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Forum Discussion
Shawn B.14
5 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Dropbox is stuck syncing after an update, what can I do?
I have the "Dropbox Plus" subscription and I run the client on 4 computers.
Yesterday (Monday, 13-Jan-2020) I signed onto my desktop (which is always on) and has a full local sync of my dropbox...
Server_Align
Collaborator | Level 10
FOR Anyone witrh the NEW relase that is now STUCK syncing/restarting/limbo
OK what appears is the database DB uses to monitor your files was "updated" and the process requires a reindex. For reasons unknown thios doesnt seem to work anywhere near well enough.
Here was my solution to get around it.
1) UNLINK the PC, restart
2) rename the DROPBOX folder OLDBOX
3) LINK the PC, during signup, select to selectively sync NOTHING!
4) Once upto date (with no files present), change your settings to what they used to be, like save space settings etc, and apply
5) Once upto date (should be near instant), change the selective sync to what it used to be, and apply.
6) shutdown the DB app
7) move the content of the saved folder OLDBOX over top the the current dropbox content
8) start the DB app again
9) await it to sync/check/update (takes a while but is a **bleep** load faster now)
Its STEP 5 that I think helps, when you have cloud only files I expect you get all the reindex data sent to you from the dropbox servers as you dont have the files so cant reindex them. Then when you replace those with the original files and restart the app, it sees a real file and compares the content to the index data, and finds it the same so moves on. This appears alot quicker than reindexing the original files and then comparing it to the dropbox servers index data, its likely just a timing or bulk activity thing, that you get sent all the index data at once when you change the selective sync rather than fetching it yourself form the file then comparing that to the servers one file at a time.
I just got a server with 2+TB in 700k+ of files back up.
While it was processing a few files were updated rempotely and the syustem dealt with them as they appeared, likely on a sperate execution thread.
Hope this helps someone at least!
S34W0LF
5 years agoHelpful | Level 6
It helped me! Woohoo! @Server_Align you are the man! Thank you so much.
It is syncing now, will need a couple of days it seems, but I am unstuck!
For reference, I was stuck in "Syncing..." status for 13 days. No crashes, No CPU or Memory consumption, it was just sitting there "Syncing..."
Server_Align 's trick did the job. I do not see extended double files or anything, new files from the cloud are downloading and my "stuck" files are being uploaded, all seems fine.
Thanks again!
- Shawn5995 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Ditto - who is that superhero behind the mask of Server_Align? Dropbox seems to be working better after doing the 9 steps exactly. Instead of 32,000 + files, it got stuck at only 918 files. I rebooted and we'll see if it finishes.
*** Update ***
Rats. Dropbox is still stuck syncing 918 files. These files are older and synced just fine before.
- tonyskate5 years agoHelpful | Level 5
That solution works but only until you restart your PC. Well, another proof that the issue is not on our side, but Dropbox **bleep**ed up.
- AlignAdmin5 years agoExplorer | Level 4
Shawn599 wrote:Ditto - who is that superhero behind the mask of Server_Align? Dropbox seems to be working better after doing the 9 steps exactly. Instead of 32,000 + files, it got stuck at only 918 files. I rebooted and we'll see if it finishes.
*** Update ***
Rats. Dropbox is still stuck syncing 918 files. These files are older and synced just fine before.
FYI : Im a long term comercial user of dropbox, its now a secondry service due to the number of issues we previously have had, its fast syncing but as you see has issues and the helpdesk and forum dropbox users I have found to be usless. To the point I dont even bother with them now, you cant trust a word they say and they don't listen to whats said to them. Beta builds faults are ignored and allowed to move to production. USELESS!
I found my solution from years of having to tweak DB so you start to get the way the thing works, and what its up to and where it falls down :(
On your issues of 918 files left, DB syncs smallest files to largest files in that order (unless you have so many the sort routine failed and then its in what ever order it was when it failed, this happens to me with 700k+ files but thats to be expected)
So maybe those files are significantly larger maybe its nothing to do with that hard to tell. I suggest a tool to assist http://www.nirsoft.net/ OpenedFilesView v1.86 (64bit) run this up and filter it to dropbox.exe and see all the files its opening. I have found this can ping a difficult file. I have often simply copied that file out of dropbox, deleted the file in dropbox, then moved the copy back in and that alone was enough, reason unknown.
Hope this might help.
Anyone Rebooting, remember with lots of files it takes some time to spin up (not days tho!)
* OMG and now this forum posted me as a new user?!?!?!?
- Shawn5995 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Thanks again, Server_Align, now apparently renamed AlignAdmin. I sure appreciate your help, as well as the efforts of everyone here to make Dropbox work for all of us.
I think I have tried everything applicable in this thread. However, my computer continues to be stuck syncing.
Trying to salvage Dropbox has taken too many hours already. I am beginning the switch to OneDrive. It looks like the files that may have been giving Dropbox fits are syncing fine with OneDrive.
Now, how do I disable automatic renewals of Dropbox? I tried removing my credit card information and it would not let me do that.
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