Fix Dropbox Indicator Menu Not Working In Ubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zapus (Unity)

Update: this issue was fixed (thanks Martin), although you may still encounter it in other applications.

The Dropbox indicator is broken in Ubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zapus (currently in beta): the menu doesn't work and Dropbox uses a different icon, probably because it tries to use the tray instead of the indicator.

This is caused by the fact that the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP environment variable was changed from "Unity" to "Unity:Unity7" for Ubuntu 17.04.

Until this is fixed in Dropbox, here's a quick fix / workaround. To get the Dropbox indicator to work in Ubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zapus (with Unity), you'll need to launch Dropbox with "env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity", like this:

dropbox stop
env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity dropbox start -i

To get this to work automatically is a bit tricky because Dropbox overwrites any modifications to its autostart file.

Here are all the steps required to fix the Dropbox indicator menu in Ubuntu 17.04 Zesty Zapus so that Dropbox works when you login / when launched from the menu:

• rename the Dropbox autostart file from ~/.config/autostart and edit it, changing the "Exec" line to "Exec=env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity dropbox start -i";
• disable the built-in Dropbox autostart because it automatically creates an autostart file.
• optional: if you want to also fix the Dropbox menu entry (this isn't used in most cases since Dropbox starts automatically), copy the Dropbox desktop file from /usr/share/applications/ to ~/.local/share/applications/, so it's not overwritten by updates, and change the "Exec" line to "Exec=env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity dropbox start -i"

Initially this article mentioned using "dropbox autostart n" to disable Dropbox from autostarting using its default desktop file, but that apparently only works once now. So here are exact step by step instructions on fixing the Dropbox indicator menu in Ubuntu 17.04, with commands to simplify things.

1. Create a new autostart .desktop file for Dropbox, based on the default one, but modifying the Exec line to use XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity:

cp ~/.config/autostart/dropbox.desktop ~/.config/autostart/start_dropbox.desktop
sed -i 's/^Exec=.*/Exec=env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity dropbox start -i/' ~/.config/autostart/start_dropbox.desktop

2. Stop Dropbox and start it using XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity so you can access its settings:

dropbox stop
env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity dropbox start -i

3. In the Dropbox AppIndicator menu, select "Preferences", then disable "Start Dropbox on system startup".

4. Optional: modify the Dropbox menu entry to use XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications/
cp /usr/share/applications/dropbox.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
sed -i 's/^Exec=.*/Exec=env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity dropbox start -i/' ~/.local/share/applications/dropbox.desktop

The next time you login, the Dropbox indicator menu should now work and it should use the correct icon.

via Dropbox forums