Dropbox Icon problem

Thomas Sumbler · **Joined:** Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:29 pm **Posts:** 6

Hello,

I've run into a little trouble with Dropbox and Uberstudent (my WINE problem has been solved with a fresh installation). I can install Dropbox from the tool provided, and it synchronises properly (as far as I can tell). However, the Dropbox icon that should be in my task bar doesn't work. I get an Icon that is the image of a sheet of paper with a red circle and slash inside it (it looks like a standard sort of failed to fetch picture icon). A left click selects the icon but gives no menu, and a right click gives an "indicator plugin" menu.

This also occurs in a fresh VirtualBox installation.

A little guidance on how to solve this problem would be very much appreciated.

Richard Prado · **Joined:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 4:56 pm **Posts:** 41

Try this : Go to Applications > System > Administration > Fixes > Software System Fixer .

Thomas Sumbler · **Joined:** Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:29 pm **Posts:** 6

I've tried the software system fixer and a reboot, but the problem remains (both on the physical machine and the Virtual Box version).

Stephen Ewen · **Posted:** Thu Aug 25, 2016 9:07 am

Thank you for reporting this. I've not used Dropbox for several months so did not notice this earlier on my own. I just now installed the latest Dropbox in. Your report is accurate. I VERY rarely say it, but I won't fix this issue at this time.

ISSUE
In the very latest Dropbox the developers have (negligently) changed the name and/or pathway of their Dropbox tray icon without taking all of 3 seconds to leave a symlink behind by including in the latest package the result of running:

Code:

ln -s /path/to/file /path/to/symlink

So, the Dropbox tray icon displays as a missing icon (red circle and slash).

In other words, this is a Dropbox developer error that results in a trivial appearence issue.

FIX (won't fix, for now)
Unfortunately, trivial as it may appear, this is not a quick fix I'm willing to make or I'd just do it now. I'd have to release a whole new 60mb package of uberoxygen-icons, which contains thousands of icons, with the change of just one added icon. I won't do that, for multiple reasons. Like you said, this does not affect the functionality of Dropbox. If it did, the whole issue would be different.

This is only the second or third won't fix, for now, in the whole history of UberStudent. Given that any update applies to all UberStudent users worldwide, I trust you understand what I think is the wisdom of my reasoning here. I'm building UberStudent 6 now and I'll do dilligence to make sure Dropbox appears as it should. Otherwise, if any functionality breaks in 4.*, I will certainly be glad to quickly revisit this.

The above said, in a possibly needed future update of an unrelated base package for 4.*, I may be able to bootstrap a piggyback update in it for the Dropbox icon.

Thomas Sumbler · **Joined:** Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:29 pm **Posts:** 6

Delaying the fix seems reasonable.

The icon is supposed to provide some functionality, including the ability to change the location of the Dropbox folder. I think that the installation process gives the option to choose the location of the Dropbox folder. That functionality isn't very important for me, but it might be worthwhile letting users know that they won't have an opportunity to change the dropbox folder later during your custom installation dialogue.

Incidentally, how would I go about uninstalling Dropbox? It doesn't appear under the installed programs in the Ubuntu Software Centre. For that matter, is there a reason not to use the Dropbox setup provided in the Ubuntu Software Centre?

Stephen Ewen · **Posted:** Thu Aug 25, 2016 8:30 pm

Dropbox is just an installer from Dropbox. That installer is preinstalled in UberStudent. You can install it any way you like and it's still the same. To uninstall go to Applications menu > System > Software > Synaptic Package Manager, search for dropbox, and right-click over it to uninstall.

There might be some fixes for you at http://askubuntu.com/questions/732967/d ... -04-lts-64

Abby M · **Joined:** Wed Jan 01, 2014 9:23 pm **Posts:** 26

My laptop has the same issue. One day while I was "playing" around with autostart of applications, suddenly the icon began to work ok, but so, in the same way, it came back to go wrong...

biplabro · **Posted:** Wed Mar 22, 2017 4:08 pm

Dropbox issue is solved by disabling the default dropbox startup item & adding a new item with "dbus-launch dropbox start" command.

It will be great if it is helpful to others as well. Screenshots attached for reference.

Stephen Ewen · **Posted:** Sun Mar 26, 2017 10:08 am

This is not only a Dropbox issue--nice to see they added a fix. Linux is in a transition right now that requires programmers whose programs have a panel icon to work this toggle into their program. X-tile is a program included by default in UberStudent that works as expected from the panel because we worked with the developer to ensure it did with a toggle.

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Dropbox Icon problem

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