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Forum Discussion
Dropbox has two entries in my PC Startup - Why?
Some of my computers have two startup entries for dropbox. If you open Task Manager - Startup, there are two things using PC resources at startup. The first one appears as "Dropbox (3)." That is the one I am used to seeing, which should run at Startup. But the other is "Dropbox Update (4)." Why is this second thing in my PC startup? I have the same Dropbox installed on several computers. None of the desktop computers have this "Dropbox Update" running in the computer startup processes. But all three of my laptop computers have both Dropbox entries running at startup. Why? I would like to eliminate unnecessary startup processes to help computer performance. Why would laptops have this extra startup for Dropbox Update?
I received this support response to my support ticket last month. I didn't think to post it here, although I think I alerted the support person who sent me this answer of this forum discussion and thought he might share this information. Short answer to these questions regarding multiple Dropbox instances -- it's normal. Longer answer, I will cut and paste this information from Dropbox support:
Frank, Aug 8, 6:54 AM PDT:
My HP Pavilion laptop running windows 8.1 appears to be running 4 instances of "Dropbox Update" upon startup. What's going on?
Mine shows 3 instances of Dropbox but no Dropbox Updates. My husband's shows 2 instances of Dropbox and 3 updates. Have you figured out why this is?
Jumping in here as well - I have three showing up. I followed the link above and submitted a help request but wanted to get on this thread for follow-up posts
Hi Garold,
Thank you for contacting Dropbox!
I can confirm that it is expected to see multiple Dropbox processes in task manager when Dropbox is running. The Dropbox application needs these additional components to monitor that everything is running correctly and that the desktop application is always healthy and up to date. The additional processes should consume a negligible amount of CPU and memory resources. If they are causing any performance issues on your computer please let me know.
Thank you for reaching out with this query, I hope this helps.
Regards,
Frank
Hope that support info will be helpful to others finding this discussion!
Gary