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Syncing is stuck on my Linux devices, what can I do?
It seems I have the same problem as mentioned in above posts. I am running Dropbox on a pc and laptop, both having Linux-Lubuntu as the os. After a "one time update" on both systems, Dropbox is stuck...
Hi holf,
At the beginning you can try fix possible permission errors:
sudo chown -R "$USER" "$HOME/Dropbox" sudo chattr -R -i "$HOME/Dropbox" chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox
Also, existing symbolic links could be found using:
ls -alR ~/Dropbox | grep " -> "
If no any change, check the needs for watchable entries:
i=0; IFS=$'\n'; for a in `ls -R1 ~/Dropbox`; do ((++i)); done; echo $i
The above will give you some estimation. The current upper border could be received using:
sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches
If the estimation above don't fit in last result, try extend the border using something like:
sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_watches=100000
Tune the value according your needs (with some reserve, of course).
If nothing helps yet, try to find out the exact files making troubles (which will give you chance investigate further), using something like:
(IFS=$'\n';for i in `ls -R1 ~/Dropbox`; do if [[ "$i" =~ ":" ]]; then cd `echo "$i" | sed "y/:/\//"`; echo -n "In folder: "; pwd; dropbox filestatus; fi; done) | grep -vi "up to date" | grep -vi ".dropbox:" | grep -vi ".dropbox.cache:"
Last command assume you have installed properly 'dropbox' command, either using debian package or by hand. Otherwise "command not found" will be signaled. Will be enumerated all folders in Dropbox and signaled problematic files inside, if any. Be patient, could take some time, depending on your content size. Once found out problematic entries, you can use different techniques for investigate, like see current file's classic attributes (the simplest one):
ls -l ~/Dropbox/Troublesome/file.ext
Good luck. :wink:
Daphne
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHi there holf, thanks for reaching out to us here on the Community!
I've moved your post to it's own thread as you're currently using a different OS (Linux rather than Windows) to those on the thread you originally posted in here.
I'd love to troubleshoot with you and keep this separate to avoid any confusion.
Since you've already tried a few steps, could you let me know if you currently have any symlinks within your Dropbox folder? You can use the steps here in point 7 to check.
If you are, could you try moving them outside the Dropbox folder or replacing them with the actual file to see if that helps syncing to progress?
Let me know what you find and we'll go from there!
Thank you. I will try out your suggestions and have a look at the other thread.
Hi holf,
At the beginning you can try fix possible permission errors:
sudo chown -R "$USER" "$HOME/Dropbox" sudo chattr -R -i "$HOME/Dropbox" chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox
Also, existing symbolic links could be found using:
ls -alR ~/Dropbox | grep " -> "
If no any change, check the needs for watchable entries:
i=0; IFS=$'\n'; for a in `ls -R1 ~/Dropbox`; do ((++i)); done; echo $i
The above will give you some estimation. The current upper border could be received using:
sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches
If the estimation above don't fit in last result, try extend the border using something like:
sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_watches=100000
Tune the value according your needs (with some reserve, of course).
If nothing helps yet, try to find out the exact files making troubles (which will give you chance investigate further), using something like:
(IFS=$'\n';for i in `ls -R1 ~/Dropbox`; do if [[ "$i" =~ ":" ]]; then cd `echo "$i" | sed "y/:/\//"`; echo -n "In folder: "; pwd; dropbox filestatus; fi; done) | grep -vi "up to date" | grep -vi ".dropbox:" | grep -vi ".dropbox.cache:"
Last command assume you have installed properly 'dropbox' command, either using debian package or by hand. Otherwise "command not found" will be signaled. Will be enumerated all folders in Dropbox and signaled problematic files inside, if any. Be patient, could take some time, depending on your content size. Once found out problematic entries, you can use different techniques for investigate, like see current file's classic attributes (the simplest one):
ls -l ~/Dropbox/Troublesome/file.ext
Good luck. :wink:
- Hi,I was having a similar problem and the Здравко's solutions worked temporarily for me. When I restarted my computer the problem started again.While I was waiting for a proper solution by Dropbox support, I've been studying the Здравко's solutions and I found out the command below is the one which worked temporarily:sudo sysctl -w fs.inotify.max_user_watches=100000Then, I found out more information about this fs.inotify.max_user_watches property at the following address:According to the instructions in the page, the above command, in fact, sets the property temporarily. In order to get it permanently, the commands would be:
sudo sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches=100000
sudo sysctl -pI tried them and Dropbox is working fine on my computer until now. Even if I restarted it.In summary, the problem is solved, but I'm really curious to know what exactly is this property and why Dropbox was not working fine until I set it with a higher number. Could someone explain to me?Anyway, thank you very much for all attention and assistance.Kind regards,DraylsonI've suffered same issue, when I upgraded my Ubuntu to latest version few days ago. Changing max_user_watches solved problem. Thanks guys.
Hi
I tried the second step looking for symbolic links
ls -alR ~/Dropbox | grep " -> "
And inded there were several symbolic links.
In fact, when I tried to run
sudo chattr -R -i "$HOME/Dropbox"
this is why I got a bunch of errors like this:
chattr: Operation not supported while reading flags on [...]
Does this mean I need to somehow remove these symbolic links in order to get my Dropbox synching unstuck on my Linux machine?
If so, how does one do this, and how do I do it without breaking stuff?
For a bit of context, most of my symbolic links are associated with Python env. For example:
$ ls -alR ~/Dropbox | grep " -> " lrwxrwxrwx 1 martin martin 3 Oct 27 14:48 lib64 -> lib lrwxrwxrwx 1 martin martin 9 Oct 27 14:48 python -> python3.8 lrwxrwxrwx 1 martin martin 9 Oct 27 14:48 python3 -> python3.8
Any assistance with this would be appreciated.
MartinHeroux wrote:...
this is why I got a bunch of errors like this:
chattr: Operation not supported while reading flags on [...]
Does this mean I need to somehow remove these symbolic links in order to get my Dropbox synching unstuck on my Linux machine?
...Hi MartinHeroux,
Not actually. If the other 2 line in same code block are working without errors, no problem:
sudo chown -R "$USER" "$HOME/Dropbox" chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox
It's important no any link points to a place outside Dropbox folder, which seems covered by your examples (have to be for all).
What about possible unwatched entries? Did you check that? Alternatively you can use something like:
db_path=`jq -r '.personal.path' ~/.dropbox/info.json`; echo -n "Your Dropbox folder $db_path entries approximate count is "; tree -a "$db_path" | wc -l; sysctl fs.inotify.max_user_watches
What's the result? 🤔 The actual entries count should fits in the border (maximum)!
If need, give some time to the entries not in sync yet. Is there some 'move' in result of:
dropbox status
🤔
And finally, is there some "deviation" in the result of:
(IFS=$'\n';for i in `ls -R1 $(jq -r '.personal.path' ~/.dropbox/info.json)`; do if [[ "$i" =~ ":" ]]; then cd `echo "$i" | sed "y/:/\//"`; echo -n "In folder: "; pwd; dropbox filestatus; fi; done) | grep -vi "up to date" | grep -vi ".dropbox:" | grep -vi ".dropbox.cache:"
🤔
- Walter
Thanks for reporting this Здравко!
As Daphne just got out of the office, I went ahead and fished your comment out of the Community's spam folder.
As mentioned in the past, this was probably caught due ot its lenght and/or for containing code blocks and commands.
In any case, I hope this help and see you around the Community!
holf: I hope Здравко's suggestions help with the issue you've reported so please keep us posted on your findings!
