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Forum Discussion
Sammy G.
10 years agoNew member | Level 1
Can't run Dropbox unless it has administrator rights
Windows 7 64bit
For some reason dropbox doesn't start with startup anymore because it needs administrator rights to start. If I try running the app normally without administrator rights, nothing happens, I see the cursor change to waiting for a few secs and then nothing. But if I right click and "run as administrator" it runs fine. This means dropbox can't run on startup. Any reason for this?
Should also mention that my account is an admin account.
- Sammy G.New member | Level 1
Nevermind. Fixed.
- DavidGDFCExplorer | Level 4
Hello, Tony,
The only way for me to fix the issue was to reinstall Windows. Unfortunately, Dropbox customer support leaves a lot to be desired and I never expect help from them.
Good luck!
- sunshine m.New member | Level 1
Hey all!
I found a solution for this issue and hopefully it assists you too!
Press the right button on the Dropbox icon (e.g. on your desktop). I dont mean the dropbox icon in your task bar.
Then select Properties (I hope that this is the english name for it).
Then I have chosen my program and deselected "system adminstrator". For more details note the attachement. Since that, dropbox synchronizes again as required without clicking "run as a system administrator"
- Greg K.21New member | Level 1
I have the same problem and it is coming not from dropbox but from windows. I have other applications (MATLAB) that stopped working unless you run them as administrator. The reason is that something changed the access privileges to C:\Users\"your user name"\AppData\Local\Temp. I understand that this directory is used by many applications including dropbox. Unfortunately I was not able to change user rights (windows does not let me) and continue to run dropbox and MATLAB as administrator.
- DaveC2New member | Level 1
Sammy : This is a information based support forum.
.
I'm sure others may come into this same problem.
And they could benefit greatly by your explanation of what you did to correct it if you are able to supply it. - DavidGDFCExplorer | Level 4
Suddenly, I have the same problem as well. I tried installing the latest version, which is currenty 3.2.6,, but it still doesn't work: I need to manually open it with administrative rights.
- DaveC2New member | Level 1
Try setting the installer to run as if its NOT in Windows 7 (unconfirmed that this has resolved the issue for some people)
- DavidGDFCExplorer | Level 4
Thank you, Dave. I forgot to say that I'm using Windows 8.1 (and the currently latest version of Dropbox, 3.2.6).
I've tried the following solutions:
- Uninstall and reinstall the programme.
- Unlinking and linking the laptop where I'm using it.
- Typing the three commands listed on an official Dropbox tutorial.
As far as I can see, it works in my netbook with Windows 7 Started, where I installed Dropbox today.
I'm running out of ideas and I'd really appreciate some help.
- DaveC2New member | Level 1
Then try setting it to NOT windows 8.1.
.
Locate the DROPBOX.EXE, you can get the path to it by looking at the shortcut link in the start menu
Then right click on the DROPBOX.EXE and change the comparability mode.
.
Im not saying this will work, its just something worth trying, - DavidGDFCExplorer | Level 4
Thank you: I've tried compatibility with Windows 7, but I got the same result. The only thing that works so far is launching it as an administrator (which I already am, so this shouldn't be necessary). Dropbox has always worked very well and I don't understand why it's not working any more. Can you think of something else I can try?
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