Dropbox not uploading/syncing new files after fresh install of Linux Mint 20.1

[joekur]

Hi All,

I recently upgraded my Linux Mint 19 desktop with a fresh install of Linux Mint 20.1. Dropbox worked brilliantly on Mint 19. After the Mint upgrade and installing Dropbox via the Software Manager, my existing 100GB of files downloaded/synced from the server with no problem. However, new files or folders I create on this computer and save to the Dropbox folder are not uploading and syncing. I have tried uninstalling Dropbox, rebooting, and reinstalling (from both the repository and the Dropbox website), with the same result. I have double-checked that all folders except Vault are checked in Selective Sync under Preferences. I get no error messages. The pop-up menu from the icon in the system tray says it is syncing, and the icon has constant spinning arrows, but nothing seems to be happening. New files do not show up in Dropbox online.

I have a second desktop also running Linux Mint, and Dropbox has been syncing on it with no problem for many months, both with an install of 20.1 using the same .iso image I just used on this machine, and more recently after upgrading to 20.3. I can't figure out any differences between the Mint and Dropbox installations. I just experimented creating a new file and folder on that second machine, and it uploaded via Dropbox and synced to my phone right away, but not to this problem desktop.

FYI, if you can offer any troubleshooting, please consider me a linux newbie for anything beyond the GUI. I have no problem using a terminal/CLI, but instructions will have to be clear and complete. Thank you!

[Здравко]

Hi @joekur again,

Wow..., that's something really strange. 🤔 The mentioned class and wrapper module (and package) are something standard to Python (importlib.machinery.SourceFileLoader). 🤷 Seems, your install gets broken somehow. What's the Python version you are using? Take on result from:

python3 --version

It should be some build of version 3.8. In different forums are posts related to some packages disorders observed after upgrade to 20.1. It's good idea to make sure everything is up to date and especially that Python 3 is properly installed. Execute following commands (one by one):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install python3 libpython3.8-minimal

Let's hope the above will fix Python "illness".

PS: By the way, can you take a look - is a file exist or not? Execute following command:

ls -l /usr/lib/python3.8/importlib

Does result contain file "machinery.py" or not? 🧐

[joekur]

Hi @Здравко ,

Thanks again. Interesting... So I first checked the Python version -- 3.8.10, then ran the update command you recommended. That seemed to go smoothly. My screenshot below shows the subsequent commands and results. You will see it did not upgrade, and that machinery.py is present. I then tried running the testdropbox script again, with the same result, and rechecked the Python version.

Seems my computer is being stubborn.🤐  Again, I really appreciate your help trying to sort this out!

[Здравко]

---

@joekur wrote:

...

Seems my computer is being stubborn.🤐  ...

---

Hah... 😁 Yes, seems so. 🤔 I'm using exactly the same versions, like you do, and everything works.

Just added one more line to figure out where exactly your Python is looking for machinery.py. 🤷 That looks like something impossible - the file is there, but can not be found out.

Let's see what's the script output now. 🧐

[joekur]

Hi @Здравко ,

Here you go🙂:

Hope this is useful... As always, thanks again!

[Здравко]

Strange things happen here. All paths (including the importlib one) are correct. Everything seems normal except the error. 🤷 An error saying that is missing something reported already as being there! 😯

I'm out of further ideas. Let's hope somebody else can continue with more "fresh" ideas.

Good luck @joekur!

[joekur]

Thanks for all your efforts, @Здравко! Much appreciated!

[joekur]

Hi @Здравко !

Sorry, I thought I had posted a response to you yesterday but I see it's not showing up. I just wanted to thank you again. I really appreciate all your efforts in trying to help me resolve this! Yes, hopefully the tech support team can help me figure it out. All the best to you!

[Walter]

Hey @joekur, sorry to jump in here and thanks for providing your ticket ID.

I was able to locate it in our system and passed your comments on to the expert handling your case.

You should be hearing from them soon, so keep an eye out on your inbox. 

If there's anything else you'd like to ask in the meantime, please let us know. 

[joekur]

@Walter Thank you!

[joekur · Accepted solution]

Hi @Walter , @Здравко , @Jay , @Hannah ,

For the sake of completeness I just wanted to post a note here that this issue is resolved and what the problem was.

After some initial troubleshooting and repeating another remove and reinstall without resolution, tech support had me enter the following commands:

sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"
 
sudo chown -R "$USER" "/home/joe/Dropbox" ~/.dropbox
 
sudo chattr -R -i "/home/joe/Dropbox"
 
sudo chmod -R u+rw "/home/joe/Dropbox" ~/.dropbox

I saw after entering the *chattr* command that I received pages of errors regarding a Timeshift backup folder I'd previously copied into Dropbox (thinking if I ran into problems later in my upgrading and had to do a fresh reinstall of the OS, I could copy the folder back to its original path to restore from). In hindsight a bad idea, but I didn't give it a thought when the Dropbox issue cropped up later.

So once I removed the Timeshift folder from Dropbox, I re-ran the above commands without any errors, and Dropbox subsequently synced properly.

(I guess there is still an open question about the python script, as I tried to run the testdropbox script file again and still got the error, but since that's not causing me current problems, I'll let it slide for now.)

Thank you all again,

Joe