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Forum Discussion
Unable to stop autostart on Ubuntu
I run Dropbox (v43.4.50) on Ubuntu (16.04.3). I have unticked the "Start Dropbox on system startup" option in Dropbox Preferences but dropbox still autostarts on boot.
Even if I manually untick or remove Dropbox as a startup program in the Ubuntu Startup Applications Preferences, Dropbox still adds itself back-in the next time Dropbox is run.
This problem only came up a month or two ago so it's likely to be a bug.
JC from Dropbox Support provided instructions to resolve this issue by doing a full reinstall and re-sync and it worked for me. The Start Dropbox on system startup option now works as expected and I can turn off autostart.
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First, make sure you save and quit ALL programs that access files in the Dropbox folder.
Note: Please be sure to make a note or take a screenshot of any Selective Sync settings you may have applied as well as the location of your Dropbox folder (if not in the default location) prior to re-installing, as you will need to match these settings upon re-install. If you're using a headless version of Dropbox you can access the list of Selective Sync folders by running "dropbox exclude".
Depending on your OS and the package you used to perform the installation, you could have files in two different locations. I'm sending you instructions for both of the cases, so if some of the commands error out don't worry.
Run the following commands in your terminal:
dropbox stop
dropbox status # Should report "not running"
rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist
rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox
rm -rf ~/.dropbox*
sudo apt-get remove nautilus-dropbox
sudo apt-get remove dropbox
rm /etc/apt/source.d/dropbox
Once you're done you have two options:
1) Install the Dropbox application with its graphical components using one of our packages. If you want to do that, download the correct package for your OS and architecture here:
https://www.dropbox.com/install?os=linux
Open your downloads folder and double click on the package file to start the installer.
When Dropbox has finished installing, please sign in and apply any Selective Sync settings you may have had prior to the reinstall and select the Dropbox folder location (if not in the default location) during the sign in process. Your account will take a few moments to reindex the files and sync any pending changes.
2) The second option is to run a headless version of Dropbox. This version will not have any of the menus or graphical components and can only be interacted with through the command line. To install this version do the following:
If your machine is 32-bit:
cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -
If your machine is 64-bit:
cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -
Next, run the Dropbox daemon from the newly created .dropbox-dist folder.
~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
When Dropbox has finished installing please sign in and apply any Selective Sync settings you may have had prior to the reinstall. Your account will take a few moments to reindex the files and sync any pending changes.
More installation and CLI information is also available here:
https://www.dropbox.com/install
Once that's done, please open the preferences of the application, (via right clicking the tray icon), and in the Accounts tab of preferences, untick "Start Dropbox on system Startup".
- Karina
Dropbox Staff
Hey Dinjay thanks for your message and hope you're having a nice day! :slight_smile:
Normally, unchecking the Dropbox app as an automatic startup program should prevent Dropbox from starting up the next time you run your device.
However, here's something you can try out if you haven't already:
dropbox autostart [y/n]
Options:
n Dropbox will not start automatically at login.( y Dropbox will start automatically at login - which is the default )
This command may only work on Ubuntu 10.04 or higher (so, you should be good if you carry out this command).
Give this a try and let me know how it works for you and if you're able to stop Dropbox's autostart upon system startup. Thanks in advance!
Hi @
That command removed dropbox autostart (ie removed from Startup Applications) temporarily.
But if I run Dropbox again, it automatically added itself back on to autostart. This means that I would need to manually run that command each time after running Dropbox.
Hello Dinjay,
I suggest you to choose the headless installation from Command Line and use the Python script attached here to control the daemon! In such a way, if your problem still happens, you can create a script to automatically execute the python and close Dropbox. The command is
./dropbox.py stop
Have a nice day!
Ross_SFrankLinux beat me to it.
The script mentioned would be the best way.Hi @
- Ross_SApologies, the auto-start box has recently disappeared and will reappear shortly (in the next version), potentially resolving your issue.
JC from Dropbox Support provided instructions to resolve this issue by doing a full reinstall and re-sync and it worked for me. The Start Dropbox on system startup option now works as expected and I can turn off autostart.
--------------------------------------------------------------
First, make sure you save and quit ALL programs that access files in the Dropbox folder.
Note: Please be sure to make a note or take a screenshot of any Selective Sync settings you may have applied as well as the location of your Dropbox folder (if not in the default location) prior to re-installing, as you will need to match these settings upon re-install. If you're using a headless version of Dropbox you can access the list of Selective Sync folders by running "dropbox exclude".
Depending on your OS and the package you used to perform the installation, you could have files in two different locations. I'm sending you instructions for both of the cases, so if some of the commands error out don't worry.
Run the following commands in your terminal:
dropbox stop
dropbox status # Should report "not running"
rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist
rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox
rm -rf ~/.dropbox*
sudo apt-get remove nautilus-dropbox
sudo apt-get remove dropbox
rm /etc/apt/source.d/dropbox
Once you're done you have two options:
1) Install the Dropbox application with its graphical components using one of our packages. If you want to do that, download the correct package for your OS and architecture here:
https://www.dropbox.com/install?os=linux
Open your downloads folder and double click on the package file to start the installer.
When Dropbox has finished installing, please sign in and apply any Selective Sync settings you may have had prior to the reinstall and select the Dropbox folder location (if not in the default location) during the sign in process. Your account will take a few moments to reindex the files and sync any pending changes.
2) The second option is to run a headless version of Dropbox. This version will not have any of the menus or graphical components and can only be interacted with through the command line. To install this version do the following:
If your machine is 32-bit:
cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -
If your machine is 64-bit:
cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -
Next, run the Dropbox daemon from the newly created .dropbox-dist folder.
~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
When Dropbox has finished installing please sign in and apply any Selective Sync settings you may have had prior to the reinstall. Your account will take a few moments to reindex the files and sync any pending changes.
More installation and CLI information is also available here:
https://www.dropbox.com/install
Once that's done, please open the preferences of the application, (via right clicking the tray icon), and in the Accounts tab of preferences, untick "Start Dropbox on system Startup".
