On my OS X 10.9.5 system I'm seeing Dropbox consume CPU whenever anything on the file system changes, regardless of whether the changed files or folders are in the Dropbox synced folders. The CPU usage is proportionate to the rate of file system changes. When I'm running an installer that takes a long time and has high disk activity (e.g. installing a documenation update in XCode), then the Dropbox CPU usage goes through the roof and I see the Dropbox sync status change from 'up to date' to 'indexing'. For less sustained activities with less intensive file system changes, I see Dropbox just popup briefly in the list of top CPU consumers -- but it shouldn't be showing up at all (or certainly not at double digit CPU use and not for the duration of the file system activity. My guess is that Dropbox is simply listening for file system events and reacting to each one as if it might be change in a synced file or folder. It should be ignoring fsevents that are for items outside the Dropbox folders -- but it seems not to be the case. :-( :-( I'm on 3.0.3, but have been seeing this problem since the 2.* days. -- Dave Hein

I don't have any symlinks in the folder. I have very few files (less than 1000). Note: I've reported this before and gotten similar responses -- basically, the Dropbox support folks don't believe me. I'm giving up. My workaround now is simply to avoid running Dropbox at startup and to only start it when I want to sync and then keep it stopped otherwise. Eventually I'll move my Dropbox into some other cloud sharing/syncing system and stop using Dropbox entirely.

My iMac is always running at least Google Chrome, Apple Mail, Google Drive and DropBox but Activity Monitor shows DropBox consuming more CPU time than any other app and about 10x as much as Google Drive. I'm losing faith too!

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro with a 2.8GHZ processor that turbo boosts to 4.0GHZ, 500GB of flash storage and 16GB of RAM. The DROPBOX CLIENT IS CRUSHING MY MACHINE!!!! 150% of my CPU? That is obscene. That should never come to be. I am a software developer and know this is poor coding. You should be using a queuing structure or more manageable work units. I am currently a paying client of Dropbox and syncing is a critical part of cloud storage. There are too many competitors in the market for this to be even remotely acceptable.

I have the same problem, dropbox is simply eating most of my CPU usage all the time. I have running OS X, 4GM Ram, i7 (DropBox Team, 35,280 files). I re-install dropbox and re-installed my Mac, and nothing improved. What is bothering me more, that even my files are "up-to-date" DropBox's CPU usage is 20-40%.

I have the same issue: Every time I make any operations which modify a lot files anywhere outside the Dropbox directory Dropbox just consumes 100% CPU. I can reproduce this issue easily by just extracting a very large tar file (e.g. the Linux kernel sources) somewhere outside the Dropbox directory: Even with a completely empty Dropbox directory (that obviously contain no symlinks) I get a very high CPU use of the Dropbox process even though not a single file in the Dropbox directory was modified. I attached DTrace to the Dropbox process and can see it making thousands of system calls per second when I extract the tar file somewhere outside the Dropbox directory: Dear Dropbox developers, are you *sure* you're not listening to *all* filesystem events which happen in my user's directory? Because to me it completely looks like that and is the reason I get such a high CPU use when I make heavy filesystem operation which shouldn't bother Dropbox at all.

(OS X) Dropbox consuming a lot of CPU whenever any file or folder is changed anywhere

Dave H.
New member | Level 2
10 years ago
I don't have any symlinks in the folder. I have very few files (less than 1000).

Note: I've reported this before and gotten similar responses -- basically, the Dropbox support folks don't believe me.

I'm giving up. My workaround now is simply to avoid running Dropbox at startup and to only start it when I want to sync and then keep it stopped otherwise. Eventually I'll move my Dropbox into some other cloud sharing/syncing system and stop using Dropbox entirely.
John H.7
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
My iMac is always running at least Google Chrome, Apple Mail, Google Drive and DropBox but Activity Monitor shows DropBox consuming more CPU time than any other app and about 10x as much as Google Drive. I'm losing faith too!
Don M.11
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro with a 2.8GHZ processor that turbo boosts to 4.0GHZ, 500GB of flash storage and 16GB of RAM.

The DROPBOX CLIENT IS CRUSHING MY MACHINE!!!!

150% of my CPU? That is obscene. That should never come to be. I am a software developer and know this is poor coding. You should be using a queuing structure or more manageable work units.

I am currently a paying client of Dropbox and syncing is a critical part of cloud storage. There are too many competitors in the market for this to be even remotely acceptable.
- jpjd
  Helpful | Level 6
  8 years ago
  Same here and they have had over a year to fix it. Issue is still present on my new MacBook Pro.
  - jpjd
    Helpful | Level 6
    8 years ago
    My New Macbook Pro's fans are so loud when Dropbox is syncing and my CPU is bouncing between 100% and 150%. The minute I pause the syncing process everything goes back to normal. Fans drop and CPU goes back to normal! This is nuts. I don't have anywhere near 30,000 files. Dropbox are you fixing this issue or will I be forced to cancel my pro account and warn my friends about this isseue! Google Drive is sounding very tempting right now.
Mustafa J.
New member | Level 2
10 years ago
I have the same problem, dropbox is simply eating most of my CPU usage all the time.
I have running OS X, 4GM Ram, i7 (DropBox Team, 35,280 files).
I re-install dropbox and re-installed my Mac, and nothing improved.
What is bothering me more, that even my files are "up-to-date" DropBox's CPU usage is 20-40%.
Sebastian K.6
New member | Level 1
9 years ago
I have the same issue: Every time I make any operations which modify a lot files anywhere outside the Dropbox directory Dropbox just consumes 100% CPU. I can reproduce this issue easily by just extracting a very large tar file (e.g. the Linux kernel sources) somewhere outside the Dropbox directory: Even with a completely empty Dropbox directory (that obviously contain no symlinks) I get a very high CPU use of the Dropbox process even though not a single file in the Dropbox directory was modified.

