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Forum Discussion
pizzadoh
3 years agoExplorer | Level 4
After upgrading to Ventura, cannot start dropbox app
Hi, my dropbox app was working beforehand. I recently uggraded to Mac OS Ventura but now it's not working or syncing. I'm getting the error message "couldn't start dropbox" or sync. So I did the adva...
- 2 years ago
Hello friend.
Unfortunately, after several tests I did, the only alternative I found was to delete the aforementioned folders and reinstall, thus correcting the permissions.
Here is a link where my suggestion was accepted as a solution.
If it helped you, leave a Like. 🙂
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Apps-and-Installations/Moving-Dropbox-folder-from-Library-CloudStorage/m-p/654283#M49803
Eranjes
Helpful | Level 5
Hey Dropbox Team, hey community:
This is from an open support ticket I am working on with the Support. I guess a lot of people have similar problems after updating the software and experiencing the same errors as I did. Prior to that I already did the following attempts to solve the problems in dialog with the customer support team
- Restarted the Computer
- Restarted the Dropbox App
- Reinstalled the Dropbox App from scratch
I am running a brand new Apple Macbook Pro with M2 Pro and 1 TB internal SSD. I have currently over 800.000 Files in my dropbox which is for me currently completely unusable.
My Issues and Solutions I would expect:
1. Problem:
On first, blank installation Dropbox desktop will try to download the whole dropbox content. Yes, it gives me the Indication that I can choose which folders I want to see on my machine and which not, but nothing about the location change to cloud storage directory later on. In my case, it then proceeds to download around 800.000 Files which takes up to 16 Hours. After completion it then will give me an alert in the app saying that everything needs to be moved to the new directory - OK. It then moves the whole Dropbox over to the new library/CloudStorage - Here it would be helpful to have at least some progress bar and not only a moving Icon on the Button. Looks stuck, bad UX. After completion it then tries to re-index all files which will take again like 16-20 hours. After that it is not able to sync properly.
Workaround I found:
When I first only choose one little file to be synced on startup I will get way faster to moving everything to the new directory. After moving this one small file I can then move on to syncing all the files with selective sync and everything will be set up directly in the new cloud storage. Saved me around 20-30 Hours of waiting.
Solution - How it should be:
I would expect Dropbox on a blank install directly setting up everything in library/CloudStorage which will save a lot of time and also get around a lot of communicative problems prior to the setup.
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2. Problem
After everything is set up in library/CloudStorage Dropbox will not indicate any icons next to filenames as expected from the user. Only thing that can be seen is the apple cloud icon. Here the next problems begin. It now looks like everything is no locally on my machine but turns out it is not. What I would like to understand: It downloads hours and hours for 800.000 Files but in the end still nothing is there really - Weird. In the Desktop App it gives indication of downloading like „800.000 files synchronizing“ and „96,5 GB“ so it seems to be doing something here. The Online Only / Local Storage Setting that is sometimes asked to be changed in the settings is not there for me in the current version of the dropbox app. Only the Directory Selection which will then download directories but still no files on the local machine. Screenshot attached.
Workaround I found - somehow because it really is not:
I need to click on the cloud Icons - yes, on each file again - to really get them downloaded on my machine. For 800.000 files. This is really no acceptable workaround in any case.
Then - in some random cases the dropbox sync items will appear and dropbox will indicate small numbers of files getting synced again.
Solution - How it should be
The Implementation of the File Provider API is faulty. There is no other way to describe this, this needs to be fixed IMMEDIATELY. Also I would expect from the Dropbox desktop app to guide me through the new icons from apple File Provider API. Maybe it would be better to not have the dropbox icons any longer as they tell an incorrect status about the files shown. If the cloud icons from Apple are now recommended - then just use them and tell the users. Simple as that.
————————
3. Problem
The syncing is only working for downloading files but not for uploading in v168.4.4802. Period. I have no control what so ever.
Workaround I found:
None.
Solution - How it should be:
Again completely faulty implementation, this needs to be fixed IMMEDIATELY.
I hope that this will be transferred to the right People, if this will not get fixed there will be no other way for me than to cancel subscription after more than 5 years. I like dropbox but in this case this is a total showstopper for me. Please keep me and also the other Mac users updated on this topic otherwise you will see a lot of Mac users cancelling their accounts. We know it is not totally your fault but still you are a paid service and if something is absolutely not working then this needs to be highly prioritized and clearly communicated to not loose trust of the customers.
Greetings from Germany,
Eric
wgroth2
2 years agoHelpful | Level 6
Here's what worked for me.
Go to Settings->Security->Devices in the web app, and delete ANY devices you are no longer using. There appears to be a limit. Mine was triggered when I changed my login id on MacOS Ventura (13.4.1.c), which sent me over the limit.
Seems like something they should have caught in testing.
- tsdevau2 years agoHelpful | Level 5
This also appears to have resolved my issue. I removed years of old device connections per @wgroth2 suggestion and then simply restarted my MBP. Dropbox finally appears to be working again.
This comes after weeks of issues with finder becoming totally unresponsive, system hanging due to fileprovider smashing resources with whatever it was doing with/for Dropbox, countless restarts, countless re-installs, countless hours (days) wasted syncing, moving and re-syncing Dropbox content.
I'll reserve judgement of this being a "solution" just for now, but it's by far the closest I've been since this debacle started. Very disappointed to see how long others have been experiencing this issue, without a definitive solution from Dropbox.
- tsdevau2 years agoHelpful | Level 5
So as an update:
I did need to redo the following (which I had already done before, but re-did again after removing old devices as per my previous post referencing @wgroth2 suggestion):
- uninstall Dropbox
- In your terminal app of choice:
- `sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dot_dropbox.old`
- `sudo mv ~/Library/Dropbox ~/.Trash/libDropbox.old`
- `sudo mv ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox ~/.Trash/Dropbox.old`
- Restart
- Download & install latest Dropbox client
- Run the install dmg and follow the prompts to setup as normal up to selecting folders to sync
- This time I selected only a single root folder that contained only a single file to sync
- Wait for that to finish
- Restart
- Click on Dropbox icon and click the alert message link to install using `fileproviderd` config
- Wait for that to finish & confirm files have moved
- * Click Dropbox menubar icon, then on your profile avatar, then on "Quit"
- * In you terminal app of choice:
- `sudo mv ~/.Trash/Dropbox.old/* ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox`
- * Restart
- Wait for Dropbox to complete sync & index
- OPTIONAL - Continue to cross your fingers, hope & pray that this is the end of this debacle
* Steps 11 - 13 - I actually did in Safe Boot mode, because I was completely over this and wanted to give it every chance of working. I presume that this isn't actually necessary.
Credit for the concept of the above steps to @elizeufreitas which you can see on about page 3-4 of this topic. So far so good, but I guess only time will tell.
ps - I get that it looks like a lot and maybe a little confusing (and yes, definitely not something that should be required to install a paid service), but it isn't difficult.
- wgroth22 years agoHelpful | Level 6
I rant into this again, and had to do mostly this. These are the most complete instructions, and I recommend others follow the above.
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