Disable automatic updates

[Mike G.]

How can I prevent dropbox from automatically updating itself? The new dropbox 3 has a very anti-windows-7 UI that I don't like, so I reinstalled 2.10. How do I stop dropbox from continually installing v3?

[Vegan A.]

Hack to stop Auto Update

rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist
install -dm0 ~/.dropbox-dist

[Neil W.1]

Can you elaborate on the hack, how do you run this code and does this work on Windows? It looks like Linux code.

[Brock C.]

The hack by Vegan A (copied here) is for Linux.
rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist
install -dm0 ~/.dropbox-dist
The first command deletes the .dropbox-dist directory located in your home directory.
The second command creates a new empty folder called .dropbox-dist, and it sets the permission of the folder to 0 meaning no one can access it.
I have more information on disabling Dropbox update in Linux in my post here:
https://www.dropboxforum.com/hc/communities/public/questions/201875625-Unnecessary-Syncing-in-Window...

[Mike G.]

So how do we do that on windows? There doesn't seem to be a .dropbox-dist folder in AppData/Roaming

[Brock C.]

I tried installing a 2.x version. Then I closed immediately. Then I made the following file read only and I denied all permissions to it.

C:\Users\brock\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\bin\DropboxUpdateHelper
Somehow, Dropbox still managed to update itself. This is definitely the file though that handles updating Dropbox. I also tried another another idea. It somehow still updates itself.

[Neil W.1]

Not looking promising for Windows. I may need to start looking To another cloud provider. Out of interest, with Linux, how do you know if it's trying to update itself? I have been running it for a long time without any issues. I just sync with the cloud though and not across another folder held somewhere else like others have posted. Thinking about maybe moving to Linux full time for work.

[Brock C.]

I believe 3.x would probably work fine on your Linux distro. I believe I was having an issue because I have my folder placed on a separate NTFS partition. If you did install 2.x on your Linux distro, then you know when it is updating just as you would know by watching it update in Windows. It runs for a bit then on mouse over it will say upgrading database, then the icon/applet disappears for a second, then it reappears and looks different with a white background, just like it does in Windows. At that point it would have updated itself.

[Legion]

It's just absurd. If I choose not to update Dropbox on Android I can do so. So why force users to update on Windows? 3.2.9 isn't auto-syncing properly... "up to date", but it's not updating docs - I have to pause/resume syncing to get it to update. I installed 3.2.4 - great, no problems. Ten minutes later Dropbox automatically updates and I'm back with 3.2.9. Pathetic.

[Brock C.]

Maybe 3.4.3 would help. It was released on 4-2-15.
https://www.dropbox.com/release_notes

[Jeff V.1]

I use ESET Smart Security. I turned the firewall rules on manual confirm. While it's a pain sometimes (confirming the 100s of things that call home in the background), you can set rules to remember. Everytime dropbox attempts to modify itself, ESET post a dialog and I deny it. Unfortunately, I've had to reboot as the installed version logs out and says "connecting" indefinitely.