Inability to Activate Smart Sync (remote management software & third party pointing device drivers).

 

We did end up getting to the bottom of this. This isn't a "bug", but a change in behaviour that only happens in certain circumstances.

My guess here is that you have a graphics tablet or 3rd party mouse connected perhaps Lancelot?

As this is designed behaviour by Apple, it's not something that we're currently trying to fix.

 

The following will work and isn't too complicated, even if it may seem it:

 

1. Restart your computer, holding down command+R to enter Recovery Mode

2. Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
3. Copy and paste the following line into the Terminal.

spctl kext-consent add G7HH3F8CAK

4. After this you can restart the machine, and let it load as normal. Once restarted, you can re-install Dropbox again. When Dropbox has finished installing, while it will not prompt you again to install Smart Sync, the required components will now be present on your machine.

 

Hope this helps you!

 

 

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Here's a bit more context for the technically minded:

 

As above, this isn't a bug, but infact designed behaviour by Apple. 

 

To improve security on macOS, kernel extensions installed with or after the installation of macOS High Sierra require user consent to load. This is known as User Approved Kernel Extension Loading. Any user can approve a kernel extension, even if they don’t have administrator privileges. (Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208019)

 

Unfortunately for us, Apple blocks certain GUI inputs from successfully clicking the approve button in System Preferences. There is no feedback to the user about why the approval fails. The two situations that this happens are:

 

1. If the end user clicking the approve button is using remote management software like VNC or TeamViewer to access the system and perform the approval operation.

 

2. If a third party pointing device driver -- like Logitech or Wacom -- is installed.