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dhayduk's avatar
dhayduk
Explorer | Level 4
4 years ago

Dropbox "Connecting..." with VPN

Been using Dropbox for many years. Normally DB is connected and status is "up to date". And it had been then when I started VPN to the office, that DB would lose connection (not surprising) and would then re-establish the connection. But for the past few updates, the DB icon in the tray is grayed out and the status stays "Connecting...". Sometimes it will even sync any changes that get made (say I upload a picture via my phone), but not always. Proxy is set to AUTO.

 

Definitely didn't have this problem in earlier versions - just not sure exactly when it started (currently running v127.4.4265 on Windows).

  • dhayduk's avatar
    dhayduk
    Explorer | Level 4

    Oh, should have mentioned that if I disconnect from the VPN, then Dropbox will successfully connect after a few seconds.

     

    Also, if VPN is connected and I completely kill dropbox and restart - then it will connect successfully. But then when I disconnect VPN, it will stay in "Connecting..." mode.

     

    So basically, it doesn't like having the network endpoint changed while it is running (and doesn't seem to actually retry the connection)...

  • Megan's avatar
    Megan
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

    Hi dhayduk, how are you today?

    Sorry to hear about this issue - can you try locating the Dropbox icon and menu from the system tray ?

    Then, try right-clicking on the icon to access the Dropbox desktop application menu and click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel. 

     

    Select "Preferences" from the Dropbox menu. Select the "Proxies" submenu or tab and from there "No proxy".

    Can you give it a go, and let me know how it goes? 

    • dhayduk's avatar
      dhayduk
      Explorer | Level 4

      I changed to "No Proxy" but Dropbox still didn't connect (we do use proxies at VPN, so that's why I've used auto-detect in the past and it correctly detected "no proxy" when off VPN and "proxy" when on VPN)...

       

      I did notice this morning that Dropbox had connected overnight. Hours after the initial VPN gets established - Dropbox is finally able to connect.

       

      I'll check again tomorrow (VPN connect gets reset every 24 hours; currently connected for 4.2 hours).

      • Megan's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        Happy Monday dhayduk!

        I'm here to check how things are for you now. Could you also check your DNS settings? 

        Also, feel free to let me know your ISP location, please. 
  • AtlasJustice's avatar
    AtlasJustice
    New member | Level 2

    I have this issue. Using ProtonVPN. Annoying that i have to restart Dropbox on my Mac. Disruptive when i forget to manually restart Dropbox and then my local files don't sync with my partners. Please fix!

    • alturic's avatar
      alturic
      Explorer | Level 3

      You know, I came here to give an update about how I thought it was a specific provider I was trying out at the time, but after reading my comments I was (and still am) using OpenVPN and while I am using the OpenVPN GUI and not their normal app (which is what I was using at the time), I haven't had this issue since.

       

      So it's possibly it's something with the way the actual underlying "app" that performs the connections is doing. I'd suspect that some of the apps (unless they all inherently have to of course) potentially cut all connectivity when it connects/reconnects and that trips up Dropbox.

       

      Like I said, I'm currently using OpenVPN GUI and I haven't had the issue with Dropbox since. Absolutely nothing else has changed on my end since.