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JDW0
12 months agoHelpful | Level 6
DropboxFileProviderCH quit unexpectedly on Sonoma 14.2.1
Running MacOS Sonoma 14.2.1 on a 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro. Had no such issues under MacOS Monterey, but now under Sonoma, I get this "DropboxFileProviderCH quit unexpectedly" crash once after freshly b...
- 12 months ago
My Dropbox folder is always stored in the DEFAULT location, which is inside my Home folder.
Now that I have followed your "advanced reinstall process" I see my Dropbox folder is still in the Home directory but now with the name "Dropbox (Old)". I also see another folder named "DropboxHelperTools.old" within my Home directory. Both of these are real folders, not aliases.
In addition, I also see a folder Alias named "Dropbox" in my Home directory. If I click that folder alias to select it and then Get Info, I see this...
Original: /Users/MyHomeFolder/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox
While typing this, I got yet another "DropboxFileProvider" quit unexpectedly" error dialog, with crash log. These repeated error dialogs are driving me mad.
And now I see something even more confusing...
Even though I just installed it, or so I thought, I am not finding Dropbox in my Applications folder anymore. The weirdness gets worse and worse. And that silly "DropboxFileProvider" quit unexpectedly" error dialog just happened again while typing this!
The Dropbox Offline Installer is still mounted. The window is still open. So I double-clicked to try to install Dropbox again. Nothing happens now when I double-click. Crazy!
Okay, I just restarted my MacBook Pro. The DMG is not mounted, which it shouldn't be. But since the Dropbox app is nowhere to be found, I just mounted the DMG and double-clicked the "Dropbox" icon installer. Nothing happens except for yet another infuriating "DropboxFileProvider" quit unexpectedly error dialog.
I am now worse off than before I opened this thread because Dropbox is now dead on my MacBook. At least before all this I could use it, albeit with those repeated error dialogs. Not the app is missing, and a reinstall won't work.
Since your replies are not forthcoming in a timely manner, I shall continue to try things and Edit this post to inform you...
I found Dropbox sitting in my trash. I emptied trash and restarted. I opened the DMG and tried a reinstall. All that happens when I double-click the "Dropbox" named installer on the DMG is that it opens a new window, highlights "Dropbox" in the left "Favorites" sidebar, and it lists files I had saved locally on my computer. However, atop the list of those files it says "The application dropbox" could not be found.
In other words, my attempts at launching the Dropbox install no longer work. I assume that some of your Terminal commands must have screwed up something to cause this. I am not a Terminal expert. I merely followed the instructions given on your "advanced reinstall" page, and now I am in this serious predicament.
Still no replies from you, so I am Editing this post again to proceed with my other desperate attempts to get my computer working again.
Because the app is missing and impossible to reinstall, I used Airdrop to copy the Dropbox app from my older Intel iMac (running Mojave) to my Apple Silicon MacBook Pro (running Sonoma). Now with the app on my MacBook Pro, I was then able to drag it into AppCleaner. AppCleaner showed me all manner of files still left on my MacBook Pro. I used it to uninstall them. Then I restarted.
After that, I deleted the Dropbox folder in my Finder window left sidebar. I deleted all local files inside it. I then restarted again.
I then tried the Dropbox installer. After double-clicking, nothing happened for a long while, and then it showed me a dialog that said "Dropbox Folder Missing." Two buttons: Relink & Quit. I clicked Relink. I then clicked OK to confirm my intention to do that.
After another long time of waiting WITH NO PROGRESS BAR WHATSOEVER, I finally got the Welcome To Dropbox! dialog. I clicked Sign in with Dropbox. After clicking a few buttons, it then recreated the Dropbox folder and began downloading all my data again (which was fine with me). I've got a lot of data. It's still downloading. When finished, I will test, restart, then test again to see if those infuriating crash dialogs appear again. I will then report back.
Okay. After restarting, the NIGHTMARE continued. Dropbox didn't open automatically! Why not? Well, !@#$%^ It's because the app is missing from Applications again! Thankfully, I am smarter than stupid computers who try to get to me. I actually made a backup of my Dropbox app and ZIP compressed it before I nuked all the files via Trash. I unzipped that and moved it into the Applications folder. But before restarting I checked my Login items. Sure enough, Dropbox was listed there by the icon was wrong. I deleted it, then added my freshly unzipped Dropbox app to Login items. I restarted. Dropbox loads. No error dialogs so far.
But in my menubar I see a red ! on the Dropbox icon. Clicking it, it says:
Dropbox for macOS on File Provider is now ready...
Get started | Not Now
Not on your life will I ever click "Get started"! File Provider is what started this whole mess, and you can tell your engineers I said that!
So for now, I consider this matter resolved, and I will thank myself for this solution, as I had to go through all manner of hell to figure it out, in spite of whatever those Terminal commands ended up doing to my machine. Hopefully, this post will help many other Dropbox users who end up where I did. It was a nightmare, but thanks to AppCleaner and some trickery on my part with another Mac (copying the Dropbox app on that Mac over), I was able to get back to working normally again.
Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi JDW0, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
If you're not on a Dropbox Basic plan with more than 3 devices connected, could you try an advanced reinstall of the app using the steps in this link?
Keep me updated with any progress!
mohnid
12 months agoExplorer | Level 3
If got the same issues on OSX Ventura 13.6.3
Startup is hanging for a while and then I can find the DropboxFileProviderCH crash log in the console.
Unfortunately advanced reinstall as documented in posted link doesn't work as I am running Dropbox for macOS on File Provider.
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