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Forum Discussion
Dropbox app won't start on M1 Mac running Big Sur
I just got a new MacBook Air M1 running BigSur. Dropbox does show up in the Finder sidebar and it appears the Dropbox files and folders on my Mac have synced with Dropbox.com. However the dropbox i...
- Thanks for providing the full error-log MikeLV.
Could you please try an advanced reinstall with admin privileges and let me know how it goes?
While at it, please make sure that there's no antivirus or firewall that might be causing issues.
Keel me posted with your progress!
The advanced reinstall works (as does re-initializing the drive, reinstalling the macOS, and then restoring files/applications/etc from a Time Machine backup previous to the appearance of the problem). However, the Cannot Start Dropbox error keeps coming back—in some cases after any restart, or after sleep (note: my SSD is set to never sleep), or—as in this last reinstall of Dropbox—upon the first attempt to start Dropbox at the end of the install process. I have made sure the Dropbox app is allowed incoming traffic through the firewall, I have excluded the Dropbox app from being scanned by Bitdefender anti-virus.
Dropbox has become unusable. This is a REAL problem, as I use it to coordinate with colleagues (other consultants) for work. If Dropbox doesn't fix this new (only began in the last two weeks - no changes in my software/OS during that time) problem soon, I will have to abandon it for some other cloud service. I like Dropbox and have never had problems like this before.
Can anybody help? The advanced reinstall no longer works. At the end of the installation, when the app tries to open, I get the same error message. This worked for months on the M1 with Big Sur, with Antivirus on the computer, with no changes to my Dropbox folder location, etc. Then, a few weeks ago, Dropbox stopped being able to start. The first time I tried advanced reinstall, it worked, but a day later, the error appeared again. Similarly, I used a Time Machine backup before the problem started (reinstalled the system!!), and that worked for about a day, then the error appeared. Now, nothing I try of the solutions offered in this thread work.
Here is the log:
bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 126.4.4618
bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 48
bn.is_frozen: True
machine_id: 70cb2f9b-0398-5ffb-bcd1-06f602617645
pid: 9339
ppid: 1
uid: 502
user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='tntozer', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='T N Tozer', pw_dir='/Users/tntozer', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='tntozer', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='T N Tozer', pw_dir='/Users/tntozer', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
euid: 502
gid: 20
egid: 20
group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'tntozer', '_nsurlstoraged'])
effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root', 'tntozer', '_nsurlstoraged'])
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
cwd: '/'
real_path='/'
mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40755 uid=0 gid=0
HOME: '/Users/tntozer'
appdata: '/Users/tntozer/.dropbox/instance1'
real_path='/Users/tntozer/.dropbox/instance1'
mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
dropbox_path: '/Users/tntozer/Dropbox'
real_path='/Users/tntozer/Dropbox'
mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/Dropbox'
mode=0o100755 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/python-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyc'
not found
parent not found
tempdir: '/var/folders/nb/wl1n6xsd5f9__bw4ldx8gl9w0000gp/T'
real_path='/private/var/folders/nb/wl1n6xsd5f9__bw4ldx8gl9w0000gp/T'
mode=0o40700 uid=502 gid=20
parent mode=0o40755 uid=502 gid=20
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 834, in wrapper
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6625, in finish_dropbox_boot
File "dropbox/client/message_queue.pyc", line 307, in _wrapped
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6158, in _init_components_for_account
File "dropbox/client/main.pyc", line 6084, in create_sync_engine
File "dropbox/sync_engine_boundary/factory.pyc", line 225, in make_sync_engine
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/sync_engine.pyc", line 278, in __init__
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/modern_client.pyc", line 219, in __init__
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/modern_client/base.pyc", line 149, in __init__
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/thin_adapter/in_proc.pyc", line 223, in __init__
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/classic_client/thin_adapter/in_proc.pyc", line 591, in _init_new_engine_locked
File "dropbox/sync_engine/nucleus/thin_client/client.pyc", line 182, in __init__
File "extensions/nucleus/nucleus_python.pyx", line 76, in nucleus_python.NucleusSyncEngine.__cinit__
nucleus_python.SyncEngineError: "Initializing engine |>> Initializing filesystem |>> Attempting to initialize dbx cache directory |>> Marking ApplicationFilesystem cache directory as ignored |>> Writing to xattr |>> fsetxattr syscall: write_xattr |>> Permission denied"
