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I can't uninstall Dropbox completely from my Mac
Application Affected dropbox for Mac Device MacBook Pro 16 m1 Operating System/Browser (if using the web) Mac OS 26 Dropbox App Version (if using the app) latest Question or Issue dropbox charged me after I cancelled so I want it off my machine but following the uninstall steps still leaves it behind - I even found a preference file that is missed in the original instructions and it still comes back when I try to install the basic version so I have quit the app dragged app to trash deleted the dropbox folder searched for the dropbox prefs file and deleted it where else does this thing leave files ?
QuickLook is flickering on Mac OS
Integration Affected Finder Device MacBook Air, M3, 16GB RAM Operating System/Browser (if using the web) macOS Tahoe 26.2 Dropbox App Version (if using the app) 242.3.5699 Question or Issue I have been having the same issue as described in this thread for at least 1 month. It makes Quick Look (and therefore Finder) really awful to use. If you try to QuickLook or preview a pdf, image, etc. the quicklook state resets and refreshes. For example, I navigate in Finder to a pdf in my dropbox. I press SPACE to quicklook the item. I scroll down the PDF. The QuickLook resets/refreshes and I lose my place in the document. There is a huge impact on everyday tasks. Troubleshooting efforts: I viewed this topic and followed the suggestions there. It did not help. If I quit the Dropbox app, the issue persists. I found something really interesting. If I look at the Path Bar at the bottom of Finder, the folder icons keep changing several times per second (matching the flickering in QuickLook). Sometimes the icons in the Path Bar show as blank gray squares with dashed outlines or Green folders with check marks. It appears that these mini icons are constantly changing. If I disable the Path Bar, then the flickering stops in the quicklook. Again this happens in the Dropbox section of Finder, and not elsewhere. I've shown an example of the two options I see flicker on the Path Bar. Again the file previews and quicklooks flicker also, which is more problematic. I point out the Path Bar as a potentially useful piece of information to determine the problem. Thank you!
Files are syncing, but the menu bar icon isn't present on my device.
Application Affected Dropbox Device MacBook Air M3(Dell XPS 15, iPhone 13, etc.) Operating System/Browser (if using the web) MacOS 26.3 Dropbox App Version (if using the app) 243.4.6956 Question or Issue Installed app but cannot access app preferences. Menubar icon is not appearing. Files are syncing properly but I cannot adjust settings/preferences. I have plenty of room in the menubar, so that's not the problem. Have reinstalled Dropbox twice but still don't have access to app or icon in menubar.
How to sync to an external Thunderbolt 3 SSD Drive on Mac?
Device Mac Studio M1 Max Operating System/Browser (if using the web) macOS Tahoe 26.2 Dropbox App Version (if using the app) (240.4.8609) Dropbox Plan (Plus) Question or Issue I have purchased a 2TB Thunderbolt 3 SSD to use as an external drive for Dropbox as I am running out of space on my 1TB drive in the Mac Studio. For the life of me, I cannot figure out a way in Preferences to point it to the external TB3 SSD drive. It says I am using Dropbox on File Provider and I cannot see the option that will allow me to point it to the external drive. I had previously done so in the past with no problems, till the update to macOS Tahoe when suddenly the link to the external USB-C drive was severed. It worked for a while as I have sufficient space on my 1TB and I did selective sync. Now, I am running out of storage space, I appreciate guidance.
