How to run an advanced reinstall of Dropbox on your computer

Updated Mar 05, 2025

This article describes a feature available to all customers on Dropbox.

This article explains how to run an advanced reinstall of the Dropbox desktop app on your Windows, Mac, or Linux device. This is an extra step beyond a basic reinstall you can take, such as if you’d like to remove saved settings from a previous install of the Dropbox desktop application, or in some cases when recommended by our support team to troubleshoot an issue.

If you’d like to remove the Dropbox desktop app from your computer, learn how to safely uninstall Dropbox.

After completing the reinstall, it may take some time for your files to sync. Changes made to files in your Dropbox account while it was offline—on dropbox.com or other connected devices—can result in conflicted copies.

This process only works when linking to the exact same account that was previously linked to this computer. If desired, you can merge accounts instead.

Note: If you need to reinstall the Dropbox mobile app, learn how to delete and reinstall Dropbox on on your iPhone or iPad or on your Windows Phone. You can also learn how to resolve issues with your Dropbox Android installation.

Before running an advanced reinstall

Save and quit all programs accessing files in the Dropbox folder.
If you use selective sync, take note of the preferences you applied.
- If you're on a headless version of Dropbox, access the list of selective sync folders by running "dropbox exclude list." Learn how.
If the Dropbox folder is not in the default location, note where it is located. Learn how to find the Dropbox folder on your computer.

Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox helps you effortlessly manage tasks.

Quit the Dropbox desktop app:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your system tray.
- Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
- Click Quit.

Uninstall the Dropbox desktop app from your computer.
Restart your computer.
Open the Windows Registry editor.
Double-click the folder named “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” to open it.
Inside that folder, find the “Dropbox” and “DropboxUpdate” folders by searching in the folders named “SOFTWARE” and “WOW6432Node”. They’ll be in either or both locations.
Delete the “Dropbox” and “DropboxUpdate” folders. To do so, right-click each folder and click Delete.
- Note: Don’t delete the main Dropbox folder on your computer. At no point in this process should you delete that folder.
Open File Explorer and search for the folder “%LOCALAPPDATA%”.
Inside that folder, delete the “Dropbox” folder.
- Note: Don’t delete the main Dropbox folder (with your files) in File Explorer on your computer. At no point in this process should you delete that folder.
Repeat steps 8 and 9 with the following folders, deleting the “Dropbox” folder inside each: “%APPDATA%", “%PROGRAMFILES%”, and “%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%”.
- Note: If you can’t find the folders, it means they’re already deleted and you can move on to the next step.
Download and install the Dropbox desktop app.
- Since your original Dropbox folder is still on your computer at this point, if you don’t want to create a new one, click Advanced Settings during the download prompts, and click the location of your existing Dropbox folder. For example, if your Dropbox folder is located at “D:\OtherDrive\Folder\Dropbox”, choose “D:\OtherDrive\Folder”.

Quit the Dropbox desktop app:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar.
- Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
- Click Quit.
Uninstall Dropbox:
- Open your Finder.
- Click Applications.
- Locate the Dropbox app and drag and drop it to the Trash. Or, right-click the Dropbox app icon and select Move to Trash.
When the uninstall finishes, restart your computer.
Delete the remaining Dropbox system folders.
- Open your Finder.
- Click Applications.
- Open your Terminal application.
  - The Terminal pathway on updated macOS computers is /Applications/Terminal.app
  - Note: If you can’t find the Terminal app, check the Utilities folder.
- Copy and paste the following lines below one at a time into the Terminal. Press Enter on your keyboard after each one.
  - Note: Don't type commands by hand.
  - When prompted, enter your computer admin password (not your Dropbox password), and press Enter on your keyboard.
  - The password field in Terminal remains blank as you type your password. After you type it, press Enter on your keyboard.
  - You'll know that these instructions are complete once the initial line of text (called prompt) appears.

