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Forum Discussion
Upload through browser extremely slow since today
In the past month I have uploaded over 900 GB through browser with roughly 20-30 mbits per second. Today the speed crashed down below 200 kb/s which is completely unusable. I have a 100mb/s line ...
Ok I discovered the cause: Dropbox changed the upload procedure.
The files are now getting hashed prior to uploading which takes a lot of time for big files making it appear that the upload is super slow, showing a remaining-time of several hundred days (It actually does not upload anything during the hashing-process).
Before, it started directly with uploading the files without hashing them, which was over-all faster.
(I can download with full 100mb/s from Dropbox, routing is not a problem)
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffOr perhaps the browser's? Have you tried this on other ones other than the one you usually use to see if this persists? You can also try clearing your browser's cache or even an incognito window or private browsing mode.
One thing to note here is that all of our servers are located in the US. Your connection speed to Dropbox depends on the routing you get between your ISP and our servers, and may be slower than your ISP's rated speeds.
Sometimes resetting or retrying your connection gets you a different route and better speeds, but that is outside of our control. Some ISPs also throttle sustained connections so if you see an initial high connection speed followed by lower speeds, that could be the reason.
I don't know if you're using the desktop application so far - have you given it a shot maybe? (note that you can find our latest stable version here)
Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there. Thank you!
Ok I discovered the cause: Dropbox changed the upload procedure.
The files are now getting hashed prior to uploading which takes a lot of time for big files making it appear that the upload is super slow, showing a remaining-time of several hundred days (It actually does not upload anything during the hashing-process).
Before, it started directly with uploading the files without hashing them, which was over-all faster.
(I can download with full 100mb/s from Dropbox, routing is not a problem)
- Walter
Thanks for keeping me posted Aelea - I appreciate it.
Glad to hear you figured this out!
Having said that now and for additional context note that there are a number of factors that can affect the speed you upload files to and download files from the Dropbox servers, I'll try to list the most common causes here. They include your connection to the Internet, how the data is routed to Dropbox, and the hardware specifications on the specific device you use.
When it comes to your Internet connection, Dropbox can only upload as fast as your Internet service provider (ISP) allows. Consumer ISP's normally provide 1/10th the upload speed compared to download speed. In addition to this, your speeds may be slower than what your ISP rates it.
The specifications of your hardware can also play a part. If you own an older device, your device may not be powerful enough to upload files at a faster speed. You may also try powering off and powering on your device in case any apps that are running in the background are using too many resources.
I hope I'm making sense here Aelea - please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to add.
It would be great if level 1 support would not repeat the mistakes, repeating nonsense about the ISP, browsers, OS etc when it comes to technology. "It's your browser", "It's your hardware", etc, as if they aren't even reading what the person typed (and they aren't).
If the regular Dropbox client can upload at full speed on the system (which would rule out OS & ISP & hardware) vs browser client, then it wouldn't be any of those. Secondly, there are a multitude of posts about people using different browsers on different OS, so it's not the browser. Granted, there are probably edge cases where people have proxies, etc on their browser, but in general, limitatations are the result of programming into the software running thru the browser.
And I don't blame level 1/2/3 support either, the upper IT should be sending this information down to the personnel and stop wasting the paying client's time. If the files are indeed being hashed/compressed or other handling prior to upload, then yeah, slow death. Example - one single 4GB file I uploaded on Dropbox client (same system, same OS trollers) took less than 30 mins, browser version? 6 hours and counting...
Unfortunately there's always a risk even with the smart client to when you turn on the desktop/OS client, it'll try to cache a bazillion files and folders and either run your system out of space, so using the web client from time-to-time is necessary. (and dare I say useful if you are somewhere else and need access to it? well...not useful I mean)
Dropbox, come up with a solution and stop making the moderators post useless things like "turn your pc off and on" or "check the weather". You are getting millions upon millions a month for this, and there needs to be a viable solution for uploading using the browser.
Meanwhile...checking out alternatives after reading 19 posts by "Dropbox experts" that are still copying/pasting the same thing after the last year. Hmm, Black Friday deal for pdrive...