Dropbox created new folders with files that can't be opened - unprompted
My Dropbox, completely unprompted, moved the location of my folders in Finder under only the Dropbox tab, and at the same time created a significant number of new folders with hundreds of files - none of which can be opened. I was able to find the files I had previously, but I'm concerned that these files and new folders may be either malware or my own files which I no longer have access to. I'd love to understand how to return things back to normal and why this occurred in the first place. I am also unable to open the Dropbox app itself - when I click it it opens up Finder. Solutions from existing forums which cover this issue did not work for me. Thank you. Device MacBook Air 2024 Operating System/Browser (if using the web) macOS26.3.1 Dropbox App Version (if using the app) Can't find, because I can't open the app. This is the error message when I try to open my folders from their previous location in Finder: This is an example of the new folders Dropbox has created: This is what the files inside these folders look like: This is what comes up when I try to open the files in these new folders:
This is my experience with using Mac OS File Provider and Dropbox
I've been a Dropbox user for nearly 20 years. I'm writing this after days of troubleshooting, a brand new 24TB external drive I had to buy for $500, and a workflow that is still not fully restored. How it started It began with a routine reorganization — moving files across some large directories. Dropbox simply stopped syncing. It froze. No error message, no clear indication of what went wrong. I contacted Dropbox support. We exchanged multiple messages. Despite their good intentions, they were unable to help me resolve it. So I went down the path of solving it myself. What I tried After exhausting every troubleshooting option I could find, I made the decision to do a full Dropbox removal. I bought a 24TB external drive, moved all my files there as a safety net, and did a clean reinstall of Dropbox from scratch. The new installation runs on the File Provider API. That's when the real problem started. The File Provider trap After the clean install, Finder no longer recognized the Dropbox folder as a proper Dropbox directory. No Online Only / Local controls. No sync icons. Just a folder full of zero-byte files I couldn't open or work with. The reason: I have over 600,000 files. The File Provider migration requires under 300,000 files to grant eligibility. So I'm permanently stuck in legacy mode — which has no mechanism to force-download folders in bulk. Every file only downloads when opened individually. For a software engineer trying to work with a project containing 22,000 files, that's completely unusable. I tried everything: Full uninstall and clean reinstall multiple times Clearing all CloudStorage domains via Terminal touch, cat, cp to /dev/null, brctl download — none work in legacy mode Killing conflicting File Provider extensions from OneDrive and Google Drive helpers Multiple Selective Sync configurations Each test took hours because of the file volume The double failure This is a failure on two fronts. Apple forced every cloud storage provider onto the File Provider API without adequate consideration for power users with large libraries. The 300,000-file eligibility cap is arbitrary and punishes exactly the users who rely on Dropbox most. brctl download — the only CLI tool to force file downloads — only works inside /Library/CloudStorage, making bulk downloads impossible in legacy mode. Dropbox had years to prepare its users for this transition. There was no clear communication that users with large libraries would lose core functionality. No migration path for people with 500K+ files. No bulk download tool. No fallback. Just a quiet "you are not eligible" message that leads to a dead end. Where I am now I'm currently downloading my active project folders locally and moving them to an external drive. My plan is to do a serious cleanup — get below 300,000 files — and see if that finally makes the File Provider work properly. If it does, great. If not, I'll migrate to Google Drive. Not because it's better, but because at least there's no expectation gap. If anyone has gone through this and found a way out, I'd love to hear it. I'm a software engineer. I've tried everything I can think of. And I'm genuinely stuck. To other users with large libraries If you have more than 300,000 files and are seeing the "not eligible" message, the only viable path right now is Selective Sync to reduce your active file count. There is no CLI workaround. There is no bulk download tool in legacy mode. Plan for hours of sync time per attempt. I hope this saves someone the days I lost.I need help to terminate a sync gone bad
I posted the text below to the Dropbox help, and the suggestion I got was to pause the sync. Well, that's not what I want to do. The next suggestion this AI bot came up with was to quit the Dropbox app. Besides the fact that I had already done that and mentioned it in my text, quitting the app does not terminate the sync. That sync starts up right away when starting Dropbox again. Turning to this forum to get in touch with a human being that can understand what I'm saying. In summary, what I want To terminate a sync that went bad without losing any other data. It's ok if the data related to my bad move is destroyed, but I don't want to lose anything else. The Details I'm on a MacBook Pro 2024 with an M4 chip and macOS 15.7.3. I have 416 GB of free space on the hard drive. I have used 16.5% of my Dropbox Storage. I have Dropbox Plus 2 TB. My firewall setting for Dropbox is set to Allow incoming connections. (The only other option is "Block incoming connections.) I have the 243.4.6956 version of the Dropbox App. I'm on Wi-Fi, and the speed for my connection is: Down: 185 Mbit/s Up: 227 Mbit/s Background I've used Dropbox for years, and I've never had any problems with syncing issues before. This time I do have big problems, and the fault is mine as I think I made a mistake. Regardless of whose fault it is, I need the sync to stop, so I can get on with my life and also get on with syncing other stuff between my Mac and Dropbox as per usual. This is what happened What I did: I had stored some Photo libraries in Dropbox and moved them to my Pictures folder on my Mac. I thought it would be faster to import them into my Photos app if they were on my Mac. What can I say? It was midnight. I was tired, and I didn't think clearly. As I said, I'm sure I made a mistake in this whole mess, since I think the file was marked as online-only. Next, it started syncing. And it's been doing that ever since. It's now been more than 30 hours, and I need to "force quit" this particular sync and start over. I have the files I tried to move somewhere else, so it does not matter if anything related to this particular move gets destroyed. This is what I have tried so far to get out of this 1) Paused the sync (many times), waited for a bit, and started the sync again. 2) Rebooted the Mac. 3) Quit the Dropbox app and start it again. 4) I've held down the option key in the Preferences > Account view and did both the "Fix permissions" and "Fix hardlinks". Both worked brilliantly, except for the fact that it did not affect the "sync gone wrong". 5) And of course, back to step one, tried to pause the sync again with the same result. Sync Hell I feel like I'm stuck in sync hell, and I don't know what to do. I just want it to stop. Online Only Most of the other files that I have stored in Dropbox are marked as "Online only", i.e. I don't store them on my Mac. I'm thinking of uninstalling the Dropbox app, but I'm worried about what will happen. It should be ok, since they are in the Dropbox cloud, right? But since I'm the one who got myself into this mess, I'm not sure if I can trust my brain. Looking for solutions I've tried to find a solution online in different forums (where I see I'm not alone with this "I want to stop this sync" issue) and also gone through some help articles. What is the best next step for me? Uninstall the Dropbox app? Is that the same thing as unlinking my computer? Both options (or just the one, if they are the same thing) feel scary. I really, really, really don't want to lose anything else. What can I do? (And please don't tell me to "pause the sync".) If you've come this far - thank you! /Cecily PS Listening to Gino Vanelli's song "I Just Wanna Stop" on repeat, with new lyrics...