Important:

In the commands below, it's assumed that your Dropbox folder is in the default pathway. If you placed your Dropbox folder in a custom location, replace all instances of ~/Dropbox for the full location of your Dropbox folder in quotation marks. For example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path "/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox", replace ~/Dropbox from the following command lines to "/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox".
If you’re using Dropbox for MacOS on File Provider, you need to replace all instances of ~/Dropbox with ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox.

sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"

sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox

sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox

sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old

sudo chmod -N ~

sudo mv /Library/DropboxHelperTools ~/DropboxHelperTools.old

Important: If you're part of a team account, your Dropbox team name is included in the folder path. You’ll need to enter “~/[Team Name] Dropbox" instead of “~/Dropbox” in the lines above.

5. Get the latest version of the Dropbox desktop app. Download now.

6. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the installation file and double-click it.

7. Apply any selective sync preferences you had before the reinstall.

8. Select the Dropbox folder location, if not in the default location.

Important: This process removes the previous Dropbox preferences and configuration. If you wish to avoid re-syncing your Dropbox content, you'll need to choose the location for Dropbox to sync to manually. If you don't, you'll create a new Dropbox folder and start to sync your content again.

To select your established Dropbox folder on your drive, click Advanced Settings after choosing which folders to sync.
Choose the parent folder of your already established Dropbox folder. For example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path “/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox”, then select the folder “/Volumes/DifferentPlace”.

Depending on your operating system distribution and the package you used during installation, you could have Dropbox files in two different locations. The instructions in this article are for both cases, so some of the commands may result in an error.

Open your Terminal application.
Copy and paste the following lines one at a time into Terminal. Press Enter on your keyboard after each one.
- Note: Don't type commands by hand.
- You may be prompted for your computer password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the commands. The password field in Terminal remains blank as you type your password. After you type it, press Enter on your keyboard.
- You'll know that these instructions completed normally once the initial line of text (called prompt) appears.

Important: In the commands below, it's assumed that your Dropbox folder is in the default pathway. If you placed your Dropbox folder in a custom location, replace all instances of ~/Dropbox for the full location of your Dropbox folder in quotation marks. For example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path "/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox", replace ~/Dropbox from the following command lines to "/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox".

Once the Terminal prompt shows up again after a command, the instruction completed the requested task and is ready for the next command. If any of the the commands do not respond after an hour, try restarting your computer and trying these steps again.

`dropbox stop`
`dropbox status  # Should report "not running"`
`rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist`
`rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox`
`rm -rf ~/.dropbox*`
`sudo apt-get remove nautilus-dropbox`
`sudo apt-get remove dropbox`
`rm /etc/apt/source.d/dropbox`
`sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"`
`sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox`
`sudo chattr -R -i ~/Dropbox`
`sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox`

Note: Deleting any of these folders won’t delete the files in your Dropbox folder.

Important: If you're part of a team account, your Dropbox team name is included in the folder path. You’ll need to enter “~/[Team Name] Dropbox" instead of “~/Dropbox” in the lines above.

3. Restart your computer.

For an installation on a supported Linux distribution with Graphical User Interface:
- Get the correct package for your operating system and architecture. Download now.
- Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the installation file and double-click it.
- Apply any selective sync preferences you had before the reinstall.
- Select the Dropbox folder location, if not in the default location.

Important: This process removes the previous preferences and configuration. If you wish to avoid re-syncing your Dropbox content, you will need to manually choose the location for Dropbox to sync to. If you don't, you'll create a new Dropbox folder and start to sync your content again.

To select your established Dropbox folder on your drive, click Advanced Settings after choosing which folders to sync.

For an installation on a supported headless Linux distribution:

Enter the following command into your Terminal:

If your machine is 32-bit:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -

If your machine is 64-bit:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

2. Run the Dropbox daemon from the newly created dropbox-dist folder:

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

3. When Dropbox finishes installing, log in and apply any preferences from before the reinstall to the list of excluded items.

Learn more about installation and CLI information.

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