I cannot login to www.dropbox.com from any browser on my Ubuntu box

[rpr]

On Ubuntu MATE 16.04 64-bit desktop I cannot login to https://www.dropbox.com/login in any browser (I've tried Chrome 59.0.3071.104, Chromium 58.0.3029.110, Firefox 54.0) - the page opens but after I enter my username and password (regular account, not Google account) I see a spinning wheel near the sign-in button but the login never succeeds - see this screenshot. I can add that the login used to work on that system a few months ago.

On the other hand, I can login in successfully from a Windows laptop in the same network (home network connected to the Internet via a DSL router). I checked that both Ubuntu machine and Windows machine use the same DNS server of my ISP.

I also tried to login from two virtual machines (Ubuntu 17.04 64-bit and Windows XP) I have on my Ubuntu desktop: on Windows the login is successful while on Ubuntu I see the same issue described above.

Has anyone seen such an issue on Ubuntu or another Linux OS? Any suggestion for troubleshooting it?

[Sanchez]

Hey @rpr, welcome to our forum! 

This is indeed very curious, as you are doing this online. Are you still experiencing this login issue? Let me know when you get a chance, and we’ll see what we can do about it. 

Thanks

[rpr]

Yes, I am still experiencing this issue. On the affected system I cannot sign in to https://www.dropbox.com, nor to this forum (https://www.dropboxforum.com).

[Sanchez]

Hey @rpr, 

I’m not familiar with this Linux distribution you’re using, but I’ll take the usual troubleshooting path… 

• there must be something on this machine that’s blocking or hindering our site from loading fully
• are there other websites that you are having trouble accessing?
• try disabling any security software on this machine, at least temporarily 
• check firewall preferences on this machine
• check other network settings on this machine
• check browser plugins and addons 

If you check all the above, and you aren’t able to get past this, I’m not sure what more I can do for you. We support Ubuntu for our desktop application, which you aren’t using, and the distribution you’re on isn’t a standard release. 

I any event, let me know how this goes.

Cheers

[rpr]

The Ubuntu MATE is actually just Ubuntu distribution with MATE desktop environment.

I've done some additional testing with these changes:

• Disabled firewall in Ubuntu (although it should't make any difference as the firewall is configured to block only inbound traffic, not outbound traffic). But there is still the firewall in my DSL router which also blocks all inbound traffic from the Internet and so protects my home network 🙂
• Started Firefox with "firefox -P" and created a new profile which does not run any add-ons or extensions.

The issue was still present. Then I turned on the Network Monitor in Firefox (Tools > Web Developer > Network) on both the Windows machine where I can sign in successfully and on Ubuntu machine where I have the issue. Here are the screenshots of network traffic after I enter my credentials:

• successful login
• unsuccessful login

It can be seen that Firefox sends the user credentials with the POST method on https://www.dropbox.com/ajax_login page:

• On Windows machine, Firefox gets a response to the POST method after which dropbox server continues to serve the content of the dropbox site. 
• On Ubuntu machine, Firefox doesn't get a response to the POST method and obviously the login process cannot finish successfully.

Any comments on this?

[Jane]

 Hey @rpr, 

Thanks for the screenshots and cooperation. 

I attempted to reproduce using a similar configuration, though everything worked fine on my end. 

It appears that this will have to be looked into by a team specialist, who will bettre advise on how to have this reolved. So that we investigate and assist, please raise a ticket with our team and let me know here once you have done so, so that I look it up on my end. 

Will be awaiting your reply here!

Warm regards, 

JaneA 

[rpr]

I've submitted a help request through the link you provided but after that I haven't received any confirmation on e-mail with a ticket number. Is this expected?

[Jane]

Hey @rpr, 

Thanks for your cooperation, much appreciated! 

I’ve made sure you received a reply back on your open ticket and my colleague has been awaiting your email back so that you troubleshoot together. At your convenience, could you check your inbox for their message and let me know if you have any issues locating the reply, so that I make sure that you receive it again. 

Thanks again for your patience, I hope this gets resolved soon! 

Warm regards, 

JaneA