<SOLVED> No submenu in xfce

[ilanb]

I'm using debian with xfce, fresh install.

I've installed the current stable 64bit dropbox app but the icon in the tray does not respond to right (or left) clicks. It is a bit annoying but I could live with that if only I could access the sync preferences by some other means.

1. how can I get the icon to open the submenu?

2. is it possible to access the settings from another way? CLI?

thanks

[Здравко]

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@ilanb wrote:

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1. how can I get the icon to open the submenu?

...

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Hi @ilanb,

There is no universal answer to such a question, but you can try something like following commands in terminal:

killall dropbox
dropbox start

Does the menu appear now? 🤔

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@ilanb wrote:

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2. is it possible to access the settings from another way? CLI?

...

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It depends what settings you take in mind. Some of them yes others no. Take a look here for possible.

Hope this helps.

[ilanb]

Thanks, I've stopped and started a few times, I've uninstalled the package and reinstalled nautilus-dropbox instead (I read that somewhere), but nothing helps. Dropbox launches, the icon is in the tray, files are sync'ing but clicking on the icon does not open the submenu. I need to select the files I need to sync before I fill my hard drive with a few TB which I don't need.

thanks

[Здравко]

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@ilanb wrote:

... but clicking on the icon does not open the submenu. ...

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Ah.. I thought you mean the main menu. Sometime the application cannot start properly; that's why I mentioned the above. About the submenus... they actually is a pain that Dropbox never confirmed existence of. I signaled for such issues long time ago (other people too), but no any reaction. Better don't rely this to be fixed at all.

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@ilanb wrote:

... I need to select the files I need to sync before I fill my hard drive with a few TB which I don't need.

...

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Here you need Selective sync actually, no any part of the submenus. You can access it from the main menu. What's the problem? 🤔

[ilanb]

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Better don't rely this to be fixed at all.

Annoying, it worked well on all my other machines so far.

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Here you need Selective sync actually, no any part of the submenus. You can access it from the main menu. What's the problem? 🤔

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Well, Selective sync is under Preferences which can be accessed when the icon in the tray responds. But this one does not. Any click on it and nothing happens so I can't get to the Preferences.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to open it?

[Здравко · Accepted solution]

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@ilanb wrote:

Well, Selective sync is under Preferences which can be accessed when the icon in the tray responds. But this one does not. Any click on it and nothing happens ...

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So... your issue is related to main menu, not the submenus there. Most probably the source is the same. It's know (not by Dropbox 🤦) that the menu and submenus don't work stable. They sometimes work but sometimes not - might be some small change in configuration (not well defined what actually is needed) - very poor programming (absolute newbies).

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@ilanb wrote:

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Is there a keyboard shortcut to open it?

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There are no any shortcuts for Dropbox, but you can use CLI (the exclude feature there). Take a look on the link I posted before. 😉 Just add the folders you want to exclude; adding is the same like unchecking the marks.

Good luck.

[ilanb]

so it looks we're almost done! At least to a point that I can live with.

First of all, jumping back and forth between gnome and xfce, I got confused and the issue actually happened in gnome.

I opened dropbox in xfce and it had a menu on the tray icon, so that I could set my selective sync.

It was then endlessly hanging there in starting mode. I found the solution here,  and used the same value of 500000.

Then, back to gnome, still no menu on right clicking the icon tray but at least files have sync'ed.

I noticed that the context menu on the files did not show a dropbox section in the menu either. Annoying if you want to get a link.

After uninstalling dropbox and reinstalling nautilus-dropbox, the context menu had a full-fledged dropbox section.

I'll still have to log in via xfce to update my syncing preferences but at least we can get started.

Thanks for your help.

[Здравко]

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@ilanb wrote:

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It was then endlessly hanging there in starting mode. I found the solution here,  and used the same value of 500000.

...

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🙂 If you executed the lines I mentioned above, you would have saw that message already and know this. Something more: this is not just some arbitrary number. This number have to be more than the total count of files and folder your application should monitor (i.e. all files and folders within your Dropbox folder). You may need to check this from time to time and update it if needed if your files number grows in time. Every time you may need to update this value you'll need to restart Dropbox application (updated value take effect after application starts from zero, not immediately).

Have a nice day.