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RoyWilliams3's avatar
RoyWilliams3
Explorer | Level 3
4 years ago

Dropbox desktop app is installed but won't open (windows 10)

Dropbox icon shows up in the system tray (in white) for a few seconds then disappears & it's not in the overflow area.  Machine just came back from repair shop, where the tech unexpectedly installed lots of updates, reinstalled Chrome (I lost everything except passwords), and may have reinstalled Dropbox.  I don't want to use the new Dropbox interface; I prefer to stay with access via File Explorer.

  • Hi RoyWilliams3, welcome aboard our Community!

    About the Dropbox icon disappearing from your system tray, can you try uninstalling the Dropbox application, restarting your computer and then reinstalling it, to see if that helps?

    Just, before you do that, keep in mind that if you have a free Dropbox account, you can only have up to 3 devices linked to your account. So, if this one gets disconnected and you have more than 3 already, you won't be able to reconnect it, until you delete enough devices from your account settings.

    As for the setting that opens your files in the Dropbox application, you can follow the steps here to change it back to the file explorer folder.

    Let me know how that works out for you!
  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    Hi RoyWilliams3, welcome aboard our Community!

    About the Dropbox icon disappearing from your system tray, can you try uninstalling the Dropbox application, restarting your computer and then reinstalling it, to see if that helps?

    Just, before you do that, keep in mind that if you have a free Dropbox account, you can only have up to 3 devices linked to your account. So, if this one gets disconnected and you have more than 3 already, you won't be able to reconnect it, until you delete enough devices from your account settings.

    As for the setting that opens your files in the Dropbox application, you can follow the steps here to change it back to the file explorer folder.

    Let me know how that works out for you!
    • RoyWilliams3's avatar
      RoyWilliams3
      Explorer | Level 3

      Thank you.  Uninstalling & reinstalling (after deleting old devices I don't even have any more!) did the trick.

      • Hannah's avatar
        Hannah
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        Perfect, happy to hear that, Roy! 

        Make sure to let us know if you ever need anything else.

        Happy Friday!
    • RoyWilliams3's avatar
      RoyWilliams3
      Explorer | Level 3

      Hi, Hannah (or anyone who can help me),

       

      The same thing just happened again!  Dropbox is installed on my Windows 10 desktop, but didn't open at startup for some unknown reason.  I got it to open, it did the usual indexing, uploaded a changed file or two to the cloud & said it was up to date.   Then I tried to undelete a folder that I had accidentally deleted in a recent cleanup. (It does still exist in the Dropbox cloud).  Suddenly the black Dropbox logo disappeared from the tray.  When I tried to reopen Dropbox, the logo re-appeared in the tray in white for a few seconds then disappeared.  

       

      Do I have to uninstall & reinstall Dropbox again?   I want to get to the bottom of whatever the underlying problem is so I don't have to do that every few days.  Thanks in advance for your help, Roy Williams

      • Hannah's avatar
        Hannah
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        Hey Roy, thanks for nudging me on this. 

        I'm sorry to hear you're still having the same issue. 

        Can you try our more advanced reinstall of the application and let me know if it helps?

        Thanks!

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