Dropbox app doesn't startup well with Windscribe VPN Firewall

[jimdunn]

I use the Windscribe VPN Firewall ON ALL THE TIME mode on my Windows 10 desktop.  I have to do a "delayed Dropbox startup" because the dropbox systray icon will go "gray" if it starts too fast.  I'm guessing that there's a conflict with Windscribe.  Even with the delay, sometimes, the icon will still "go gray" and never recover.  The dropbox icon gets stuck in "Connecting..." but never connects.  If I stop/restart the dropbox systray app, it will connect fine.  If I delay longer on startup it seems happier.  I'm hoping to report this so the developers could add some sort of "timeout" such that a scan for the new VPN IP address could be used?

[Jay]

Hi @jimdunn, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

What is the setting you have currently in the Dropbox desktop application for the proxy itself?

This will help me to assist further!

[jimdunn]

Hi, sorry so long to reply, my PROXY SETTINGS are on AUTO DETECT.  I am using WINDSCRIBE VPN with their FIREWALL in ALWAYS ON mode -- meaning that there is no connection to the internet during bootup until Windscribe connects a tunnel.

So far I have two issues:

1)  if the dropbox app starts "too soon" in the computer boot startup process, it will go "attempting to connect" forever and grayed out; I have worked around this by not using auto start but having a script start it manually a few minutes later

2)  but that brings us to problem # 2, which is that dropbox will "go gray" sometimes thruout the day, if Windscribe reconnects for any reason, dropbox will go zombie (I assume it's because the Windscribe Firewall blocking any traffic when tunnel disconnected)

But the solution is always the same -- if I exit dropbox and restart the app, it will "find the internet" and work.  Sometimes it will work all day, but some days it will go "gray zombie" 2-3 times per day.  Again, if I stop/restart then it continues working.  I have screenshots, if you want them, but it just shows the dropbox icon grayed out and when you hover it says "Connecting..." forever and inside the app it says "Reconnecting to the internet. This may take..."

[Jay]

Since it sounds like Windscribe itself is blocking the internet because it reconnects and blocks all traffic, this does affect the Dropbox desktop application.

There isn't much I can suggest except to quit and restart the app when your VPN has to reconnect.

[jimdunn]

I don't know if this message will be read by anyone "higher up" at Dropbox... but the Dropbox competition does NOT have any problems on my machine while running Windscribe VPN.  Both GOOGLEDRIVE and ONEDRIVE work FINE !!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!  Maybe Dropbox needs to re-write their connection source code so it will properly detect and connect.  Because of this problem with Dropbox, I am being forced to move to OneDrive INSTEAD OF PURCHASING DROPBOX PREMIUM !!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!