Forgot passcode for dropbox on Samsung s4 mini, can't uninstall

[Audrey K]

So, I don't recall setting a passcode to get into Dropbox on my phone. Smart girl, if I did--except that I can't remember what it was. So now I am unable to access Dropbox from my phone--there is no way to reset on the phone, apparently. My husband suggested uninstalling and reinstalling dropbox, but the phone won't let me do that. When I go to uninstall, tapping on Dropbox to uninstall it does nothing.

So, two questions:

- Is uninstalling the app the best/only way to reset the passcode?
- If so, how do I uninstall it?

Thanks,

Audrey

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! How about going to the Dropbox website and going through the forgotten password process? There should be an easy way to reset the password, as long as you remember your other credentials (like the email address you registered, and any security questions).

 

[Audrey K]

Thanks, but it's not the Dropbox password I need--it's something I set on my Android device. I can get to my Dropbox just fine via my computer.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm not familiar with the DropBox app on Android. So you're saying there's an option on the app to select a separate PIN from the usual password? Kind of like how the Starbucks app works?

You might be able to clear everything out by going to Settings>Apps, selecting DropBox, and clearing cache and clearing data. You'd then have to log back in when you open it again, and it should resync data with your cloud account.

 

[Audrey K]

Tried that... again, it still asks for my 4-digit passcode. I think I can't uninstall & reinstall because it's a system app that came with my phone. I am going to try getting in touch with Dropbox tech support, see if they can help. I'll post something here if I get any answers!

 

[Audrey K]

Okay, it looks like the only option is to uninstall/reinstall Dropbox. So now my question is how to uninstall a system app? I was reading what sound like very scary things about messing with the phone's ROM. Don't really want to do that!

 

[Audrey K]

Okay-- fiddling around some more, I took the advice in this post in the dropbox forum (https://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=98195#post-534822) to go to my android settings>cloud and disable the Dropbox content sync option. Only in my case, I ENABLED the sync option, and voila--suddenly I have access to dropbox without it requiring a passcode.

A little scary, still, to think of what's going on behind the scenes to make this work/not work/work again.