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Forum Discussion
Run Dropbox as Service, without being logged on
I have been scouring the internet for how to setup Dropbox to run on Windows Server 2012 R2 as a service. I have seen tutorials for 3rd party applications that will start it on boot and allow sync, but I cannot use any additional software in my company environment.
I want Dropbox to be up and syncing 24/7, but this is not possible without physically being logged into the server.
All I am looking to do is run Dropbox at boot as my local account, and login to my Dropbox account to allow sync. Can someone please assist me with this issue?
- Jay
Dropbox Staff
- Rich
Super User II
Last I saw, even when installed normally (not as a service), the Dropbox app wasn't running correctly on server-based Windows operating systems. It used to work, but I believe some application dependencies changed which aren't part of the more modern server operating systems, and that broke Dropbox on those systems.
Maybe something has changed since then, but I've been under the impression that Dropbox simply won't run on Server 2012 or newer any longer.
Works fine on my 2012 and 2016 servers.
I have been using "Always-up" by coretechnologies for a number of years to run our Dropbox as a service.
Why doesn't DropBox make a version that can run as a service? I too have managed to hack it to work but why not atually make this an official feature? It would be a brilliant addition.
- Rich
Sam242 wrote:
Why doesn't DropBox make a version that can run as a service?
Because Dropbox has never intended for it to be used in that manner. It has always been meant as an application for one individual; not run as a service or be installed on server-based operating systems. Can it be done? Sure, but it's not on Dropbox to provide a built-in option when it's not meant to be run in that manner.
How about running Dropbox on a VM configured as a service? Is that possible?
