Clean reinstall didn't help

[drartiekCRESLI]

I need serious help in getting dropbox to run again on my desktop. A hardware change somehow led to losing DropBox functionality. I eventually removed the harware and it's drivers. Did a clean reinstall of DropBox and it worked beautifully. the reinstalled the problematic HW to see if the issue would reappear, and it did. But, any attenpts now to reinstall DropBox , even via a cleean reinstall using the offline installer have failed. Please help.

[Mark]

Why? What happens?

We need way more info I'm afraid - remember we cannot see whats happening on your screen

[drartiekCRESLI]

After uninstalling DropBox, and removing the dropbox folder from %appdata%  anrebooting, I ran the offline installer. earlier today that worked perfectly and I was able to get dropbox and the icon to work.  Foolishly, I connected the problematic hardware (a kensington wireless trackball) and reinstalled its drivers and voila, I loss functionality of dropBox.  The icon disappeared in the task tray and nothing would sync.  In fact my desktop computer no longer showed up as a device.

OK, I then unistalled the new hardware and itsdrivers.  Uninstalled the %appdta% folder for the tracjball , rebooted, and reinstalled dropBoix via the ofline reinstaller.  but this time, after the installer ran - nothing!

Luckily my Dropbox folder is still intact.  I will try once more and keep you posted.

[drartiekCRESLI]

Just completed the reinstall.  My screen reset, and now there's a Dropbox folder in C:\Program Files (x86), and in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Dropbox there are two shortcuts: Dropbox webite (operational) and Dropbox (does nothing).  It's target is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe" /home

Dropbox.exe is 25175 kb; version 16.4.29.0

I've run it as administrator - but nothing seems to happen.  What more information would you like?

[Didier C. · Accepted solution]

It seems that build 16.4.29 is faulty, at least several users have mentioned they'd met issues after upgrading to it.

Problem is, Dropbox will let you install a previous, operable build like 15.4.22, but it'll auto-update to the faulty build after a short while, and Dropbox will stop working.

Here's what you can do to check it you're experiencing the same issues as the others (including me) have:

- Download build 15.4.22 from here: http://filehippo.com/fr/download_dropbox/71864/ ; don't install it yet!!!

- Download Revo Uninstaller Free from here and install it: http://www.revouninstaller.com/start_freeware_download.html (it's a stub installer, in other words a small program that will download and install the actual software you need, it's not an offline installer)

- Fire up Revo, select Dropbox in the list of programs to uninstall, proceed to uninstall it completely, BUT UNCHECK YOUR PERSONAL FOLDER FROM THE LIST OF ITEMS TO DELETE AFTER UNINSTALL, or you'll lose your personal files...

- Find your hosts file in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

- Create a new line at the end of it, with the following content (without the quotes): "0.0.0.0 clientupdate.dropboxstatic.com"

- Install Dropbox 15.4.22 as if you were installing Dropbox for the first time, link it to your Dropbox account, and wait a few minutes to see if it keeps running normally.

[drartiekCRESLI]

Thanks so much.  I ultimately got Dropbox to work again after clean reinstall by shutting down completely instead of simply restarting. To be honest, I was sure I could eventually get it back, but was more distressed about the almost cimplete lack of eal-time support from Dropbox.

My thanks to you and to everyone else in the community who replied. I head anon-profit NGO and through TechSoup have an opportunity to get a reduced rate for Box.  I'll look into it, but am relieved to find Bropbox working again (for now(,