You might see that the Dropbox Community team have been busy working on some major updates to the Community itself! So, here is some info on what’s changed, what’s staying the same and what you can expect from the Dropbox Community overall.
Forum Discussion
Richard P.44
7 years agoHelpful | Level 7
I get an error message that Windows System Restore failed?
Hi
When I run Windows System Restore it fails with this error message
System Restore failed to replace the file (D:\Users\*******\Dropbox\.dropbox.cache\qebcobkqbgbzfynfuwbof\placeholder.bat) wit...
- 2 years ago
Hi everyone,
We're testing out some changes in v182 (currently in beta) that should hopefully help with this. Let us know if you continue to run into problems.
Thanks
Lokiwuh
Helpful | Level 6
You A-holes should probably notify users so that they can create a disk image before they loose all their $h1t like countless others and myself! Because of this, I did not install Dropbox after my latest fresh install of Windows. At this point I do not believe I will be installing Dropbox on my system again. I'm currently afraid to reboot my other two PCs. They both have Dropbox installed so I'm sure all my restore points are fried on those machines as well. fkng pissed! I will be moving my things out of Dropbox. I and the many others should be compensated for the hell this has put us through and the countless hours we'll spend and have spent trying to get Windows and everything else back up and running. Not to mention the Thousands of gigs of information that we've lost and can never get back. This Is completely unacceptable. I smell a lawsuit! Dropbox should and will be held liable! Dropbox has known about this PC destroying error for over 2 years and has done nothing to correct the problem. We could have done without weeks of BS and data loss, had these a-holes given their PAYING customers a simple heads up so that we could take necessary steps to create a system image. I will not leave this to be buried and forgotten. I will Share this information every chance I get. This company is trash and you will be treated as such! Hope your ready dropbox. You'll be seeing lots of me. This is going mainstream! I'm gonna $hit on your porch! 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
JacobRusso
5 years agoCollaborator | Level 8
I am adding one more step to a post I made a few months ago. I know this is NOT a "Fix" for this issue, particularly if you are experiencing system problems. However, it may save those of you, for whom Dropbox is critical, in the future... as it saved me. The only thing that has worked for me is to Shut Down Dropbox, BEFORE creating a System Restore Point, as follows:
1. Exit Dropbox using the SysTray icon (drop-down your picture at the top right.
2. Run the Windows "Services" Manager
3. STOP the "DbxSvc" ("Dropbox Service")
4. STOP the "Dropbox Update Service (dbupdate)" service
5. STOP the "Dropbox Update Service (dbupdatem)" service
6. Create Restore Point
7. START the Dropbox Services
8. Click "Start", type "Dropbox" & hit Enter to start the Dropbox APP
After doing this, I was able to do a Restore based on that Restore Point. I haven't tried to create a Batch File for this yet.
Now, Having said that... I received an eMail from Dropbox Tech Support, but I have NOT had time to test her suggestions. I am posting it here in case some of you would like to try it. Please let us know if you DO try the following suggestions and whether it works or not.
Hi Jacob, Thanks for your patience. My name is Maddison, and I work in the Dropbox Advanced Support team. As I understand it you're getting a Dropbox-related error message when doing a system restore. I would recommend using the steps below to clear the cache. This won't affect or remove the files in your Dropbox folder and will also free up space in your hard drive. 1) Stop Dropbox: • Click on the Dropbox icon • Click on your profile picture or initials to the right of the search bar, and select "Exit Dropbox" 2) Next, carefully follow the instructions here: https://www.dropbox.com/help/328 3) Restart Dropbox: • Run from Start > All Programs menu. If the problem persists, please remove the Dropbox cache folder completely. This involves following the steps stated above to clear the cache folder, but this time try by fully deleting the main .dropbox.cache folder instead of deleting just its contents. If you're still unable to perform the restore, please let me know. Regards, Maddison
Best regards,
Jacob
- Lokiwuh5 years agoHelpful | Level 6In regards to the above Message, Removing Files or folders from your Dropbox Will not help the situation. That's what Dropbox has been saying since the beginning and if you read the full thread here you'll see that it does not work. Reading the entire thread you'll see the only thing that has been foolproof for people Is Creating another partition on your Hard drive for your Dropbox Folder . Exclude that entire Partition from Automatic system backups And you should be fine.
- JacobRusso5 years agoCollaborator | Level 8
Lokiwuh,
Thank you for the clarification, reminder, and suggestion. I haven't created another partition for various reasons. These include lack of space on my SSD, which means I would have to back up well over 120GB, then delete them all and restore them to the new partition. Then, Dropbox would have to re-upload ALL the files, since they're in a different location. However, I have ordered a new laptop, and I may end up doing this anyway before moving everything over to it. Thanks again!
- JacobRusso5 years agoCollaborator | Level 8
I received a "quasi-tip" from someone at Carbonite that pointed me in a strange direction. Because I am in the middle of an incredibly critical and time-sensitive project, I cannot test it now. But, just in case someone has the ability to try it, here it is. Now, if the keys "FilesNotToBackup" or "FilesNotToSnapShot" do not exist, simply create them.
1. Start "Regedit"
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToBackup
3. Add a Multi-string value with the Dropbox directorya. Right-Click in the window on right-side
b. Select New
c. Select Multi-string value
3. Give the value a descriptive name, like "Dropbox"
4. Double-click the value to open the value editor5. Enter the following string: %UserProfile%\Dropbox\*.* /s
(NOTE: This means to ignore all files inside the "C:\Users\{yourusername}\Dropbox" directory and Subdirectories.)
6. Click OK to close.
7. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToSnapshot8. Follow the above steps 2 thru 6 for this key.
9. Close Regedit
10. Create a System Restore Point
11. Try to System Restore to the point you just created.
Please let us know if you were able to test this.
Good Luck & Best regards,
Jacob
About Apps and Installations
Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.
Need more support
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.
For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.
If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!