Steam deck and dropbox, stuck on 'starting'

[tanmimh]

I installed dropbox on the steam deck (arch linux) from discover but now it is perpetually stuck on 'starting' but never opens. dropbox.dist folder is shows a locked icon so it may be not accessing the right folders it needs to on app start up? I tried changing permissions but still no dice, just stuck on opening and never opens at all. Any help would be appreciated. 

[Rich]

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@tanmimh wrote:

I installed dropbox on the steam deck (arch linux) from discover ...

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I've only dabbled in Linux a bit so I'm far from an expert, but would it have anything to do with the fact that Dropbox only supports Ubuntu and Fedora? I'm not familiar with the Arch distribution.

• https://help.dropbox.com/installs/system-requirements#linux

[tanmimh]

It was installed from flathub through discover, I'd assumed it is supported on the platform. The reviews on discover show people getting it up and ready in a click

[Здравко]

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@tanmimh wrote:
... The reviews on discover show people getting it up and ready in a click

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Hi @tanmimh,

I haven't such a device (to be honest), but since all hardware and software requirements match, can be expected that Dropbox application can work (hopefully, in spite not officially supported). The install can't be ready in a click! You need to authorize, at least. Did you pass it successfully? If you can open a terminal window, what results from following command:

dropbox status

[Big Milk]

I've also been having this problem. Installed directly from the integrated package manager (Discover) but trying to Login does nothing.

I suspected that maybe it was failing to open a Browser, but I set Chrome as default browser but still Dropbox is not logging in or doing anything, really.

Would love to get this working for transporting saves between my PC and Steam Deck. Looking at the Reviews on Discover, someone else does seem to have this working.

[Здравко]

Hi @Big Milk,

In spite I don't have such a device I'm still curious how Dropbox application can be made work there. First of all take in mind that using discover you are installing third party package, not the officially supported one. Usually it matches exactly to the official one and packed in different format package (Dropbox supports .deb and .rpm only). Usually the content is NOT actual application, but file browser plugins (either the official one - targeting Nautilus - or alternative targeting different file browsers like Dolphin, for instance) and control script (actually the command 'dropbox' and attaches it into the launch utility/menu - where you can run it from). The Dropbox application gets downloaded on first try to run! Take this in mind. Did you try to check the status using mentioned command line before? 🧐 If your application hasn't still linked to any account, but it's running, the output will printout web link where you can link it to your account. Otherwise the command output will show actual state (whatever it is - isn't running, up to date, some error message, etc).

Good luck. 😉

[DSCrankshaw · Accepted solution]

I found a solution in one of the reviews for the Dropbox app in Discover. Start up Konsole and run "systemctl restart --user xdg-desktop-portal" (hat-tip to anonymous Steam Deck User). This restarts a framework that allows applications to use other applications (such as when Dropbox wants to navigate to a URI in your web browser). I did this, started up Dropbox, and was able to sign in and sync my files.

[raltvater]

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@DSCrankshaw wrote:

I found a solution in one of the reviews for the Dropbox app in Discover. Start up Konsole and run "systemctl restart --user xdg-desktop-portal" (hat-tip to anonymous Steam Deck User). This restarts a framework that allows applications to use other applications (such as when Dropbox wants to navigate to a URI in your web browser). I did this, started up Dropbox, and was able to sign in and sync my files.

This worked for me. Thank you!

[arrrantknaves]

this actually helped, thank you!