Application has failed to start...

[tianat]

When I try to open Dropbox, I get an error: "Application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail."

What does this mean? 

[Walter]

Hey there @tianat - could you send me a screenshot of that error to make sure we're on the same page?

Did you recently update your computer maybe? 

Also, could you try to re-install in any case, using our most recent version's offline installer (currently our desktop app is on v.62.4.103)? 

Thanks in advance and I look forward to your answer!

[tianat]

https://imgur.com/a/v2gEhfE

That's the error message. 

"The application has failed to start becuase its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe for more detail."

[tianat]

If I re-install, how do I know I'm not wiping out my file that may still be trapped in the dropbox folder? The file apparently wasn't synced to the cloud, so I'm hoping it's still on my local drive... somewhere.

[Walter · Accepted solution]

You should be able to find it in its original location or inside your Dropbox Folder if you moved it there @tianat as  your Dropbox folder is just a normal folder on your hard drive. Therefore, if you drag and drop files into the Dropbox folder, those files will be moved there and if you're not syncing correctly they should be there until you connect the desktop app to the internet to resume syncing.

In any case, please note that the error you're getting is a Microsoft one coming from your Windows device probably because you're missing the correct C++ runtime components for your type of system. You should be able to find out more using a simple search on that or else you could also ask Microsoft directly as this would be outside my scope of expertise. 

Let me know what you find!