Stuck on "starting"

[Jordan O.]

I had this same issue, even after reinstalling a few times on a Windows 10 machine with a freshly installed SSD.

SOLVED:

By simply installing Dropbox from the Windows Store instead of downloading it from the website, it worked immediately.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Nevermind actually. The version from the appstore is not the desktop version of dropbox, it is only for viewing the files.

Looks like I'll be talking to tech support

[Ian Z.1]

My problem was simply that the proxy was resetting to "auto detect" and that blocked the connection. I never changed it to auto and i would expect auto detect to do it's job...

[Sway C.]

I've just been toying with the same issue of stuck on "starting" for the last few hours. I'm running Mac 10.9.5. I simply took the advice of one of the above, downloaded and installed Dropbox 3.12.6 and it worked immediately.

[Jason P.22]

I am having the same problem on my desktop Mac running OS X El Capitan 10.11.3.  Dropbox *is* running fine on my Mac laptop, but since I can't sync my desktop I'm now missing a lot of files on my laptop.  I am NOT satisfied with answers from Dropbox that suggest I "write into customer service and expect a response within 24-48 hours".  That is absurd when we're talking about business critical files in my account that I will need access to on a flight tonight.  Plus I've been a paying customer for years.  I expect more from you Dropbox.  At a minimum I expect a phone number I can call to talk with someone in real time.  Even if you charge me for it, you should offer that capability.

[jasper r.]

Mine cleared up on it's own.

I think all the file moving triggered my Mac's Spotlight to reindex. Once reindex finished Dropbox behaved nicely.

[Jason P.22]

I had the "starting" issue and was able to get it resolved through email exchanges with customer support.  In the end the crux of the problem was that I had put a copy of my iPhoto file into my dropbox folder as a backup.  Apparently files like that, which are kind of "meta" files that hold all kinds of specialty files to support the use within their specific applications, give dropbox a hard time.  I shut down Dropbox, moved that iPhoto file out of my Dropbox folder, then started Dropbox again.  It took a while to re-index but now it is working great.

If you try my basic fix and it doesn't work just email customer support.  It took one or two rounds of emails but it got done and it worked.

[Dan T.]

I was experiencing the same issue on my mac laptop. Simple 'move to trash' (with stopping plugins) and reinstall didn't affect the problem, but after 'move to trash' and deleting .dropbox directory from terminal with "rm -r ~/.dropbox" everything works fine (though at first app was saying no connection, which was fixed by setting proxy to no proxies from auto-detect).

[David P.137]

Same problem, so frustrating, I urgently need some files on my new mac, Time Machine also too complicated and slow, I just want part of my Dropbox files, cycling for 2 hours now with no result. So frustrating, this is supposed to be for emergencies, never had this problem before, all software new and up to date, Dropbox installed from website. I don't know where else to find it, not in App store.

I clicked Go to Dropbox folder, which had not appeared yet in Finder, only then dialog popped up asking for Mac password.  Them folder immediately appeared in Dock and syncing started...

[George N.6]

Thanks. re-linking worked for me.

[elichaver]

I have the same issue, and its making my computer slow as hell...

I cannot get anything done!