Dropbox File Provider does not work with Mac Sonoma. Syncing is stuck for hours.

[Alivia Z.]

Macbook Pro running Sonoma 14.4.1 - Dropbox 197.4.7629

First off, Lightroom was struggling to "see" files being stored online-only, which Dropbox had aggressively moved online without my awareness. Hoping to deal with this I made a bunch of folders offline accessible, and then updated to File Provider.

Since then it's been 2-3 days of absolute annoyance and lost productivity. 

After a massive indexing, Dropbox got hung up "Updating" about 150 files. Hoping to stop this, I restarted the software. It started indexing again and left it alone. I came back to my hard drive nearly full and syncing paused due to that full hard drive. Restarted Dropbox, same issue.

At this point, chatted with Dropbox and was told to let it index and if it got stuck again, I'd need to Selective Sync.

Left it overnight, in the morning it was still indexing, 700 mb of hard drive space. Sync suspended due to no space.

Had to Selective Sync. That's where I'm at now, with the majority of my files no longer synced to my laptop but just online, removed through Selective Sync. Not what I want at all.

Dropbox still stuck "Updating 159 files" and I'm trying to figure out how to add files back to my hard drive without going through this all again.

Dropbox: why not warn users that EVERY FILE on Dropbox will need to be indexed to the hard drive, and if there is not enough hard drive space, don't update to File Provider! Obviously it doesn't work as it has currently been released.

I've tried to follow up with my Ticket #23683048 this morning but hours later, no reply. This has tanked my entire work week.

[Megan]

Hey there, @Alivia Z., sorry to hear about this. 

Let's see what we can find together on that! 

The first thing that'd help me get an idea of what is happening syncing-wise is the app's exact syncing status at the moment. 

You should be able to locate them by hovering your mouse over the little Dropbox icon, next to your WiFi on your menu bar.

Keep in mind that after the migration to the new Dropbox for macOS on File Provider, your files need to be re-synced. Depending on the amount of files you have in your Dropbox, this may take some time to complete.

If the number of files has not reduced it might be worth checking out the troubleshooting steps outlined in this article. 

Let me know more, and we'll take it from there! 

[Alivia Z.]

Hi Megan, when I hover it says "Indexing 159 files..." and the Dropbox app still says "Updating 159 files." I've been on the How to Fix page, did not find a solution.

I'm aware of the total resync but there has been two indexing occurrences since the initial update on Tuesday night. Both ending in stuck indexing/updating about 150 files.

[Megan]

Hey @Alivia Z., I see, thanks for letting me know! 

May we reach out via email to have a further look internally?

[Alivia Z.]

Yes please.

[Jay]

Hi @Alivia Z., before we go to ticket, could you try updating to the newest version of the Dropbox desktop application from this page?

[Alivia Z.]

I can try that but will it create another indexing event? If so, I will not be able to do that until this evening.
It’d be great if Dropbox could be more proactive about explaining the steps that will occur after your software is installed. For example: This update will require full indexing of your files. Then I can plan it into my day/week and not disrupt my workflow.

[Alivia Z.]

No response to my question about indexing? 😞

[Jay]

It might require re-indexing to confirm that the files are still in the same place as last time, though it isn't possible to know given the current status of your files on your device.