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Forum Discussion

Superpetak's avatar
Superpetak
Helpful | Level 5
2 years ago

Dropbox options missing in right-click menu on Windows

Hi guys,   today, probably after downloading and installing latest stable release a Dropbox, the context menu disappeared from Windows Explorer.   Dropbox version: 183.4.7058 Windows 10 ver...
Desktop
Windows
  • Sam DBX's avatar
    Sam DBX
    2 years ago

    Hi all,

    Jumping in here, as our team would like to share some insights that may be helpful:

    This issue may be related to other applications on your computer that use the icon overlay and context menu functionality of your Operating System.

     

    If you are on Windows, please note that Windows has a limit of 15 overlay icons that Windows Explorer can load, and the operating system reserves 4 for its own use.

    If there are more than 15, then the Dropbox icons or context menus may not show. To fix this and move the Dropbox sync icons to the first 15 positions:

     

    1. Follow the steps in the following article to open your Windows 10 registry editor (applicable to Windows 11 also):
    - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-open-registry-editor-in-windows-10-deab38e6-91d6-e0aa-4b7c-8878d9e07b11
    2. A “Registry Editor” window will open.
    3. Navigate through the following folders: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” > “SOFTWARE” > “Microsoft” > “Windows” > “CurrentVersion” > “Explorer” > “ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers”.
    4. Rename (right-click and click Rename) the files, so that the Dropbox files appear in the first 15 files in the list. You can do this by putting spaces in front of those file names, so that they move higher up in the list.
    5. Close and restart both of your computer and the Dropbox desktop app.

    Thank you,
    Sam

iNfeRnO B.'s avatar
iNfeRnO B.
Helpful | Level 6

This is still broken.  Would be really nice if Dropbox actually fixed it since at this point it's quite clearly an issue on their end, but they don't seem to have any interest in doing so.  It's been months now.

Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
11 months ago

HI there iNfeRnO B. - could you clarify your device's OS version and the status and version of the desktop app as shown in your menu bar/system tray at the moment? 

  • iNfeRnO B.'s avatar
    iNfeRnO B.
    Helpful | Level 6
    11 months ago

    I can, but it'll just be me jumping through the same hoops everyone else in this thread including me earlier has done before so I'm not sure what the point is.  It's something you guys need to fix on your end, not us, your customers.  But sure, here, I'll dance the dance once more.

    OS Version: Windows 10 Home Version 22H2
    Dropbox Version: 189.4.8395

    I've also already checked the registry edits, changed my language, restarted, and reinstalled which can sometimes fix it temporarily but the issue will pop up again.  This has all been gone over by other people in the thread, it's really tiring having to go over it again and again in an infinite loop instead of the issue actually being fixed by a change on Dropbox's side.

    Edit: Sorry if this came off as overly aggressive, I'm just tired and sick currently and would really rather it just worked.  I appreciate you having responded at all I guess since some companies don't even do that.

    • alonzo86's avatar
      alonzo86
      Helpful | Level 6
      11 months ago

      Hello,

       

      At least they are trying. But seems that there are few of us with the same issue.

       

      • alonzo86's avatar
        alonzo86
        Helpful | Level 6
        11 months ago

        Hello,

         

        Today after a new automatic update I had a problem with a standard uninstall-install procedure to get the context menu back, and I went through advanced uninstall (which I was doing before as well, but I was realized that simple uninstall was doing the trick as well) and install again and the context menu got back.

         

        However while going through advanced uninstall after while going through Registry editor to delete "Dropbox" and "DropboxUpdate" in “SOFTWARE” and “WOW6432Node” folders, I found a stubborn registry named "default" , type REG_SZ with Data C:ProgramFiles (x86)\Dropbox\Update\1.3.733.1\psmachine.dll. That update number is some old update, and this key can't be deleted. So I wanted to ask if my problem maybe has something to do with that.

         

        I ignored it for now, advanced uninstall and installing again did the trick, and the context menu is back again.

         

        Here is the screenshot of that key:

         

         

         

         

        Thanks

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