Using DropBox and Mavericks

Do you have the latest version of DropBox?

Dropbox uses a "hack" which extends the Finder (in an unsupported way) to provide this "sharing" link. Because these "hacks" can cause crashes, Apple tends to disable them when newer versions of OS X ship. There's probably a newer version of DropBox that gets around these restrictions that you'll need to download.

I found this thread although I knew what the answer would be: install an upgraded version of the Dropbox software. I just didn't know how. I went away and found out, and I'll share that knowledge here.

Click the dropbox icon in the menu bar, then click on dropbox.com which is top right above the "RECENTLY CHANGED" list.

The dropbox page should open in your browser. Click on your userid at top right. On the menu that appears, click "Install".

Nothing appears to happen when you do that (unless you're luckier than me), but next time you right-click on something in your public dropbox folder, the options to copy the public link etc. should be there.

The drop-down from the Dropbox menu bar icon said "Up to date" as if the latest version was installed. But sure enough, when you go to the web site, there is a much later version. Following the instructions above worked to get Dropbox updated - then the right-click contextual menu worked again in Mavericks.

I had a problem with Dropbox where the the Dropbox logo on toolbar had a drop down menu with a picture of a folder and a circle to its right. In the past before Mavericks mucked up a lot of things that previously worked it said what each icon was for when you hovered over it.

The folder icon went to my local filder as usual but the cicle icon went to a Google search with Top Sites on the heading. I downloaded the latest Dropbox and checked in the local folder by clicking on an enclosed folder in the box (with control depressed) and in each case with 'share this folder', 'view on dropbox' or 'share this file', it went to the same Google sarch box with top sites as its heading.

It turned out that it was an Extension in Safari that was causing the problem. If you go to preferences in Safari and then click on Extension logo and switch off the slider and the Dropbox works then that is where the problem is. I then restored the slider and called up the extensions one by one and deleted them. There was never a problem before Mavericks. Also in Safari it used to list all the extensions and now you have to summon them up one at a time.

Mavericks really has a lot of built in problems that Apple should have sorted before releasing it and bugs that should have been resolved by now. I am very unimpressed with Apple's attitude over their problem causing and their inability or willingness to resolve issues. It's nice to have my iMac running well again but every issue takes up far too much time resolving it and nobody is paying me for all this hassle.

To be fair to Apple one of their staff discovered the problem whilst cruising around my sytem on a screenshare app, but if I had not had that help I would have been sunk as I have spent the whole day researching forums and Googling and absolutely nothing of any use turned up. It's only because I mangaed to get a support package out of Apple because of the incredible number of problems caused on my Mac that I got this help. If I had been on my own with this I would not have thought of that solution because it was never an issue pre Mavericks. Enough said. 🙂

martin from wrote:

It turned out that it was an Extension in Safari that was causing the problem.

Mavericks really has a lot of built in problems that Apple should have sorted before releasing it and bugs that should have been resolved by now. I am very unimpressed with Apple's attitude over their problem causing and their inability or willingness to resolve issues.

Safari Extensions are third-party software. You can't expect Apple to test every possible combination of software and seamlessly smooth over any problems that might arise. Well, you can, but that's an unrealistic expectation.

If developers don't use the correct API codes, then OS upgrades can break the software, causing unpredictable results.

There may be bugs in Mavericks, but you can't blame Apple for your problem.

If everything is hunky dory using an existing Apple platform and then post Mavericks a lot of things are mucked up then Apple are responsible. The list of problems caused by Mavericks is very long and why should Apple's customers do their research and problem solving when we are alreday paying very high premiums to use their equipment in the first place? Sorry I think that Apple are negligent in a lot of areas and having to fix lots of problems takes up a lot of time.. 🙂

wrong topic. So removed post. 🙂

This issue has come up for me with the Yosemite update. I've tried the above fixes (thanks, all). Nothing is working for me. Insights, anyone?

Yup, same thing here. And I just upgraded last night, so I'm guessing something was disabled with the update.

Do you have version 2.10.41?

Yep. I have 2.10.41.

Why not go back to Mavericks until Yosemite has spent some time on the planet? There are bound to be problems initially so, unless you have a great need to struggle, hang back until there have been a few updates fixing problems. Good luck with sorting everything out.