I attached DTrace to the Dropbox process and can see it making thousands of system calls per second when I extract the tar file somewhere outside the Dropbox directory:

Dear Dropbox developers, are you *sure* you're not listening to *all* filesystem events which happen in my user's directory? Because to me it completely looks like that and is the reason I get such a high CPU use when I make heavy filesystem operation which shouldn't bother Dropbox at all.
Ed
Dropbox Staff
9 years ago
Hi everyone,

We are really sorry to hear about your issues and that we didn’t catch this thread earlier.

Diagnosing CPU usage is tricky because even if all your issues seem similar they’re actually different and probably linked to your particular set up.

There are a few known cases where Dropbox was responsible for high CPU or memory usage:

When we rolled out a new feature, called File Identifiers, back in the end of 2014. @Dave, this could be what you were hitting at that time.

Edge cases with our features like Badge

Apart from that the Dropbox client shouldn’t use a high percentage of your computer’s performance, especially when not syncing files.

We monitor CPU and memory usage really closely and each time there’s a spike (a lot of people suddenly consuming more CPU than usual) we investigate thoroughly to see what the root cause could be and fix this. We take this very seriously.

This is why, unless you fall into the above-mentioned explanations, your problem is very likely to be linked to external factors conflicting with Dropbox.

Here a non-exhaustive list of factors that could explain your issues:

Symlinks pointing outside of the Dropbox folder

Files in your Dropbox folder with permission incorrectly set (the app will endlessly try to sync them)

Dropbox folder installed on NAS

Dropbox folders installed on drive with a file system that doesn’t support extended attributes

A lot of files (performance starts to decrease after 300k files)

Conflicting third party app (an app accesses your files and modifies them, then Dropbox syncs the change, then the app accesses the files again, etc… this is usually syncing apps, backing up apps, anti-viruses and/or security softwares)

A huge sync e.g. if you suddenly upload 100k files, Dropbox will use more CPU than usual to perform this action

If your set up falls into one of these situations, here are the respective solutions:

Remove the symlinks

Move Dropbox to another drive if possible or stop using Dropbox on the NAS, we do not support Network Share file system

Move Dropbox to another drive or format your drive with a file system supporting extended attributes

Use selective sync to reduce the number of files locally while keeping all your files in your Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/help/175

Try disabling any potential conflicting app one by one until you identified the one causing the issue

Upload files in smaller batches, or temporarily reduce the priority of the dropbox process to limit resource usage of Dropbox like this:

    Linux: http://www.nixtutor.com/linux/changing-priority-on-linux-processes

    Windows: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Process-Priorities-in-Windows-Task-Manager

    Mac: http://bencane.com/2013/09/09/setting-process-cpu-priority-with-nice-and-renice

If none of your set up falls into those categories or if even after trying the above, Dropbox is still using too much CPU, I’d recommend writing into support here

www.dropbox.com/support mentioning this forum thread and what you tried to solve the issue.

Our support engineers will look at your computer logs precisely and should be able to help (I can’t do that on this Forum thread as this is personal information we cannot share publicly)

I hope this helps!
- jaybwilliams1
  New member | Level 2
  7 years ago
  I have a new mac pro (2017) and I have the same 100% CPU problem. Can you provide the stes to remove the symlinks in a safe way?
  
  Thanks,
  - SidianMSJones
    Explorer | Level 4
    7 years ago
    I'm using shortcut folders (is that a symlink?) pointing TO folders inside the Dropbox folder. Would that cause this CPU issue?
    
    [This thread is now closed by moderators due to inactivity. If you're experiencing a similar behavior, feel free to start a new discussion in the Ask a Question section here.]
Mustafa J.
New member | Level 2
10 years ago
Dear David, but how it was solved? may you please give details. I am still facing this problem since joined Dropbox.
Kevin B.69
New member | Level 1
9 years ago
Dear Dropbox,

I'm discontinuing my paid membership over this issue. I was an avid member early on ever since the beta (2007/2008?), but I'm no longer impressed. In fact, I'm hugely disappointed. This CPU usage issue has remained for far too long (past couple of years for me). At this late stage it is not even clear if you are treating this as a bug.

I have read the posts about 300,000+ files, and symlinks etc. And my situation is probably one of those, but you know what - I don't care. I want to have 300,000+ files! and I want (need) symlinks! And I want to use my computer without hearing the fan run furiously.

There is no reason that the desktop sync app should cause such high CPU for such long durations even with these conditions. The app should just work quietly in the background without disturbing computer usage. Throttle the heavy work. Yield CPU in your tight loops. Your smart engineers can solve this problem.
Pascal H.
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
Hi to you all,
I also have a problem with high CPU usage and temperature using dropbox.
iMac 27" i7 OSX 10.10.1, with on dropbox less then 50 files.
Seems dropbox gets stock in a loop. When I close dropbox the CPU usage/temperature comes to normale.
When I start dropbox again, slowly the CPU usage/temperature get higher. Even if I don't open any files.
Looks like a bug. Or something like a stack-overflow? Hopefully the dropbox-team will solve this soon.
Greetings from Holland,
Pascal
Wassim J.
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro Retina 13 inch. I have been seeing very high temperatures. So Apple advised me to fresh install Yosemite and then start adding 3rd party software one at a time to test what is causing the high temperatures. First thing I installed was Dropbox and immediately, I am getting >100% CPU usage and temperatures shooting up to 95C!! I have about 30,000 files on Dropbox. Just downloading them should not be so stressful on the CPU!