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Forum Discussion
Can't start Dropbox because of permission error
Hi!
I have two profiles on my Mac: one for my personal use, and one for my professional use. The profile for personal use has admin rights, the profile for professional use does not (but I could se...
Hi Walter!
That second solution didn't work either, but what I did was I set my Work profile on my Mac as an admin, deleted Dropbox doing the clean uninstall (your first solution), redownloaded and... it worked! I didn't try to have the same Dropbox accounts on both my Personal and Work profile... but that's ok - I can open both, I'll work with shared folders to transfer stuff from one to another and boom! Thanks a lot for your time and help.
Hi Walter! Alas... yes, exact same error. What can be done?
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffSorry to hear this persists, Amelie.
Let's try another route at this point:
1. Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
2. Copy and paste the following line (highlighted below) into the Terminal and press ENTER. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste this command (don't type it by hand), as getting it wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer's admin password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER. You'll know that these instructions complete normally once the initial line of text (called prompt) comes up again:
sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old
Please note that once the prompt displays, the instruction completed the requested task. If the command returns an error, or does not respond after an hour, you may want to try restarting your computer and trying this step again.
3. Restart Dropbox from the Application folder, then please sign in and apply any Selective Sync settings you may have had prior to this reset during the sign in process. Your account will take a few moments to reindex the files and sync any pending changes.
If the desktop app still doesn't start then please copy and send me (a screenshot of) the result from the Terminal commands and any error messages.
Thanks!
Hi Walter!
That second solution didn't work either, but what I did was I set my Work profile on my Mac as an admin, deleted Dropbox doing the clean uninstall (your first solution), redownloaded and... it worked! I didn't try to have the same Dropbox accounts on both my Personal and Work profile... but that's ok - I can open both, I'll work with shared folders to transfer stuff from one to another and boom! Thanks a lot for your time and help.
- شكرا لك ولجهدك المبذول من أجلي ارجو ان تكلل بنجاح
I have tried doing this
sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old
And when I signed into dropbox again I got the same error.
bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 134.4.4115
bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 51
bn.is_frozen: True
machine_id: 2662740a-36c2-592a-b880-c850d7544834
pid: 1162
ppid: 1
uid: 501
user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='scott', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Scott G Cain', pw_dir='/Users/scott', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='scott', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Scott G Cain', pw_dir='/Users/scott', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
euid: 501
gid: 20
egid: 20
group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'scott', '_xcsbuildagent', '_xcscredserver'])
effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'scott', '_xcsbuildagent', '_xcscredserver'])
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
cwd: '/'
real_path='/'
mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
HOME: '/Users/scott'
appdata: '/Users/scott/.dropbox/instance1'
real_path='/Users/scott/.dropbox/instance1'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
dropbox_path: '/Users/scott/Dropbox (Personal)'
real_path='/Users/scott/Dropbox (Personal)'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
mode=0o100755 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
not found
parent not found
tempdir: '/var/folders/5k/08d5ty891hn_v0c9dwjqfcsw0000gn/T'
real_path='/private/var/folders/5k/08d5ty891hn_v0c9dwjqfcsw0000gn/T'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 816, in wrapper
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6537, in finish_dropbox_boot
File "dropbox/client/message_queue.pyc", line 313, in _wrapped
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6070, in _init_components_for_account
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 5994, in create_sync_engine
File "dropbox/sync_engine_boundary/factory.pyc", line 226, in make_sync_engine
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/sync_engine.pyc", line 278, in __init__
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_client.pyc", line 245, in __init__
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/base.pyc", line 152, in __init__
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/thin_adapter/in_proc.pyc", line 209, in __init__
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/thin_adapter/in_proc.pyc", line 512, in _init_new_engine_locked
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/thin_client/client.pyc", line 133, in __init__
File "desktop/extensions/nucleus/nucleus_python.pyx", line 76, in nucleus_python.NucleusSyncEngine.__cinit__
nucleus_python.SyncEngineError: "Initializing engine |>> Initializing filesystem |>> Attempting to register icons |>> fchflags syscall: _set_hidden |>> Permission denied"
Sorry for my English! I changed the name of the account and user folder and the dropbox app refused to install. This entry into the terminal and restarting the iMac helped. Thank you(Spasibo - Спасибо), Walter!
- Walter
thank you so much for posting this!
totally fixed my permission errors.
really appreciate your help
this sentence fixed EVERTHING:sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old
you are amazing.
Walter, I've been struggling to relink my account and your solution worked like a dream. Much quicker than what the Helpdesk recommended. Thank you so much!
