I get an error message that Windows System Restore failed?

Hey Richard - sorry to hear about this!

Have you asked Microsoft directly as this error is coming from your Windows computer's directly and not Dropbox? 

What I was able to find is that this issue can happen in Windows computers due to various reasons. Some of them are: 

1. System files corruption or missing
2. Hard disk errors or bad sectors
3. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable
4. Unknown virus or malware infection. 

I hope this information helps point you towards the right direction and please keep me posted on your findings Richard P.44/. 

Hi 

yes followed through the microsoft procedures and not found anything to help

Raised it here as the file causing the error was a dropbox placeholder file. Seems to have only become a problem since smart sync came into operation

Richard

Thanks for the additional info Richard P.44 - much appreciated.

From what I understand (note that this is not within my scope of expertise in any way) when you run the System Restore your computer tries to restore a placeholder file from your external drive (yes, I noticed the " D:\ "part on that file's path) and fails for some reason. Do you have that external drive connected to your computer when performing your system's recovery? 

At this point and to help isolate this issue, could you please try quitting the Dropbox application when trying to restore by using the following steps?

• Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac/Linux)
• Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select "Quit Dropbox"

Let me know if this helped! 

Walter

I have to admit that I hadnt taken in that it was referring to D drive. There is one but its just an HP partition for recovery files - so nothing to do with Dropbox

I therefore uninstalled dropbox - tested system restore without it having cleaned out all the dropbox folders - restore worked fine

Then reinstalled Dropbox to a new folder - and restore worked fine as well

So something to do with a corruption in the cache folder perhaps. Anyway problem solved

Many thanks for your help

Glad to hear you managed to resolve your concern in the end Richard P.44! 

Should you ever come up with a question - or issue for that matter - please let me know.

Thanks for using Dropbox and have a lovely day ahead! 

I am having the same problem.  I followed Richard's instructions, i.e.; uninstalled Dropbox, and reran System Restore from Safe mode.  I am still getting the placeholder.bat error.

Any other thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance,

dee

I see a very painful Windows Reset in my future.

I did some testing after I did a Windows Reset and reinstalled all my apps.

first test:

1. created a System Restore point (with Dropbox installed.)
2. uninstalled Dropbox
3. attempted a Safe Mode recovery
4. results: Recovery failed with "Placeholder.bat error"

second test:

1. uninstalled Dropbox
2. created a System Restore point
3. attempted a Safe Mode recovery
4. results: Recover succeeded

The results indicate that it's not the restore process that is failing, but the Restore file created with Dropbox installed.  This is a VERY bad result for both of us.

I wouldn't put it past MS to do this on purpose, given that you are a competitor for their OneDrive, but this is untenable for me.  I have a very tight deadline, and I have wasted 3 days on this process because Dell sent me a crap update.

It is sad to say, given that your software has saved me from myself more than once, but we must part company.  I need valid Restore points.

I see my answer awhile back is shown as the accepted solution - but I havent been able to get System Restore to work since then.

I am heavily dependent on Dropbox for work so I cant move elsewhere for cloud storage - so I now make regular system image backups which is a work around

Like DeeRoche I do think this is something Dropbox need to resolve

Hey there folks, thank you for this feedback!

I will make sure your comments are passed along to our dev team for future consideration.

If there's anything else I can do in the meantime, do let me know please.

Would just like to add that I'm having the exact same problem. A user installed a faulty driver this morning and the system won't boot. Trying to use system restore, but it fails with this exact same error:

System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed.

Details:

System restore failed to replace the file (C:\Users\<user>\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgbzfynfuwbof\placeholder(2865).bat) with its original copy from the restore point.

An unspecified error occurred during the System Restore. (0x80070780)

Based on this issue and the OP's issue, it appears that Dropbox has effectively broken System Restore in Windows 10. This is defintely a bit ridiculous. Now, instead of a quick restore, I'm forced to rebuild this laptop, which will cause myself and the user to lose at least a day or more of productivity. Please look into this problem, guys!