Your workflow is unique 👨💻 - tell us how you use Dropbox here.
Forum Discussion
weiskott
3 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Sync icons missing in the Dropbox folder in Finder
I recently had a new work desktop (Mac) deployed. While all my downloaded Dropbox files were successfully transferred, there are now no sync icons next to Dropbox files in Finder. I have never had this issue before. The files are showing up as synced in the taskbar and online and across devices, but there are no green check icons in Finder.
Published solutions to this problem (uninstall / reinstall Dropbox; restart computer; force-quit Finder; check that OneDrive or other overlay programs are not running) have not worked for me. Help?? Programs running are Google Chrome and Microsoft Word. MacOS Monterey 12.3.1 / Dropbox v147.4.4800. I have the Basic plan.
For anyone still experiencing the issue after following the above instructions —
You also need to quit Dropbox from the Menu Bar (and force-quit any Dropbox processes that don't automatically disappear from Activity Monitor after you've waited 20-30 seconds) in order to see these Dropbox in-Finder sync icons re-appear.And then after Relaunching Finder, then re-open Dropbox.
Just tested this on macOS Sonoma 14.4 (23E214) ✅
65 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- Hannah3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey weiskott, thanks for joining our Community.
And thanks for all the info provided, it's super helpful.
Can you check if you're missing other sync icons, apart from the green check one? For example, when a file is syncing, does it have an icon on it?
And what is the sync status of the application? You can see that, if you hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar.
Keep me posted.
- weiskott3 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Thanks, Hannah. There are no icons at all in Finder, including when syncing. The syncing icon appears on the menu taskbar briefly before syncing completes, but there's no green check there. (I am not concerned about the taskbar, as I am given to understand that Dropbox redesigned this part of the application -- there is no check on the Dropbox taskbar icon on my laptop at home, either).
The application is working as expected on my work desktop but isn't giving me the feedback I have grown accustomed to in terms of which files have already synced. It's a small thing, but in certain scenarios this would be useful information for me in order to avoid spawning conflicted versions of files in progress. I have read that some people with this problem turned out to have been checking the wrong folder, not the one that Dropbox is syncing, but I've triple-checked that as well.
- Megan3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi weiskott, sorry to jump in here!
Can you let me know your app's syncing status at the moment?
Also, feel free to send me a screenshot as to how the files and folders look inside your Dropbox folder, so I can have visual too.
Thanks!
- weiskott3 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Hi @Megan. Syncing status is "up to date." Here are screenshots of what I'm seeing.
- Hannah3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for the update and the screenshot here.
Would you mind trying these steps to see if they help?
- Click on the Dropbox icon in your menu bar and quit the application
- Open your Activity Monitor from your Mac Utilities folder
- Force quit out of the instances of the Dropbox application that are running by searching for "Dropbox" in the search bar, then clicking on the "x" force quit icon on the top left
- Re-start Dropbox from the applications folder by double clicking on the Dropbox application
- Click on the Apple icon in the top left of your screen
- Click on "force quit"
- Relaunch the finder
- weiskott3 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Hannah, I have completed the steps you outlined, and it didn't solve the problem alas. I did find "Dropbox Finder Extension" in the Activity Monitor after quitting Dropbox, and I force-quitted it, but I still don't see the sync icons.
- Hannah3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Thanks for the update here and happy Friday!
What if you force quit all Dropbox instances except for the 'Dropbox Finder Integration' one and then force quit and relaunch Finder?
Does it make a difference?
- weiskott3 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Hannah Alas, no. There were two instances of "Dropbox Finder Extension" running, and I force-quitted one of them, then relaunched Finder and Dropbox. Still no sync icons.
Screenshot below.
Thank you for help. Is there anything else I should try?
- GuZ3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
We have the same issue, since the latest updates Dropbox sync options menu are all different and there are no more sync icons.
All files display as zero bytes now.
Is this a bug, a temporary issue or did Dropbox change?
- Megan3 years ago
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi GuZ, welcome to our Community!
Have you tried the steps mentioned throughout this thread?
Also, weiskott, do you still face the same behavior on your end?
About View, Download, and Export
Get support with viewing, downloading, and exporting files and folders from your Dropbox account.
The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!