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Forum Discussion
BobP45
3 years agoExplorer | Level 3
Dropbox stuck downloading to Windows
I've had a problem for the past few weeks with Dropbox no longer successfully downloading (syncing) from the server to my Windows 10 computer; it is somehow stuck or blocked and "Downloading 34 files...
Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi BobP45, can you see the sync activity to see which files are trying to download in the desktop app?
Likewise, are there any sync issues when clicking the avatar in the desktop app?
Likewise, are there any sync issues when clicking the avatar in the desktop app?
BobP45
3 years agoExplorer | Level 3
Hi Jay
yes, you can see the files Dropbox is trying to download, they are also shown in the screen shot in my original post above. There were a few sync issues due to illegal characters in the file names from Android, but I deleted these files on the Dropbox server and there are no longer any sync issues.
HiHannah
I deselected the Camera Uploads folder with Selective sync. This folder was 350 GB and had just over 100,000 files. (First I had archived its contents to a folder outside of Dropbox, then I deleted them from the Dropbox server and waited for it to complete and show an empty folder.) Now my Dropbox folder on this computer is only 160 GB and has about 130,000 files. After setting up Selective sync and hitting OK, Dropbox got stuck again, this time with "Downloading 101,300 files...". I assume it was trying to index the changes or something like that. I waited over an hour and this status and number of files did not change.
I then quit and uninstalled Dropbox, restarted Windows, did an advanced reinstall of Dropbox and after it finished indexing all the changes, it is unfortunately back to where it was before, now "Downloading 26 files..." forever. (Before it had been 34 files, but 8 of them had been from the Camera Uploads folder which is now empty.) As mentioned before, the Sync history list shows these 26 files either as "Download complete" or as "Waiting to sync..." If I hold the mouse pointer over the ones with "Waiting to sync..." it will start to sync them and then show "Download complete". But the files never appear at the appropriate place in my Dropbox folder on the computer. If I restart Windows, then all these files will again show "Waiting to sync..." and then eventually display as "Download complete". So maybe the files get downloaded but Dropbox can't save them to the local drive for some reason? Can't believe the code doesn't notice the error and flags a problem or at least logs what is happening. (I also again did the "Fix permissions" and "Fix hardlinks" but that didn't help.) Would be good to know what triggered this in the first place as I have been using Dropbox for several years with no problems.
So as it is still unable to download and store any files from the server on this computer, Dropbox is basically useless at the moment. If I add new files to the Dropbox server from another source, the number in "Downloading nn files..." increases respectively and they also don't get really downloaded and stored. FWIW Dropbox works fine on my laptop.
Anything else to try?
Thanks, Bob
- Jay3 years agoDropbox Staff
Thanks for the info, I'd recommend getting in contact with the support team directly for further assistance.
Once you get a ticket ID from the automated response, please let me know the number here so I can locate it in our system.- BobP453 years agoExplorer | Level 3
Thanks Jay, was in the process of replying to my last message when yours came in.
Dropbox seems to be working now. I let it run overnight and this morning it had finished downloading and it is now also downloading new files from the Android device. Then I turned off selective sync (re-enabled all folders) and those folders got downloaded again as well.
So it may have been either the large Camera Uploads folder with 350 GB and 100,000+ files (which has now been archived and no longer under Dropbox, which now has a fresh new Camera Uploads folder), or also a mirroring application I use to backup the drive the Dropbox folder is on to another drive in real time, which I disabled last evening. I have been using the mirroring app for many years with no problems. Whatever, it seems to work now.
- Jay3 years agoDropbox Staff
No worries! Please let us know if you experience any issues in the future.
Enjoy your weekend!
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