Ubuntu – Dropbox disappears from Startup Applications upon reboot in Ubuntu 16.04

desktopdropboxstartup-applications

I am trying to get Dropbox to run on startup. Checking the box in the Settings of the program "Start Dropbox on system startup" does nothing.

I've tried including Dropbox in the Startup Applications gui by adding the command found in usr/share/applications under "Properties" for Dropbox.

The problem that I am experiencing is that, after adding the relevant command "dropbox start -i" Dropbox will run on startup only once and then it disappears from the list of startup applications. Someone asked a similar question earlier, but the answer didn't seem to be a reasonable one. How can I identify why entries disappear from Startup Applications?

I have followed the suggestion here Can't change startup programs in Startup Application Preferences, but that didn't help, either.

The problem isn't happening with other apps. For example, I added Audacity using the method above and it booted on startup but did not disappear from the Startup Applications list as Dropbox does.

I currently only have two applications listed in startup: SSH Key Agent and touchpad-indicator-autostart.

How can I keep Dropbox from disappearing from the Startup Applications list and to force it to run on startup?

Best Answer

If Dropbox is set to not run on log in (intentionally or not), or the checbox does not work as intended, it will remove the .desktop file you, or Startup Applications created, on next login. Subsequently, it will disappear from the list of startup applications.

Simply rename the file ~/.config/autostart/dropbox.desktop to (e.g.) start_dropbox.desktop after it is created, and Dropbox will not recognize it as his, and leave the file alone.

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