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Dolphining's avatar
Dolphining
Explorer | Level 4
8 years ago

Dropbox Won't Open, Sync, Uninstall or Reinstall on Windows 10

Been running dropbox on my computer without a problem for over a year. Just realized today that it hasn't synced for about the past week. Running on Windows 10. Also running Symantic Enpoint Protection Small Business Edition.

Problem details:

  • Do not see the tray icon 
  • Dropbox will not open when I try to run the program
  • Dropbox Update is running in the background
  • Attempted to Reinstall and got "error 2"
  • Attempted to Uninstall and "uninstall failed"
  • Disabled Enpoint Protection and tried again to reinstall and uninstall; no luck
  • Restarted the computer and, again, no luck

I've seen other community messages about error 2 and problems uninstalling, but there are few answers and none of those tips have solved my problem.

Anyone have a similar issue or can help?

Thanks!

Desktop
Uninstall
  • Sanchez's avatar
    Sanchez
    8 years ago
    Hey Dolphining, welcome to our forum! 

    This would be my course of action, if I have understood your situation correctly: 

    • uninstall Dropbox
      • open your task manager (right-click on task bar, choose task manager)
      • click on Processes (show processes from all users if necessary)
      • find any Dropbox related processes and end them (End Process)

    • now try installing our desktop app from scratch
      • I would download the offline installer and install it
      • I would also disable the Symantec program, and any other security/firewall/etc. app

    • If the above doesn’t do the trick, I would then try JaneA’s solution for the Error 2 scenario
    Check this out, and let me know when you get a chance :wink:
     
    Thanks! 
  • Sanchez's avatar
    Sanchez
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    8 years ago
    Hey Dolphining, welcome to our forum! 

    This would be my course of action, if I have understood your situation correctly: 

    • uninstall Dropbox
      • open your task manager (right-click on task bar, choose task manager)
      • click on Processes (show processes from all users if necessary)
      • find any Dropbox related processes and end them (End Process)

    • now try installing our desktop app from scratch
      • I would download the offline installer and install it
      • I would also disable the Symantec program, and any other security/firewall/etc. app

    • If the above doesn’t do the trick, I would then try JaneA’s solution for the Error 2 scenario
    Check this out, and let me know when you get a chance :wink:
     
    Thanks! 
    • Dolphining's avatar
      Dolphining
      Explorer | Level 4
      8 years ago

      I was finally able to uninstall by deleting everything in my temp and local files and ending processes in Task Manager, but after restarting there is still a Dropbox process running. There is no recognizable program, or anything in Program Files or Program Files (x86), but it's running nonetheless. 

      After ending that process again and editing my environment Path (Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment) to %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%, I tried installing via the offline installer, but got the error 2 again.

      Note, I went back and sucessfully installed an earlier version of Dropbox, but I was unable to log in via the desktop app because it said I needed to use a more recent version. So, I can get some version to install and open, but, obviously, that's not a solution.

      Other thoughts? 

      • Dolphining's avatar
        Dolphining
        Explorer | Level 4
        8 years ago

        I went ahead and deleted all of the dropbox files and dropbox folder as well. Then cleaned up local files and everything else on C: that said dropbox. I wasn't able to find DbxSvc, which still ran on startup, but after stopping it an making sure absolutely everything else was deleted I was able to get the offline downloaded dropbox installer to work. It's now syncing again.

        Note, this was done while the firewall and Symantic Enpoint was running, so that wasn't the issue.

        I still don't know what caused the problem. A little affraid that it's going to happen again when there is some kind of Windows update. Any idea what caused it?

        Thanks! 

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