Couldn't start Dropbox error

Question

Couldn't start Dropbox error

Anonymous

I have been unable to run Dropbox on my Windows 10 laptop. This started when I switched to a new Dropbox account. I signed out of my previous account, uninstalled the app from my machine and then when downloading the installer and running it, I would eventually get the 'Couldn't start Dropbox' error message. I have reached out to Dropbox support and they suggested I create a brand new local Operating System user profile with administrator rights to try to reproduce the behavior. I did this and under the new user profile, the Dropbox installation completed and I was able to open Dropbox with no issues. When I informed Dropbox support that doing this worked, they said the following:

That means that there may be some sort of misconfiguration, setting, policy, or permission restriction that is affecting the original profile.

And recommended that I use the new profile from now on or that you contact either IT support or the customer support organization for your operating system as this is outside the scope of what they can support.

I do not wish to run the new user profile being that I have other software I run regularly on my exiting profile and also want to dig deeper to find out what's causing this issue as I have been running Dropbox with no issues on this user profile for years now and have only run into this issue since switching to a new Dropbox account and trying to reinstall and run Dropbox under this new account.

I removed any VPN or other software from the machine that could be causing the issue, but again, since I have been successfully running Dropbox on this machine for years now and have not installed anything new recently that could cause this, I wanted to reach out on here and see if anyone has any other ideas on what the issue could be and how to fix it. Thank you!

Screen shot of the error message below.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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3 answers

Answer 1

The error "Found multiple master rows. Invalidating them all" could be caused by leftover files from the previous installation, try to completely remove the Dropbox using the Revo Uninstaller.

Step 1: Uninstall the Dropbox

1-Download and extract the portable version of the Revo Uninstaller

https://www.revouninstaller.com/start-freeware-...

2-Run the RevoUPort.exe (this version doesn't need to be installed)

3-Select the Dropbox from the list and click on "Uninstall"

4-The Dropbox uninstaller process will be shown, follow the instructions

5-When finished you will be back on the Revo window, click on Scan

6-Then will be shown the leftover files, click to select all and click to delete

7-When finished, reboot your PC

Step 2:Check if all files have been deleted

1-Open the File Explorer

2-Go to the folder : C:\Program Files (x86)\

3-If the folder Dropbox is still there, delete it

4-Right-click on the Start then click on Run

5-Type: %localappdata% and click on OK

6-If the folder Dropbox is still there, delete it

Step 3: Clear the temp files

1-Right-click on the Start then click on Run

2-Type: %temp% and click on OK

3-Select all files and delete them

4-You may receive some errors to delete some files, click to skip these files

Step 4: Install the Dropbox and check if everything working now

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Answer 2

Anonymous

Hi, DrewS75,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue.

Did you try to open the error log file mentioned in the error message? This file may have more information on what is preventing Dropbox to be started.

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Answer 3

Thank you. Here's the information contained in the log file.

bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 168.4.4802
bn.constants.WINDOWS_SHELL_EXT_VERSION: 60
bn.is_frozen: True
machine_id: 9ec77e3f-622b-43b3-82be-65821cf04fc4
pid: 7096
cwd: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client'
real_path='C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client'
mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0
HOME: None
appdata: 'C:\Users\Drew Shollmier\AppData\Local\Dropbox'
real_path='C:\Users\Drew Shollmier\AppData\Local\Dropbox'
mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0
dropbox_path: None
not found
parent not found
sys_executable: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe'
real_path='C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe'
mode=0o100777 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0
trace.__file__: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\168.4.4802\python-packages.zip\dropbox\client\ui\common\boot_error.pyc'
real_path='C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\168.4.4802\python-packages.zip\dropbox\client\ui\common\boot_error.pyc'
not found
parent not found
TMP: C:\Users\DREWSH~1\AppData\Local\Temp
TEMP: C:\Users\DREWSH~1\AppData\Local\Temp
tempdir: 'C:\Users\DREWSH~1\AppData\Local\Temp'
real_path='C:\Users\Drew Shollmier\AppData\Local\Temp'
mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0
parent mode=0o40777 uid=0 gid=0
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "dropbox\client\main.pyc", line 7556, in main_startup
File "dropbox\client\main.pyc", line 2618, in initialize
File "dropbox\client\main.pyc", line 1523, in startup_low
File "dropbox\client\configuration\manager.pyc", line 130, in load_instance_data
File "dropbox\client\multiaccount\instance_database.pyc", line 867, in get_info_by_instance_id
File "dropbox\client\multiaccount\instance_database.pyc", line 788, in get_master_row
File "dropbox\assertions.pyc", line 57, in assert_
AssertionError: Found multiple master rows. Invalidating them all.

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Couldn't start Dropbox error

3 answers