Dropbox "Connecting..." with VPN

[dhayduk]

Been using Dropbox for many years. Normally DB is connected and status is "up to date". And it had been then when I started VPN to the office, that DB would lose connection (not surprising) and would then re-establish the connection. But for the past few updates, the DB icon in the tray is grayed out and the status stays "Connecting...". Sometimes it will even sync any changes that get made (say I upload a picture via my phone), but not always. Proxy is set to AUTO.

Definitely didn't have this problem in earlier versions - just not sure exactly when it started (currently running v127.4.4265 on Windows).

[dhayduk]

Oh, should have mentioned that if I disconnect from the VPN, then Dropbox will successfully connect after a few seconds.

Also, if VPN is connected and I completely kill dropbox and restart - then it will connect successfully. But then when I disconnect VPN, it will stay in "Connecting..." mode.

So basically, it doesn't like having the network endpoint changed while it is running (and doesn't seem to actually retry the connection)...

[Megan]

Hi @dhayduk, how are you today?

Sorry to hear about this issue - can you try locating the Dropbox icon and menu from the system tray ?

Then, try right-clicking on the icon to access the Dropbox desktop application menu and click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel. 

Select "Preferences" from the Dropbox menu. Select the "Proxies" submenu or tab and from there "No proxy".

Can you give it a go, and let me know how it goes? 

[dhayduk]

I changed to "No Proxy" but Dropbox still didn't connect (we do use proxies at VPN, so that's why I've used auto-detect in the past and it correctly detected "no proxy" when off VPN and "proxy" when on VPN)...

I did notice this morning that Dropbox had connected overnight. Hours after the initial VPN gets established - Dropbox is finally able to connect.

I'll check again tomorrow (VPN connect gets reset every 24 hours; currently connected for 4.2 hours).

[Megan]

Happy Monday @dhayduk!

I'm here to check how things are for you now. Could you also check your DNS settings? 

Also, feel free to let me know your ISP location, please. 

[Vas V.]

I am also having issues with dropbox refusing to connect while a VPN is active. This started up within the last month, when I switched AVG VPN from OpenVPN to Mimic VPN protocols. I have to exit the application and re-launch it to connect, but if the net goes out at any point, the application can't reconnect till it has been restarted.

[dhayduk]

Yeap - exit and relaunch does allow the connection to succeed. So it is just something about connection being twiddled while Dropbox is running...

[alturic]

After 2 years, nothing has been fixed with this issue?

[Jay]

Hi @alturic, according to our info, there isn't an issue as such, since we would have many reports of the same nature. 

Does your VPN have any settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

[dhayduk]

I'm still seeing this with 181.4.5678.

Boot computer and dropbox connects. Start VPN and dropbox is stuck in "syncing" (next local change just stays at "uploading" forever). Restart dropbox and everything is happy. Disconnect VPN and dropbox gets stuck in "syncing" again.