The Dropbox Windows app runs in the system tray. When it’s syncing files, you see a blue sync badge on the Dropbox app icon. When Dropbox has finished syncing, the sync badge is replaced with a green check mark. In the event that you aren’t connected to the internet, or your internet is too spotty for Dropbox to establish a connection, the app icon has no badge. As of late though, users are noticing that there is no green check mark on the Dropbox system tray icon.
No Green Check Mark On Dropbox
You’ll be surprised to hear the reason but it’s down to design. Specifically, Dropbox has just undergone a massive UI overhaul. A lot has changed and the Windows desktop app is no different. As per the UI overhaul, the green check mark has been removed. If your Dropbox folder is properly synced, all you will see in the system tray is the app’s own icon. Nothing else.
If Dropbox is currently syncing a file though, the sync badge will appear on the app icon in the system tray. If you lose connectivity, the icon will be greyed out. Depending on how closely you look at the icon you might not even be able to tell the different between Dropbox’s sync and disconnected state.
There Was Warning
While this is a poor design choice no matter how you look at it, Dropbox didn’t just spring it on users. You might have noticed in the past few days that the Dropbox app icon had a red badge on it. If you clicked it and paid attention to the pop-up, you would have learnt that Dropbox had gotten rid of the green check mark.
Of course, as with most notifications, if you only paid cursory attention to it, you might not know about the change. Warning or no warning, this is a poor choice in terms of UI/UX. The green check mark was easy to make-out. You only had to glance at the system tray to tell if your files had synced. Imagine waiting for your files to sync before you shut down your system and not seeing the green check mark or the sync icon. A user is far more likely to think they’ve lost connectivity or that there’s a problem with Dropbox.
This is a classic example of ‘It’s not broken, don’t fix it’. This change is unnecessary and Dropbox users are already voicing their dissent. If you’re unhappy with the change, you can vote to undo it here.