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Forum Discussion
Remove Dropbox options from the context menu.
Hi, recently Dropbox has started cramming my Explorer context menu with all of these options I mostly don't plan to use:
Come on. Do you think it's ok to just dump all your stuff in there? If every app on my PC would do the same, would I have to manage dozens of entries on that menu? This is terrible UI design, it's bloat, it's disrespectful of your users.
How do I turn that off? I only use "Copy dropbox link", not the others.
Thanks.
Dropbox menus do look and feel a bit wordy and clunky in Windows 11 especially when compared to the competition.....
The context menu changes when selecting an individual file.
Dropbox tries to use only one context menu for everything ...
- Thanks for the tip, midrare.
Can we trust that your fix is safe?
Best, CIt's what I'm using with zero issues. All this does is add Dropbox context menu shell extensions to a blacklist in the registry. I'd be surprised if anything happened.
Recently I noticed that when I right click objects in Windows, the context menu is bloated with manu entire Dropbox items. This menu is big enough as it is, so I really don't appreciate to see those options everywhere, especially when the online/offline options are all I ever use. Programs like WinRar offer the option to select which items should be visible. Dropbox does not offer that, and it is a problem that I found no solution to. I asked support, but got told that its likely the fault of ... other applications.... and I should apparently ask here. Can I get some help?
Some screenshots with examples can be found here:
01) "Send copy...", such a scenario only occurred on a shortcut to a file not on Dropbox. Not necessary to me at all, but of little issue02) "Send copy..." and "Copy to Dropbox...", such a scenario only occurred on a file or folder not on Dropbox. Not necessary to me at all, but of little issue03) A unique 7-item case. Within DropBox itself, there was a shortcut file, one set to being available offline, and not only did "Send copy..." appear twice, which is likely a bug, but the first instance comes along with a ton of options:- Share...- View on Dropbox.com- Copy Dropbox link- Make online-only- Version history- Do not sync with Dropbox.com- Send a copy...Of these, I would only ever use "Make online-only", so this just causes unnecessary mess, and I'd appreciate being able to remove the rest.NOTE: On a "half offline file" as I like to describe it, there is both an option for making it offline and online, and that's how it goes from 7 to 8 options4) Then we have 3 cases where I saw 8 options:- a shortcut on desktop to a file on Dropbox- a file on dropbox, which was set to online only- a file on dropbox, which was set to offline availabilityThese options are- Share...- View on Dropbox.com- Copy Dropbox link- Make online-only ("Make available offline" for the online only file)- Version history- Send for signature- Send a copy...- Do not sync with Dropbox.com- Send a copy... (this is the before-last option for the online only file)Of these, I would only ever use "Make online-only" or "Make available offline", so this just adds bloat to my context menu5) Then we have 3 cases where I saw 9 options:- a folder on dropbox, which was set to online only- a folder on dropbox, which was set to offline availabilityThese options are- Share...- View on Dropbox.com- Copy Dropbox link- Make online-only ("Make available offline" for the online only file)- Version history- Request files...- So not sync with Dropbox.com (this is the last item on the list for the online only file)- Manage disk space (googline makes me wonder if this isn't "Manage backup..." in English, but I'm not sure)- Send a copy...Again, only those 2 are of any importance to me, so I find the rest completely unnecessary.NOTE: On a "half offline file" as I like to describe it, there is both an option for making it offline and online, and that's how it goes from 9 to 10I'll appreciate any help with the issue.- Rich
Super User II
FarelTheGiraffe wrote:
This menu is big enough as it is, so I really don't appreciate to see those options everywhere, especially when the online/offline options are all I ever use.
There is no option to modify the context menu items.
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind when my subscribtion runs out
This is hardly a new problem, but it continues to amaze me. I figured it would have been addressed by now.
How does Dropbox think it's okay to overload the context menu with their garbage?
- there is no option to disable in settings
- majority of users need all these features
- the actions could easily be condensed into a menu (similar to the open-source PeaZip example below)
- as a power user I had registry hacks to remove entirely but that ability was removed in a previous update
End result is that I only launch Dropbox as needed to sync. The first time I right click on a file it reminds me to exit the app. Also this has convinced me to never subscribe to a premium plan. I mean, why would I? A large, publicly traded company ignoring years of user feedback about a huge pain in their core service. There's plenty of other options.
Ok, there have always been items there, just not so many. What would you say is a reasonable limit for any given app to place items on a system menu shared by all apps? I believe this will have to be a very conservative option - one or two at most. Of course, if it is configurable by the user, you can go further and add more.
I have 3 apps placing entries there, and I could easily have 5 or 6 apps doing it. If each would place 9 (!) entries like Dropbox, think of how functional that menu would become...
Also, how common is it for users to actually use some of these things? The vast majority of Dropbox users will simply never click "Send for signature" (or even "View comments", since we're only sharing with ourselves, not teams or groups).
There needs to be some consideration and some humility here from Dropbox developers...
I agree - my context menu is suddenly flooded with dropbox items that I will never use.
There are 9 (NINE!) dropbox entries on my context menu - none of which I want or will ever use. There's no easy way to get rid of them. I am annoyed by the arrogance of dropbox engineers who clutter my menus without permission. So annoyed that I am ready to drop "dropbox" completely and look for an alternative.
rhk
I also am not happy with all these entries in the context menu when right-clicking a file. I have 8 entries dedicated to dropbox alone, which I cannot disable. This is more than a little annoying. At the very least, could they be clustered into a single entry that could expand when hovered over, similar to how 7zip works in the menu?
I also have this problem. I first noticed today, 5/29/24.
Windows 10 Pro 19045.4291
Dropbox 200.4.7134
Pretty frustrating.
Dropbox has started cramming my Explorer context menu. This is mad. I am thinking of uninstalling the desk app.
Crazy !
I want to remove all dropbox entries from the context menu.
I have used the tips provided by the support here in the forum.
I also used tools to edit the menu context menu and removed several items from there.
But nothing I do is reflecting in the results.
It seems that the new update is not working like it used to.
Please provide a solution that will remove the entries from the context menu.
I'm pretty sure there used to be one Dropbox entry with the various options in a sub-menu. I'm guessing the current version is a bug that causes the options to not be in the sub-menu? I just noticed it today, I'm using Dropbox 201.4.5552 on Windows 10. Hopefully it will be fixed soon, thank you!
Please add a way to get rid of all the dropbox in the right click context menu.
Or at least join them to one "fold out" line. Like "show>" "sort by>" "New>" and so on.
But, really, i saw someone brought this issue up in 2020- and it is still not fixed.
I have to exit dropbox to make the context menu go away, then I forget to turn it on again.
Most programs have this as a setting, so you can turn it on/off AND change what is on the menu.I bet Microsoft could help you if you sent them an E-mail asking for help on how to make it a "fold out" menu.
*why do i need to add a Lable to be able to post this? None of the lables makes any sense to this issue....
