Dropbox context menu missing in OS X

Question

Problem

My Dropbox context menu is missing in OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8). While the Dropbox service runs normally, Finder doesn't show the icons and also doesn't give me the ability to browse files on the website or copy the public link.

What I've tried

• Removed ~/.dropbox and ~/Dropbox/.dropbox.cache
• Reinstalled Dropbox.app (both 1.4.7 stable and 1.5.0 experimental), went through the setup again
• Restarted Finder
• Logged out and back in
• Removed /Library/DropboxHelperTools entirely, upon which the installer required me to enter the password and recreated the folder

• Manually run /Library/DropboxHelperTools/DropboxHelperInstaller, results in this console output (also with sudo):

  <pid>28642</pid>
  usage
  <failure> 22
  

• I know now that Dropbox hacks the Finder to insert these icons and context menu items, based on the FinderLoadBundle architecture (similar to this), but manually running the executables inside FinderLoadBundle.tgz under Dropbox.app » Contents » Resources doesn't do anything either.

All of these I've done over and over again, in random permutations.

I've made sure that

• Dropbox appears in the Login Items under my Account (and I've never touched that)
• Folder Actions Setup is enabled under Keyboard Shortcuts » Services.
• Everything works fine on a newly created user account.

In any case, I can't get the icons or the menu to appear.

Answer 1

In this thread, the person reported that Context menu is shown upon restarting the computer. can you please try that?

of course after install/reinstall :-).

Answer 2

I had the same problem and found that if I quit and restarted the Dropbox application it would work again.

I found that sometimes I would reboot/log out and in and it would work, other times a reboot/log out wouldn't help.

Answer 3

Common fix to missing contextual menus in 10.6.x: Confirm that the "Folder Actions Setup..." service is enabled in System Preferences.

System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Services -> Files and Folders. Make sure "Folder Actions Setup..." is enabled. (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)

Source: https://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=16490&replies=18#post-104122

NOTE: This step was already attempted by the poster, as indicated in the poster's question. I'm including it anyway, since taking this initial first step is what instantly brought back my Dropbox contextual menu under 10.6.8. It could be a helpful first step for someone else missing their context menu, so I request my answer to be left in as a quick reference for future user queries (@moderator & users: no votes needed).