Unable to update or uninstall Dropbox

[Simo S.]

Those checklists for idiots are annoying, when you have an error & searching for a cause that you already know is not simple. For a long time Windows user from the early 1.0 since 1987 through server and professional workstation versions to the Windows 10 build 2004, I kind of know what to do, but this "old version" - "error 2" -> fail -> loop is something that is annoying and seems to fight all possible remedies.

It starts with the text box that you have the old version of Dropbox app. The app works, but the annoying text box cannot be clicked off , it accepts only the "update" selection,  and the update just fails. So I used the app for a couple of months by pushing the text box aside. It is like you got a text message from the Dropbox Company: "you are an idiot", only the "yes" button is active, and after checking it, the box comes back , on top of every app you are using. If you still need to use the app, do not unistall it ! It won't install back and you are left without a working app. And of course, there is always this small doubt, what if the Dropbox cloud is found empty after these trials to fix the app. So first, you want to prepare a hardware backup. With several gigabytes, tens of thousands of files, you are kind of *not* going to do it easily and not fast, anyway. At this point, the idea of totally relying on a cloud service seems to be a very very very bad idea. 

So no rollback of the erroneous app could not be found, the cause of the "error 2" seems to be connected to older harware, Windows 10 still works well, but not the Dropbox app. Fortunately we had other computers to install the newest app, but this is not perfect, because we have a special application that needs to reside in the certain workstation (a dongle) . That's the reason these old workstations sometimes are needed. 

It is strange that the M$ Onedrive applet has been working well all the time. Do they know something that Dropbox people do not know ?

[cmason84]

I've tried Jane's tips - nothing doing. I have the Client folder (not a blank 0kb file), my Dropbox file is in my Program Files(x86) folder.

There are no instructions on Jane's post about what the PATH environment variable is nor how to actually go about resetting it so I wasn't able to follow that step.

When attempting to delete the folder in %PROGRAMFILES(x86)% it says that the program is currently in use and so it won't delete.

I've tried reinstalling Dropbox from your website, with both the online and offline versions, tried uninstalling Dropbox from my laptop... nothing works.

[MThreeR]

My dropbox running on Windows 10 Pro x64 had stopped syncing and the application wouldn't even start anymore, so I had to remove it manually using the advanced installer guide. I had previously not done any recent changes to my PC. I followed ALL articles I could find on this problem. Some of them here, here and here.

• Deleted every occurances of the Dropbox key in the registry.
• I searched for and deleted every occurances of Dropbox in explorer on my C: drive.
• I have tried removing and installing .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 again.
• I have tried installing Dropbox using safe mode with networking.
• I have tried creating a new local user profile with administrator privileges
• I tried installing with the firewall for Domain, Private and Public profiles set to "Off"
• I have tried installing with all antivirus features disabled that are built-in in Windows 10
• No driver problems exists on my system
• "sfc /scannow" finds no errors
• I have tried installing using the Offline installer from this link (dropbox.com)

Every error I'm getting is "The installer encountered error 2".

I'm in need of assistance as I've exhausted all other options except Windows 10 re-installation which obviously isn't an option.

[MThreeR]

Luckily, Windows 10 Version 20H2 Feature Update got available for download just now. After installing the feature update, I was able to successfully install Dropbox again.

[cmason84]

Can someone help me with this? I'm still having the same problems. I'd like to be able to move my Dropbox folder onto my HD off my SD drive which is full but can't do this as it stands.

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@cmason84 wrote:

I've tried Jane's tips - nothing doing. I have the Client folder (not a blank 0kb file), my Dropbox file is in my Program Files(x86) folder.

There are no instructions on Jane's post about what the PATH environment variable is nor how to actually go about resetting it so I wasn't able to follow that step.

When attempting to delete the folder in %PROGRAMFILES(x86)% it says that the program is currently in use and so it won't delete.

I've tried reinstalling Dropbox from your website, with both the online and offline versions, tried uninstalling Dropbox from my laptop... nothing works.

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[Lusil]

Hey everyone, thanks for nudging us back here. 

If you've followed Jane's advice, you could also try an advanced reinstall and make sure that you don't have any pending OS updates. 

If you've done all that, please have a look at Jay's post for some additional info.