Forum Discussion

Explorer | Level 4

8 years ago

Dropbox Won't Open, Sync, Uninstall or Reinstall on Windows 10

Been running dropbox on my computer without a problem for over a year. Just realized today that it hasn't synced for about the past week. Running on Windows 10. Also running Symantic Enpoint Protecti...

Desktop

Uninstall

Sanchez
8 years ago
Hey Dolphining, welcome to our forum!

This would be my course of action, if I have understood your situation correctly:

uninstall Dropbox

open your task manager (right-click on task bar, choose task manager)

click on Processes (show processes from all users if necessary)

find any Dropbox related processes and end them (End Process)

now try installing our desktop app from scratch

I would download the offline installer and install it

I would also disable the Symantec program, and any other security/firewall/etc. app

If the above doesn’t do the trick, I would then try JaneA’s solution for the Error 2 scenario

Check this out, and let me know when you get a chance :wink:

Thanks!

Dolphining

Explorer | Level 4

I was finally able to uninstall by deleting everything in my temp and local files and ending processes in Task Manager, but after restarting there is still a Dropbox process running. There is no recognizable program, or anything in Program Files or Program Files (x86), but it's running nonetheless.

After ending that process again and editing my environment Path (Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment) to %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%, I tried installing via the offline installer, but got the error 2 again.

Note, I went back and sucessfully installed an earlier version of Dropbox, but I was unable to log in via the desktop app because it said I needed to use a more recent version. So, I can get some version to install and open, but, obviously, that's not a solution.

Other thoughts?

Dolphining

Explorer | Level 4

8 years ago

I went ahead and deleted all of the dropbox files and dropbox folder as well. Then cleaned up local files and everything else on C: that said dropbox. I wasn't able to find DbxSvc, which still ran on startup, but after stopping it an making sure absolutely everything else was deleted I was able to get the offline downloaded dropbox installer to work. It's now syncing again.

Note, this was done while the firewall and Symantic Enpoint was running, so that wasn't the issue.

I still don't know what caused the problem. A little affraid that it's going to happen again when there is some kind of Windows update. Any idea what caused it?

Thanks!

Sanchez
Dropbox Staff
8 years ago
Hey Dolphining,

Thanks for getting back to me with the update. I’m glad to hear that you’ve worked this out!

To be honest, I don’t have any idea what caused this. I have seen it before, and the procedure for dealing with this Error 2 usually works just fine. I’ve not yet had a repeat customer with the same issue, so I believe you’re in pretty good shape.

Cheers
Jane
Dropbox Staff
8 years ago
Hey Dolphining,

I appreciate your prompt follow-up here, so glad to hear this was sorted!

If it's not too much trouble for you, would you mind taking a minute of your time to fill out a survey sharing your experience using the Dropbox Community? You can access it here: http://bit.ly/2lNKIxT .

[ Please feel free to get back in touch here at any time if you have any other Dropbox questions or experience any issues in the future. ]

Happy Dropboxing, wishing you a great rest of the day,

JaneA
- KeithMould
  New member | Level 2
  6 years ago
  Hi
  
  I am having a similar problem. Dropbox stopped syncing and now I can't get it to run, even running as Adminstrator.
  
  Uninstalling fails. I have followed your solve above, but it requires uninstalling which fails!
  
  Using the offlineinstaller I got it to reinstall but it won't start still. Now it says dropbox/client/dropbox.exe can't be found even when I am running dropbox/client/dropbox.exe directly from the dropbox folde! Same when running as administrator.
  
  Please help. I am running Win 10
  
  Keith
  - Jane
    Dropbox Staff
    6 years ago
    Hey KeithMould, thanks for pinging me here with this in-depth description; let’s take it from where you’ve left off on your end!
    
    If it’s not too much trouble for you, would you mind checking back whether an advanced reinstall helps you get this sorted on your end? Would you mind giving it a go whenever you have a little spare time & let me know of the outcome here? Thanks in advance & I’ll be awaiting your next message!