After upgrading to Ventura, cannot start dropbox app

[pizzadoh]

Hi, my dropbox app was working beforehand. I recently uggraded to Mac OS Ventura but now it's not working or syncing. I'm getting the error message "couldn't start dropbox" or sync. So I did the advanced reinstall (ran the terminal etc) and I'm still getting the same error message.

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 160.4.4703
bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 56
bn.is_frozen: True
machine_id: 59c044c0-94d9-5385-9432-434809bbf24f
pid: 1004
ppid: 1
uid: 501
user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='lt81878', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='lt81878', pw_dir='/Users/lt81878', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='lt81878', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=501, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='lt81878', pw_dir='/Users/lt81878', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
euid: 501
gid: 20
egid: 20
group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', '_nsurlstoraged'])
effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', '_nsurlstoraged'])
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
cwd: '/'
real_path='/'
mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
HOME: '/Users/lt81878'
appdata: '/Users/lt81878/.dropbox/instance1'
real_path='/Users/lt81878/.dropbox/instance1'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
dropbox_path: '/Users/lt81878/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'
real_path='/Users/lt81878/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
sys_executable: '/private/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T/AppTranslocation/A1B9BF75-49E8-4FD0-A0CB-58FE00037B0C/d/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
real_path='/private/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T/AppTranslocation/A1B9BF75-49E8-4FD0-A0CB-58FE00037B0C/d/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
mode=0o100755 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
trace.__file__: '/private/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T/AppTranslocation/A1B9BF75-49E8-4FD0-A0CB-58FE00037B0C/d/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
real_path='/private/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T/AppTranslocation/A1B9BF75-49E8-4FD0-A0CB-58FE00037B0C/d/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
not found
parent not found
tempdir: '/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T'
real_path='/private/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T'
mode=0o40700 uid=501 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=501 gid=20
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 5323, in _setup_root_for_account
File "dropbox/sync_root/helpers.pyc", line 420, in get_root_for_account
File "dropbox/foundation/futures/basic.pyc", line 853, in result
File "dropbox/sync_root/handlers/macos/file_provider.pyc", line 121, in set_result_or_convert_exception
dropbox.mac.internal.MacError: [Errno -2002] Error Domain=NSFileProviderErrorDomain Code=-2002 "The executable currently located at file:///private/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T/AppTranslocation/A1B9BF75-49E8-4FD0-A0CB-58FE00037B0C/d/Dropbox.app/ is translocated and can't be launched." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The executable currently located at file:///private/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T/AppTranslocation/A1B9BF75-49E8-4FD0-A0CB-58FE00037B0C/d/Dropbox.app/ is translocated and can't be launched., NSLocalizedDescription=The application cannot be used from this location., NSURL=file:///private/var/folders/2d/wtynny5523qb4ckzmfkl02280000gn/T/AppTranslocation/A1B9BF75-49E8-4FD0-A0CB-58FE00037B0C/d/Dropbox.app/}

[wgroth2]

Here's what worked for me.

Go to Settings->Security->Devices in the web app, and delete ANY devices you are no longer using. There appears to be a limit. Mine was triggered when I changed my login id on MacOS Ventura (13.4.1.c), which sent me over the limit.

Seems like something they should have caught in testing.

[tsdevau]

This also appears to have resolved my issue.  I removed years of old device connections per @wgroth2 suggestion and then simply restarted my MBP.  Dropbox finally appears to be working again.

This comes after weeks of issues with finder becoming totally unresponsive, system hanging due to fileprovider smashing resources with whatever it was doing with/for Dropbox, countless restarts, countless re-installs, countless hours (days) wasted syncing, moving and re-syncing Dropbox content.

I'll reserve judgement of this being a "solution" just for now, but it's by far the closest I've been since this debacle started.  Very disappointed to see how long others have been experiencing this issue, without a definitive solution from Dropbox.

[tsdevau]

So as an update:

I did need to redo the following (which I had already done before, but re-did again after removing old devices as per my previous post referencing @wgroth2 suggestion):

1. uninstall Dropbox
2. In your terminal app of choice:
   1. `sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dot_dropbox.old`
   2. `sudo mv ~/Library/Dropbox ~/.Trash/libDropbox.old`
   3. `sudo mv ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox ~/.Trash/Dropbox.old`
3. Restart
4. Download & install latest Dropbox client
5. Run the install dmg and follow the prompts to setup as normal up to selecting folders to sync
6. This time I selected only a single root folder that contained only a single file to sync
7. Wait for that to finish
8. Restart
9. Click on Dropbox icon and click the alert message link to install using `fileproviderd` config
10. Wait for that to finish & confirm files have moved
11. * Click Dropbox menubar icon, then on your profile avatar, then on "Quit"
12. * In you terminal app of choice:
    1. `sudo mv ~/.Trash/Dropbox.old/* ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox`
13. * Restart
14. Wait for Dropbox to complete sync & index
15. OPTIONAL - Continue to cross your fingers, hope & pray that this is the end of this debacle

* Steps 11 - 13 - I actually did in Safe Boot mode, because I was completely over this and wanted to give it every chance of working.  I presume that this isn't actually necessary.

Credit for the concept of the above steps to @elizeufreitas which you can see on about page 3-4 of this topic.  So far so good, but I guess only time will tell.

ps - I get that it looks like a lot and maybe a little confusing (and yes, definitely not something that should be required to install a paid service), but it isn't difficult.

[wgroth2]

I rant into this again, and had to do mostly this. These are the most complete instructions, and I recommend others follow the above.

[Prontip]

Many thanks to elizeufreitas  and joelawalter. His suggestion worked for me. It took two attempts. One thing I might add is make sure you are logged out of Dropbox online first, then do what Joel suggested.

[Bonker]

Still not working and getting the same error message !

Dropbox engineers should develop dishwashers or something but above all stop touching on what they don't know, ie software 😞

[Hannah]

Sorry you're having this issue, @Bonker.

Can you let us know which version of the Dropbox app you're using and what your computer's exact OS version is?

You can hover over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar to see the Dropbox version.