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Forum Discussion
Dropbox options missing in right-click menu on Windows
Hi guys,
today, probably after downloading and installing latest stable release a Dropbox, the context menu disappeared from Windows Explorer.
Dropbox version: 183.4.7058
Windows 10 version: 22H2 OS build 19045.3448
Unfortunately I am not sure, what version was installed prior to update.
Any ideas to solve this? Was reading older posts of same issue and not sure how to proceed? Downgrade to older stable and disable updates for a while?
Thanks Petr
Hi all,
Jumping in here, as our team would like to share some insights that may be helpful:
This issue may be related to other applications on your computer that use the icon overlay and context menu functionality of your Operating System.If you are on Windows, please note that Windows has a limit of 15 overlay icons that Windows Explorer can load, and the operating system reserves 4 for its own use.
If there are more than 15, then the Dropbox icons or context menus may not show. To fix this and move the Dropbox sync icons to the first 15 positions:1. Follow the steps in the following article to open your Windows 10 registry editor (applicable to Windows 11 also):
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-open-registry-editor-in-windows-10-deab38e6-91d6-e0aa-4b7c-8878d9e07b11
2. A “Registry Editor” window will open.
3. Navigate through the following folders: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” > “SOFTWARE” > “Microsoft” > “Windows” > “CurrentVersion” > “Explorer” > “ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers”.
4. Rename (right-click and click Rename) the files, so that the Dropbox files appear in the first 15 files in the list. You can do this by putting spaces in front of those file names, so that they move higher up in the list.
5. Close and restart both of your computer and the Dropbox desktop app.
Thank you,
Sam
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hey alonzo86 - thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Have you reinstalled since you first noticed this behavior?
If you did and this persists, you can also perform a clean, advanced reinstall.
Let us know of any updates!
Hey there,
i am also missing since a few days the right click context menu on win 10.
What's the latest news on this and is there a fix without reinstalling everything?
regards,
mlon
- Nancy
Welcome back to our forum, mlon! Let’s gather a few info first.
Are you seeing the small Dropbox icon in your system tray? If yes, I’d like to know the Dropbox app’s version and syncing status.
I may have a fix, I had a user report this yesterday on Dropbox for Business Advanced. The report was that the Windows Explorer right-click context menu was missing all Dropbox options. I checked the app version and it was up to date, it appears the update caused the problem. Although Control Panel, Programs only showed one Dropbox version, I found another.
In CMD / Powershell, run the command "winget list"
Check the output for multiple Dropbox entries, in my case two versions were listed:
Dropbox Dropbox.Dropbox 201.4.5552
Dropbox DropboxInc.Dropbox_wkt425jdc3sga 200.4.7134.0
If there are multiple entries, remove the older version e.g:
"winget uninstall DropboxInc.Dropbox_wkt425jdc3sga"
Restart Dropbox, once it is fully synced and ready, test the context menu is backWorth mentioning, before I discovered the above, I had tried installing over the top of what was installed and removing and resinstalling - both failed. I think I found the second Dropbox version was installed as I was working through the advanced uninstall so perhaps that would have worked, but my method avoids the need to resync everything!
I've had this issue as well on Windows 10. It seems 203.3.4812 has fixed the problem for me anyway.
this solution does not works for me. have also uninstalled Onedrive to reduce the amount of options in the right click mention but still nothing.
any other ideas?
- Nancy
Sorry to hear that, @CliffSmiff. First off, I’d like to know the syncing status and app version of your Dropbox app.
How long ago did you notice the options were missing? Was it after a specific OS or Dropbox update? On that note, I’d also like to know the OS version of your device.
sorry for the late reply. it sometimes shows up and sometimes not. I always have the latest Dropbox verison, as I use the iOS integration, i dont have the app open and currently I am not on my work laptop.
You’ve removed this function I use frequently, so now it’s taking 10 times longer to do the same thing. What’s the up side of making your service less useful ?
After few hours of going back and forth uninstalling, clean uninstalling, reinstalling, registry editing, windows updating etc with the help of ChatGPT, ChatGPT gave a suggestion to run the dropbox app in a compatibility mode, which I did, running the app in compatibility mode for either Win7 or Win8, brings the right click context menu back. Ironically, Dropbox announced an ending for Win7 and Win8 support... How come I have the right click context menu while running in Compatibility Mode, but I don't have it while I run it normally
