Dropbox macOS 11 Big Sur Problem: Finder Integration and Smart Sync

[Daphne]

Thanks for the ticket numbers!

I've just followed up with you both there, so please check your inbox when you have the time, and feel free to give me a nudge anytime.

[Tomcor]

Dear @Daphne  thank-you.

Anyway I suggest you to bring to your team a bigger problem: the first post of this thread is dated november. Today is Mars.

The Dropbox system of evaluating issues and complaints could have some problems.

I loved Dropbox from the beginning, but Microsoft and Google are developing more and more integrated solutions that push clients to bring the cloud services to their platforms. You need to be faster in solving issues to have a chance in the competition.

Bests.

[ferdinandus]

Dear Daphne,
Thank you for your interest on the subject and your email with instructions . Someone else from Dropbox sent an email on Sunday night with the same instructions - basically deleting the app and re-installing.

To be honest, still I am a bit suspicious about your solution - once again Dropbox offers the same solution that didn't work months ago - deleting and reinstalling. Let's hope this time works - so far so good.

Will keep you posted. Thanks again

[bsyehuda]

It happens that the Dropbox Finder Extension appears multiple times (check the activity monitor). This makes sync and smart sync operations non visible but synchronizations with the Dropbox site are working

A workaround is to force quit all these extensions using the activity monitor. After that Force quite the Finder process. It will automatically reappears and the Dropbox Finder extension appears too (made it is hooked to the Finder process).

It is unfortunate that I have to do this frequently, sometimes daily. 

Can't you write a better software this will prevent this duplications?  After all we are using Mac OS X to not mess with such things

[CraigV]

DROPBOX - YOU ARE KILLING US HERE. For months the finder integration comes and goes at random, but mostly just goes. This is happening consistently to every single Mac user in our office, regardless of what OS or hardware we are using (I'm on the latest Big Sur but others are not). We all have pro-accounts that we are paying a good chunk of money to you in order to have a working product. This issue is grinding our productivity to zero and introducing elements of technical frustration to our workflow that is just unacceptable. Every single day without fail, we go to access the Dropbox finder menu to interact with a file only to have the extension be unresponsive, nonexistent, or missing key functions. We then have to re-navigate to that file either using your pointless and redundant app or via web browser. The disruption to our workflow is tangible, and obviously shared by many Dropbox users around the world - yet the best "solution" you can offer is to reinstall (which is frustrating, time-consuming, confusing and DOESN'T WORK).  **bleep**ING DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS ALREADY. 

[MartinL1]

It seems to be a conflict with Big Sur SIP (system integrity protection). I have just disabled it through Terminal to work on some other issue and my DropBox SmartSync is now working as normal. Previously, after reinstalling my system on a new HD I could not define some files/folders as Online only, and therefore could not save disk space.

[Grynn]

Hey Dropbox,

It's nearly May -- by when can we expect a solution?

[Megan]

Hey folks, the original issue has been resolved and shouldn't be a problem any more. 

@Grynn, I saw from your post that you still experience this, may I ask more info on your Dropbox desktop application's status? 

Let me know, and we'll take it from there!

[Grynn]

Hey Lori,

Thanks for the reply.

I still have the issue, Finder integration on Big Sur is completely broken for me.

Dropbox Status:

All Ok (see image below)

macOS Version:

Dropbox Version:

Finder Integration Missing from Context Menu:

Also when I try to preview (open with preview) a file that is smart-sync'ed I get an error saying the file is not available ...

[Megan · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the added info @MartinL1!

Could you please try the following steps:

-Click on the Dropbox icon
-Open your Activity Monitor from your Mac Utilities folder
-Search for "Dropbox" in the search bar, and click the "x" on the top left, to force quit everything related to Dropbox
-Re-start Dropbox from the applications folder by double clicking on the Dropbox application
-Click on the Apple icon in the top left of your screen
-Click on "force quit"
-Relaunch the finder

Thanks!