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Forum Discussion
Dropbox is continuously reporting it's syncing, or indexing on Windows 10.
Hello,
Despite not making any changes to my Dropbox folder contents on my Windows host the Dropbox icon is at a constant syncing and/or indexing state and I cannot tell what it is actually trying t...
Several documents were showing up in the Windows File Explorer, but had a gray x icon on it. I right clicked on all of them and selected Smart Sync->Local. They downloaded (changing the icon to green checkmark), and then then the sync icon on the Dropbox icon in the status bar went away. I'm not sure why I needed to do manually select Smart Sync for each individual file when I'm using Selective Sync and specified that folder, but that appears to have stopped the continous syncing for me at least for now.
There are quite a few forum posts about Dropbox getting stuck syncing. I've reviewed those and tried the various proposed solutions. Here's what I've done thus far:
- Quit and restarted DB
- Rebooted the PC
- Quit, downloaded DB again, and restarted DB
- Unlinked DB and relinked DB
- Used the Advanced Reinstall method linked here
In each case, DB dutifully starts resyncing my files and folders, and eventually just stops when it gets to 2187 files to go and 3.7GB to go.
DB is not entirely broken, as it successfully syncs SOME new files and edited files, but it goes back to that number and storage-to-go number eventually.
This is PC running Windows 10 with the latest version of DB
Any thoughts and help would be appreciated.
Hello camner
Have you tried a Force Un-Install of the Dropbox App on your computer(please note a forced un-install is different from a regular un-install)? If not follow the instructions on this page https://appuals.com/how-to-uninstall-programs-on-windows-10-that-wont-uninstall/. Also to fix common sync problems go to https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/files-not-syncing and https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/files-update-issues and follow the recommended steps. I hope this helps!
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Thanks, anonymous for your reply.
- I'm not sure what you mean by a "force uninstall," but I used Add or Remove Programs from the Windows 10 control panel and Dropbox seemed to uninstall just fine. I also used the "Advanced Reinstall" method described here. Is that what you mean?
- I viewed the link you helpfully provided to the Dropbox article titled "Troubleshoot Dropbox syncing issues." It mentioned characters in filenames that may cause problems. Is there a way to search for files with such characters in their names? I'm syncing nearly 300,000 files and it isn't possible to go through them all to see if any of them might have problematical characters in their names.
- I have checked most of the items referred to in the last DB article to which you linked. Most of the items I pass with flying colors. I haven't tried turning off the antivirus software (Defender) or whitelisting DB, but I haven't made any changes to my antivirus software in several years, and the issue cropped up about 3 weeks ago. I suppose there may have been an update that auto installed via Windows Update...
I think what I need is a way to determine which file(s) or folder(s) DB is getting stuck on, but I have no idea how to do that.
Hello camner
You said that you are syncing over 300,000 files. Dropbox states that it starts to slow down with over 100,000 files and anything over that starts affecting performance.
As you have lots and lots on Dropbox you may wish to consider using Selective Sync to take off folders you dont use often (https://help.dropbox.com/syncing-uploads/selective-sync-overview). This leaves them in Dropbox, but, not on your machine. I hope this helps!
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