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After booting up, a popup screen tells me Dropbox did not install correctly, but it is lurking somewhere. To install properly I first have to delete the incorrect install. How can I do that?

I'm using the latest version of Ubuntu.

Peter Mortensen
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tumsuden
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7 Answers7

69

This is from Dropbox help page:

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
Merlijn Sebrechts
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Jordanka
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    `Package 'dropbox' is not installed, so not removed` – endolith May 01 '14 at 23:01
  • Unexpectedly, the commands listed here deleted Dropbox folders "in the cloud". i.e., I have Dropbox working well under different OSs, but running these commands deleted folders completely (rather than just from the current OS). I tried performing this on linux, but notice the result from Mac. – josephwb Sep 30 '17 at 03:50
  • as of August 2020, after running the `sudo apt-get remove` commands I also get the message `Package 'dropbox' is not installed, so not removed`; but if I type `dropbox` I get the `Dropbox command-line interface` and a list of commands to use. – Fons MA Aug 13 '20 at 08:30
  • As of June '22, I did this on Ubuntu 20.04. After running `sudo apt-get remove nautilus-dropbox`, everything seemed to be done. When I ran `sudo apt-get remove dropbox` I saw `Reading package lists... Done // Building dependency tree // Reading state information... Done // Package 'dropbox' is not installed, so not removed`, and when I ran `rm /etc/apt/source.d/dropbox`, I saw `rm: cannot remove '/etc/apt/source.d/dropbox': No such file or directory` – Post169 Jun 21 '22 at 13:21
  • I found something in /home/.var/app that had to be removed to completely remove dropbox. – geneorama Oct 17 '22 at 21:55
31

Try this command in a terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --purge nautilus-dropbox
jokerdino
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Marco Scannadinari
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    Don't forget `rm -rvf ~/.dropbox ~/.dropbox-dist; rm -rv ~/Dropbox` to remove all settings made and the last Dropbox folder. – VDarricau Aug 29 '16 at 12:11
11

Based on this link you can follow this steps:

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

And if you want to delete the files that were synced, you can run this command:

rm -rv ~/Dropbox
Zanna
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Lord ST
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3

You can remove a package through apt-get:

sudo apt-get remove dropbox
Khachatur Danielyan
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It works like this:

  1. sudo dpkg --configure -a
  2. Press Ctrl+C to before the download of Dropbox tries to do anything.
  3. Remove dropbox with sudo apt-get purge nautilus-dropbox
αғsнιη
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sarvanen
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    why would this work better than just running `sudo apt-get purge nautilus-dropbox`? – Alvar Sep 07 '14 at 16:28
  • because once the package is broken you can not use apt/dpkg for nothing other than fixing the package... in my case it still throw sudo apt-get remove --purge nautilus-dropbox – Nasz Njoka Sr. Mar 29 '16 at 10:19
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I had the same error, because my internet fails

I did this: 

sudo rm -r /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

sudo rm -r /var/lib/dpkg/lock

Those were directories that were causing troubles

Then i just remove it: 

sudo apt-get remove nautilus-dropbox

Pd.- After that I tried to install it again and it works perfectly

Alex C
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I had the same issue and I ran all the above commands without any results. I was not able to uninstall no matter what so instead I ran with sudo apt install nautilus-dropbox and it installed all over again and at last I was able to launch and enter.

SunnyBunny
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