Switching to legacy mode and Dropbox icon next to search bar on Finder
Is there a way for me to switch from file provider to legacy mode and also get the dropbox icon to appear next to the search bar on the finder. My co-worker is saying this is important to our workflow but we can't figure out how to set this up.The app seems to be crashing on macOS Tahoe 26.4 (Beta 1)
Application Affected Dropbox Device mac studio Operating System/Browser (if using the web) macOS 26.4 Beta 1 Dropbox App Version (if using the app) 241.4.4853 Question or Issue Dropbox is crashing since I installed macOS Tahoe 26.4 (Beta 1) this morning. The errormessage is: DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None cwd: '/' real_path='/' mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0 parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0 HOME: '/Users/sander' appdata: '/Users/sander/.dropbox/instance3' real_path='/Users/sander/.dropbox/instance3' mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20 parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20 dropbox_path: '/Volumes/Data/.CloudStorage/Data/Dropbox' real_path='/Volumes/Data/.CloudStorage/Data/Dropbox' mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20 parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20 sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox' real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox' mode=0o100755 uid=501 gid=20 parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20 trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc' real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc' not found parent not found tempdir: '/var/folders/v5/1fn_t3055sd904vr0bg75ts40000gn/T' real_path='/private/var/folders/v5/1fn_t3055sd904vr0bg75ts40000gn/T' mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20 parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20 Traceback (most recent call last): File "desktop/dropbox/fs_api/lifecycle.py", line 238, in client File "desktop/dropbox/fs_api/lifecycle.py", line 297, in _create_thin_client File "desktop/dropbox/fs_api/fs_api_adapter.py", line 54, in __init__ File "desktop/extensions/fs_api/fs_api_python.pyx", line 63, in fs_api_python.FsApiServer.__cinit__ fs_api_python.FsApiError: "Initializing fs api |>> Initializing platform |>> Opening worker root directory |>> open syscall |>> FSErrorCode::PermissionDenied" The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception: Traceback (most recent call last): File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 1106, in wrapper File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 8849, in finish_dropbox_boot File "desktop/dropbox/client/message_queue.py", line 338, in _wrapped File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 8130, in _init_components_for_account File "desktop/dropbox/client/main.py", line 8038, in create_sync_engine File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine_boundary/factory.py", line 237, in make_sync_engine File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/sync_engine.py", line 264, in __init__ File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_client.py", line 330, in __init__ File "desktop/dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/base.py", line 260, in __init__ File "../mac_arm64_dropbox_virtual_env/lib/python3.8/functools.py", line 967, in __get__ File "desktop/dropbox/fs_api/lifecycle.py", line 267, in client dropbox.fs_api.lifecycle.FsApiClientCreationException: "Initializing fs api |>> Initializing platform |>> Opening worker root directory |>> open syscall |>> FSErrorCode::PermissionDenied"
Why am I getting a notification on my Mac about Dropbox modifying apps?
Hi everyone! We're starting to notice this Drobox notification below pop up on our Mac community. When we click it, it takes us to Privacy & Security in System Settings but then does nothing. Anyone know what exactly this modifying apps means and what its asking for? Should we be concerned? This particular MBP is running macOS 15.7.4 (Intel) and version 243.4.6956 of the Dropbox app. Thank you!
