Not Issues

The author who created this page isn't imaginative enough to come up with a better name.

These are "issues" that actually work as designed.

All Platforms

Shared folder takes up everyone's space: Expected behaviour is that it only counts against the quota of the shared folder's owner.

Solution: Aside from the ability to invite and kick people out, everyone has full access to the files within the shared folder. Those files also take up space on each user's hard drives, so there are bandwidth costs associated with transferring the files to everyone. There are also considerations about abuse, where someone could link numerous free accounts together to sidestep the quota. There have been numerous proposed solutions to this issue, all of which have advantages and disadvantages. Group accounts will be implemented in the future to serve organizations which use Dropbox's shared folders for internal file distribution. See the forum discussion for details.

Public Links are 404: Public links return 404 Not Found error even though the link is correct.

Solution: First make sure your file has actually completed uploading. If the link had previously worked but not anymore: Dropbox uses an automated abuse prevention system which moderates the bandwidth usage of accounts/clients/public files. Your account was probably flagged for excessive usage. Your usage may indeed be perfectly reasonable depending on the situation, so contact a Dropboxer about the specifics. Contacting them will also help refine the monitoring program to reduce false positives.

Icon Infestation: Dropbox status icons are everywhere, even outside Dropbox.

Solution: If you have Mozy, it's probably their icons. If you don't and you're on a Mac, it's probably one of the KnownIssues. Otherwise, all hell has broken loose and you need to post on the forums. <laughs like a maniac!!!>

Windows

OSX

Dropbox prompts for password on startup: Dropbox prompts for a password when you first launch it, tells you it's incorrect, and then shows your files anyways.

Solution: The password prompt actually belongs to the Mac (your admin credentials), it's needed to install Dropbox's Finder plugin, and should only prompt you once.

Linux

I get strange crashes when I start Dropbox: While there are many things that could have gone wrong, you might want to try checking your /etc/fonts/conf.d/53-monospace-lcd-filter.conf file. There are situations where Dropbox will fail to start if the line containing "<const>lcdlegacy</const>" is commented out. <WHATT??????>