Dropbox is stuck in connecting when start-up

[antonsavellano]

1. My dropbox app suddenly got stuck in "Connecting" when I open it. I tried reinstalling it and checking the firewall, and nothing worked. Attaching a screeshot for reference.

 

[Walter]

Hey there @antonsavellano - sorry to hear about this

When you're having connection problems like this, it usually means there is an antivirus, firewall, security program, proxy or VPN blocking the Dropbox desktop client.

If you have any of the mentioned software running, please either add Dropbox to its whitelist, remove Dropbox from its blacklist, or temporarily disable or uninstall them to continue troubleshooting. 

At that point, try re-installing our software using our offline installer from the page below:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Desktop-client-builds/Stable-Build-65-4-177/m-p/324645#M5177

Let me know how it goes!

[antonsavellano]

Hi @Walter!

Thanks for the quick reply! Unfortunately it doesn't work. I've added Dropbox on the apps that are allowed through firewall, and also reinstalled dropbox. The dropbox icon stays gray on the system tray and still looks like the screenshot I had above - even the connecting icon isn't spinning/moving. 

I was thinking if I installed a program since this happened, but I don't recall doing anything before this happened. I've tried reinstalling multiple times and still no luck.

**EDIT**

I tried opening Dropbox in another account on my laptop and it works. Do you have a work around on how to fix this on my current account?

[Walter · Accepted solution]

Sorry to hear this persists @antonsavellano.

Note that the content missing from the setup window is fetched from an online source and when the content fails to display, it generally means that the connection to our server is being blocked or interrupted.

Now for testing purposes, could you temporarily disable any antivirus or security programs on your computer and try advanced re-installing our software using the offline installer from the page I quoted in my previous response? 

Also please double check that the domains listed here have been allowed:

https://www.dropbox.com/help/security/official-domains

Keep me posted on your progress!

[antonsavellano]

Thank @Walter! Doing the advanced re-install helped. It was a pain to manually choose which folders to sync again but ultimately dropbox connected again so many thanks!!

Can I know why this happened so I can prevent it from happening in the future?

[Walter]

I'm not sure what could have caused this without having a look at your machine and configuration @antonsavellano - I'm glad it's resolved after all though.

If you have any more questions I can assist with, do let me know please.