How to Uninstall Dropbox from a Mac

Last Updated: March 29, 2019

Finished with Dropbox on your Mac? Want to uninstall it? Follow the steps of this article to make sure it all gets removed.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:
Removing the Software and Folders

1
Find Dropbox on your Mac menu bar. Click on the Dropbox icon.
2
Quit Dropbox. Click on the Cog icon and then click Quit Dropbox.

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3
Locate Dropbox in your Applications folder. Delete it by either right-clicking and selecting Move to Trash, or dragging it to your Trash Can.
4
Locate your Dropbox folder to delete it too, if desired. Either right-click on the folder and select Move to Trash, or drag it to your Trash Can.
- Note that deleting the folder will also delete the contents. If these files are not saved in the cloud in your Dropbox account, you may want to copy them to another safe folder before deleting the Dropbox folder.
5
Remove Dropbox from your Sidebar, if necessary. If you'd like to do this, right-click on the Dropbox name and select Remove from Sidebar.

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Part 2

Part 2 of 4:
Removing the Dropbox Contextual Menu

1
Open your Finder. Click on Go and then Go to Folder, or hold ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+G.
2
Type in /Library and press Go.
3
Delete the DropboxHelperTools file by moving it to the Trash. This will uninstall the Dropbox, the contextual menu from your system (if you have it installed).

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Part 3

Part 3 of 4:
Removing the Dropbox Application Settings

1
Open your Finder. Click on Go and then Go to Folder, or hold ⇧ Shift+⌘ Cmd+G.
2
Enter the Dropbox location. Type in ~/.dropbox and press Go.
3
Select all the contents of the /.dropbox folder and move them to the Trash. This will remove your application settings for Dropbox.

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Part 4

Part 4 of 4:
Removing Dropbox from Your Finder Toolbar

1
Open your Finder. Click on View and then Customize Toolbar.
2
Locate the Dropbox icon in your current Toolbar set.
3
Click and hold the Dropbox icon. Drag it down into the customization area and release so it disappears. Click Done.

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Community Q&A

Question

I'm having trouble removing Dropbox. What should I do if I did not unlink Dropbox first?

Jamie “Neproshennie” Ivanov

Community Answer

If you go to dropbox.com and go to your account settings, there will be a security tab where you can see all of your linked devices. From there, you can forcibly unlink the account from the device, or if you forgot to remove Dropbox, you can unlink the device AND have the dropbox application erase all of your dropbox content on that machine.
Question

Dropbox won't delete because some of its extensions are open. What should I do?

Ruah

Community Answer

If it won't delete, then close those extensions. Once they are closed, it should delete.
Question

How do I find the account settings on Dropbox?

Community Answer

Log in and click on the avatar at the top-right corner, then select 'Settings'. On the page there is a 'Security' tab at the top, and down that page you will see the 'Device' section (where you can unlink a device).
Question

How do you close the extensions?

Community Answer

Open Activity Monitor (search for it with spotlight) and force quit the Dropbox process (you can use the searchbox on the right to find it). After that, you can delete the application.
Question

What do I do if I can't delete Dropbox if the extensions are open?

Community Answer

Open Activity Monitor (search for it with Spotlight) and force quit the Dropbox process (you can use the searchbox on the right to find it). After that, you can delete the application.
Question

Dropbox won't uninstall because some of its extensions are running in the background. How do I find what extensions are running?

Community Answer

1. Control-click on the 'Dropbox' folder under 'Applications' and select 'Show Package Contents'. 2. Open it and delete the 'Plugins Folder'. 3. Afterwards, you should be able to remove the application.

Warnings

Beware that deleting your Dropbox folder may result in a loss of the most recent version of the files contained in it, if they haven't been synced to your online Dropbox account or moved elsewhere on your computer before deletion.

Thanks!
Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0

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References

https://www.dropbox.com/help/41/en -- research source

About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 371,028 times.

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Co-authors: 8

Updated: March 29, 2019

Views: 371,028

Categories: Featured Articles | Dropbox

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