591, in _init_new_engine_locked

  File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/thin_client/client.pyc", line 182, in __init__

  File "desktop/extensions/nucleus/nucleus_python.pyx", line 76, in nucleus_python.NucleusSyncEngine.__cinit__

nucleus_python.SyncEngineError: "Initializing engine |>> Initializing filesystem |>> Marking Nucleus cache directory as ignored |>> Writing to xattr |>> fsetxattr syscall: write_xattr |>> Permission denied"

[Hannah]

Hey @Tim T. and @MikeB2, thanks for reaching out. 

Can you try the steps here for a more advanced reinstall of the Dropbox application, to see if that helps?

Let me know how it goes.