I cannot setup Dropbox Backup on my Basic account. Set up grayed out.

[Podblast]

During installation I am encouraged to turn on the Dropbox Backup feature.

I would love to! Why can't I click "Set up" to continue?

Things I've tried:

- Click "Not right now" and come back to it in Preferences later. Still the "Set up" button is disabled, but further to this now this popup window is stuck open. Clicking "Not right now" and then "Continue to Dropbox" does nothing... I can't even click the X to close this window.

- Uninstall/reinstall the Dropbox app. I've gone through the "Advanced re-install" found here: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/advanced-reinstall

- Ask support chat for help. They refer me to use Twitter or Facebook to talk to a specialist, or to use the forum, and so here I am.

I will continue to search the forum for similar issues - though I'm not really sure what I could possibly be doing wrong. The app has little to no settings and I've modified none of them.

Some info:

Version: 162.4.5419

OS: Windows 10 x64 21H2

I am not linked to any team or business account.

I have manually synced one text file, once, just to see that it's working, by copying it into the Dropbox folder.

[Megan]

Hi @Podblast, welcome to our Community! 

First of all, amazing job on your troubleshooting there! 

Out of curiosity, if you uncheck any of the paths shown on your screenshot, and instead of all 3 you choose to sync 2 or 1 of them, does it then allow you to proceed maybe? 

Let me know more!

[Podblast]

Hi Megan,

It does not matter what options I select. None, one, all, or a few.

The button remains disabled.

[Hannah]

Sorry to jump in here, @Podblast.

I know you're not getting any error messages, when trying to set up the backup, but can you follow these troubleshooting steps (when applicable), to see if they help?

[Podblast]

Hi Hannah,

I've exited every application I could think of that could be using my Desktop (it was a short list) and folder permissions look set correctly already.

I have also done the usual troubleshooting routine: Restart machine. Update Windows. 

Still no option to use this feature...

[Walter]

Hey @Podblast, sorry to jump in here, but could you try setting the Backup from the website, directly from this page?

Let us know how it goes!

[Podblast]

Hi Walter,

This page will prompt me to open a link to the Dropdox desktop app.

Clicking through, next I see a new page including a "Get Started" button to start setting up Dropbox Backup.

When I click this button I see the same "Want to keep your PC backed up?" prompt with the same "Set up" button that is greyed out that I've been previously getting to via -> Preferences -> Backups tab -> Manage backups button.

It seems clear to me that there is an intended check or sequence of checks in the code running the Dropdox desktop app that is deciding to grey out and disable the "Set up" button. Surely I cannot be running a unique enough combination of Dropbox plus Windows plus whatever-else that this can elude your team from replicating.

I've long since found a work-around for my needs that circumvents the need for Dropbox Backup, but I would love to know why it never let me set it up. If this were my project, I would recommend adding some text to display to the user whenever the Set up button is disabled to explain why, or at the very least to display some sort of error code that I, or the next person, could relay to you or lookup in your FAQ/documentation and learn what is going on.

If you are interested to know, my workaround was to use the Windows mklink tool and create a junction directory from where I wanted to use Dropdox desktop to backup, and instead I've moved that directory into the manual Dropbox folder.

Happy to try any other ideas you have, or if you have figured out a solution for why this Set up button is disabled I would love to learn why.

Thanks

[hello_box11]

Hey @Podblast, I guess your machine might somehow ran into an edge case that was not accounted for. Could you sign out and sign in again, and restart Dropbox to see if that will fix the problem?

[Podblast]

Hi @hello_box11 

Logging out and in again seems to re-initiate the setup process.

Once I selected to keep my files Local Only it reaches the Dropbox Backup feature and once again the option to continue is disabled.

Thanks!

[hello_box11]

Thank you for trying that out! I guess then we will need some additional info to debug this issue. I’m not sure what’s the process to collect user id info. @Walter can you help collect the info and forward it to backup dev team to further debug?