I'm not seeing the Dropbox Badge on my Office files

[bztips]

This has been asked millions of times, but I still don't have a good answer.

I have latest Dropbox app installed on my Windows 7 PC, using Office 2010. Preferences are set to "Always show" Dropbox Badge. Yet I NEVER have seen the badge when opening an Office file that is stored in my fully synced Dropbox folder. It doesn't show even if I open a file on dropbox.com and edit it with the online versions of Office.

I've read and re-read the standard help file that lays out all the requirements for the badge, but still no luck.

And when I am editing such a file in Office, my colleagures who CAN normally see the badge, say they do not have any notification that I have it open. So it seems like my dropbox apparently is not connecting live to the cloud (even though it appears to sync normally).

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Jay]

Hi there, are you opening Office files that are in shared folders only? Is the Dropbox desktop application running and your internet connection online when doing so?

Just so you know, the Badge is only for the desktop app version of Office, and not for Office Online, which doesn’t have that feature.

Have you checked the requirements here to ensure that the Badge works?

Let me know how it goes!

[bztips]

Thanks for the quick response Jay.

Yes, I've checked all of the requirements, and yes to all of your other questions. Still no sign of a badge anywhere, whether it's Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

[Jay]

Have you whitelisted all of the official domains used by Dropbox? Could you also try opening the ports listed here in your firewall to see if they help with getting the badge to appear?

Lastly, try an advanced reinstall of the app to see if this repairs any potential issues with the app itself.

[bztips]

Yes, it appears to be a firewall issue.

Thanks for your help.

[bztips]

Sorry, reopening this discussion (I am the OP).

Updated conclusion is that there is nothing wrong with my firewall as other users in my office can see the badge. But I cannot.

Is anyone aware of any settings in Office or Windows that would affect whether the Dropbox badge can be seen? I'm using Office 2010 on a Windows 2007 machine, the badge does not appear when I open an Office document. At least one other colleague uses Office 2010 on a Windows 2010 machine, he can see the badge without problems. So now I'm thinking it's a Windows 2007 issue? (I have all the updates.)

[Jay]

Thanks for updating me on this matter. 

In order to investigate further, would it be okay if we reach out to your email address associated with your forum profile?

[bztips]

Jay, yes that would be fine.

I know I keep changing the description, but after some more testing with other machines in various locations, I'm now pretty sure that the issue has to do with my specific Office installation (I'm using Office Professional Plus 2010, 32-bit version).

One suspicious thing I just noticed: In Excel, if I go to the Add-Ins dialog, there is a checkmark next to Dropbox.OfficeAddIn Class. But if I go to the general Excel Options dialog and click on Add-Ins, it's listed under "Inactive Application Add-ins". I've tried toggling the checkmark in the Add-Ins dialog on and off, but it makes no difference; it continues to be listed as Inactive.

[bztips]

Another update:

Under COM Add-Ins, the Dropbox addinis not listed. If I try to add DropboxOfficeAddIn.13.dll, it still doesn't show up in the COM Add-in list. I think this may be the root of the issue.