We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here. 

Forum Discussion

Soonjas's avatar
Soonjas
Helpful | Level 6
4 years ago

Slow upload speeds on Windows 7

I am experiencing the super slow upload speed via Dropbox desktop App ( v 120.4.4598 ) and I am running Windows 7. It used to be good and only recently noticed super slow upload speed. Funny thing is, upload via chrome browser works and utilizes my bandwidth to the max which is great. I have tried reinstalling the app, playing around with settings, rebooting router and modem, speed tests, tried that fix by merk. Also have tried installing Dropbox onto a laptop (win7) and get the same upload speed around 250KB/s. It seems like there is hard limit on the upload speed set by Dropbox.

I have wasted too much time on this. It is not my internet, as upload speeds are great to Google Drive and other speedtests, even the dropbox browser upload is fast.

 

Conclusion is the desktop app upload is slow. Definitely something wrong with the desktop app. So tempted to try the Filezilla Pro option, have to pay though =( 

Please fix this Dropbox!

  • Hannah's avatar
    Hannah
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    Hi Soonjas, thanks for your post!

    Indeed, syncing your files can take time if you have many files or large files, however, the Dropbox servers do not set caps on the upload or download speeds from the Dropbox desktop client. 

    Have you tried the steps in this article to see if they help with your syncing speed?

    Let me know how it goes.
    • Soonjas's avatar
      Soonjas
      Helpful | Level 6

      Yes I have tried those but it does not fix the issue.

       

      I tried installing dropbox on another two laptops(windows 7) and it has the same issues.

      I then installed dropbox on a different laptop(windows 10) and THERE IS NO ISSUE.

       

      So the problem is with Dropbox app and Windows 7. There seems to be a hard cap on the upload speed. Can this be please investigated by dev team?

      • Hannah's avatar
        Hannah
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Can you check one thing for me? This particular version of the Windows OS (Windows 7) needs the security update KB3033929 for the Dropbox desktop app to work properly. 

        Is it possible that you don't have this update? It might explain this situation. 

        Let me know what you find!

  • xerkon's avatar
    xerkon
    Helpful | Level 5

    Dropbox is uploading at about 1/10th of the speed of my upload connection. I ran an Ookla speed test while dropbox was uploading and you can see my results below. The speed test says I have a 9 MBps upload speed and dropbox is uploading at 1 MBps. Any ideas?

    I'm using the desktop installation on Windows 7.

     

    • mail3dexter's avatar
      mail3dexter
      New member | Level 2

      The reason could be many things. Let's start with the question, was the Ookla speed test server at the same distance as Dropbox's server? The answer to that would be maximum time no as speed test servers are hosted very near to customers in ISP network. They do not give real information like say you have 10Mbps connection, but will you really get 10Mbps once you cross your ISP's network? The answer is NO. No ISP will guarantee that once traffic leaves their network. So thats the connectivity part.

       

      Secondly, it is latency that would be very harsh on data transfer speed. Even if you have 10Gbps connection, you can transfer at very low speeds because of how TCP works (a widely protocol used to transfer data). You can search these terms if you want to understand them in deep: "calculate tcp throughput with latency" or "tcp speed calculator according to delay".

       

      Third, different speeds for different paths. I have seen this in the past many times. In your question, you have not mentioned your actual/bought/committed internet speed. I have seen ISPs who would grant you different speeds based on different destinations. Like, for Google/Youtube, they might have a dedicated connection with them and since they pay for that connection at a almost fixed rate every month, they want to utilise that connection as much as possible. So they provide uncapped/more speeds as compared to the committed speeds. I have seen connections with 10Mbps committed speeds getting 100Mbps on youtube to se videos and on microsoft to download windows/office updates.

       

      So these were some of the reasons you can get different speedtest results. You cannot do apple to apple comparison between different destinations.

       

      If you want to dig deeper into this, we can do that but before that, I would need few more information like whats your committed/bought internet speed, who is your ISP (My experience in networking domain helps me in knowing ISPs behaviour and how their service would be), etc.

      • xerkon's avatar
        xerkon
        Helpful | Level 5

        @mail3dexter - None of that stuff you're talking about produces a straight line in a graph. It's obvious my upload speed is being governed by some setting.

    • unitiakash's avatar
      unitiakash
      New member | Level 2

      Hi team,

      I am having issue with uploading files to drobox and  when i check speed test that are within specification 

       

      My Isp is not able to address the issue as we have tried uploading via browser and desktop app as well on computer but the uploading speed is typically slow 

       

      I have confirmed all the settings are intact in my drobox as the bandwidth is not limited and all other settings are intact

       

      Now what troubleshooting my isp should do to address the issue as the speed test and tracert everything is within specification and can not see any packet loss as well

       

      Thanks in advance 

       

      • Megan's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
        Hi unitiakash, welcome to our Community!

        Let me ask, is it possible that a proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even your ISP/router is blocking communication to the Dropbox domains? 

        Also, does this happen with all of your files? 

        Let me know more!
    • jlackey's avatar
      jlackey
      New member | Level 2

      I have a Gigbit connection connection at work, and my PC is is very fast, yet Dropbox is very slow to sync, and my 3TB business account will take a week to sync! I have not limited speeds in the Dropbox app.

       

      See attached screenshot.

       

      • Megan's avatar
        Megan
        Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff

        Hey jlackey, let's see what we can find on this! 

        Can you let me know the version of the Dropbox app installed on your device? 

        If you hover your mouse over the little Dropbox icon, it should show: xxx.3.xxx or xxx.4.xxx. 

        If I were you, I'd also try changing the bandwidth to "no limit". Have you tried that? 

        Keep me posted!

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

Need more support

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!