Dropbox freezes and crashes my file explorer.

[currentj]

Hello,

I am having trouble with dropbox working through my Windows file explorer.  For some reason, within the last week every time I try to navigate to one of my dropbox files the file explorer crashes and I have to force close the program.  I can open files from the specific application.  For instance, if I open Word and then open a file from word it will open, but if I try to open the same file from the windows file explorer it freezes.  I have tried to uninstall and reinstall.  Any other suggestions/solutions?

[Nancy]

Sorry to hear this, @e3ecodesign. 

Unless you’re on a free Basic plan with more than 3 devices linked, have you tried reinstalling the Dropbox app?

Can you please also take a look at the rest of the suggestions here in this thread and let me know what you’ve tried so far, so that I can help troubleshoot further?

[multipass]

My windows 10 (dropbox) folder does the same.   Drives me insane!!!

When I just click on the dropbox folder to enter it.. I get a freeze of the explorer (beachball) for minutes and sometimes for ever.  Not usable in any way!

when I browse the  dropboxfolder via the explorer list (on the left side) I can just browse fine. When I select a file/folder on the right side of the explorer it freezes!

I reinstalled and a I moved my folder to another disc (which is very hard, annoying and the options must be updated) it does the same. On my mac I have no issues.

[keithrnorris]

I have the same problem

[Nancy]

Sorry to hear this, @keithrnorris. What’s your OS version, as well as Dropbox app syncing status and app version? 

Did you notice this issue after a specific update? 

Have you tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling the Dropbox app?

[grossdpg]

Has any progress been made on this issue?

I've had the same problem in Windows 10 for many months, and mostly just sucked it up and lived with it--but it's been pretty miserable. I can confirm the behavior described by previous posters: Explorer is very slow to select and navigate within the Dropbox directory but not elsewhere. Just today I set up a fresh install of Dropbox on a new hard drive with a brand new Windows 10 installation, and the problem recurred--again only within the Dropbox directory and all subdirectories.

I have about 96K files in my Dropbox totaling around 500 GB. I don't use any other cloud storage software that could interfere (no iCloud), and do not have any antivirus software installed (other than Microsoft's default Defender software). I can also confirm that when using a "light" file explorer like Explorer++ I have no issues.

Any idea what's going on here and what can be done about it? The only app integration I have is Overleaf, but that comprises a small share of total files. It seems like it's some interaction with Windows Explorer itself.

[Megan]

Hey @grossdpg, thanks for posting here! 

Would you mind clarifying when you started noticing a difference on your end while using our app? 

Also, which version of the Dropbox app, do you use on your end? You should be able to locate that, but hovering your mouse over the little Dropbox icon, on your task bar, next to your WiFi. 

One more thing: if you quit our app and then check the behavior of your Dropbox folder in the File Explorer, do you notice the same thing? 

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

[grossdpg]

Thanks Megan. It's definitely been many months. I think this started sometime in 2023, possibly as far back as a year ago. There's some chance it could be even longer--I've just lost track.

To your question: when I quit the Dropbox app, and also terminate Dropbox Service and any other Dropbox-affiliated processes I can see running, the behavior persists (still isolated to just be within the Dropbox directory)

I'm currently running version 201.4.5552 on this PC (that's off a fresh install; my previous install/hard drive was auto updating). One detail I just remembered: curiously it only seems to affect this machine (a 2019 Dell laptop PC, 2 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM). I have two other computers (both desktop PCs running Windows 10) where I haven't had this issue. On one of those machines I have Dropbox installed on the same drive as the OS, and on the other machine it's on a secondary drive that only has my Dropbox directory on it. All evidence that rules against any of those variables.

The strangest thing, then, is that it recurred on a single machine, across two different hard drives, OS installs, and Dropbox installs, but the same account doesn't seem to create problems on two other computers, which are also running Windows 10 Pro. Makes me think this will be a tough nut to crack except others have reported similar things.

[Megan]

Hey @grossdpg, thanks for all the details, much appreciated! 

What makes me a bit skeptical here is the fact that the same behavior is present when you quit the app.

If our app had something to do with it then the moment you quit it, the File Explorer would resume, wouldn't be as slow and work as expected. 

However, this doesn't seem to be the case here. Have you made sure that this doesn't have anything to do with the device's RAM or a Windows issue? 

Also, as the next step, you can try out these steps on your desktop app, and let me know if they help.

[grossdpg]

Fair. So that indicates it's not something about the running app itself. Though it could still be related to the install.

One more curious clue: my Dropbox directory sits in my Windows user directory (C:/Users/USERNAME). When I select individual objects (folders) here in Windows Explorer one by one (using arrow keys), it selects each object smoothly/promptly *until it gets to the Dropbox folder*, where it's slow to select, and then slow to unselect when I down arrow again to select the next object--but after that goes smoothly again. That produces the same lag I've been seeing inside the Dropbox directory.

A second one: if I do the same thing in this same user folder from another local account (the admin account, from which I can access the user account directory due to admin account privileges), the issue doesn't reproduce. In other worse, only occurs inside the user account.

It might be (or probably is) a Windows issue, but it seems like there's some bad interaction with Dropbox.

To try to hunt down the culprit I've done more things, like stopping the Windows Search service and all indexing, which can slow things down, and quitting/stopping other running apps and services. Nothing there. I then downloaded Windows Process Monitor and started logging operations as I scroll-select inside vs. outside of the Dropbox directory. I may have gotten a little closer to a culprit: I'm seeing a ton of CreateFile and CloseFile operations being executed on files/paths in my Dropbox by Explorer.exe when I reproduce the behavior. The paths I've noticed these operations are executing on so far are all files I had previously marked as online-only via the Dropbox context menu (when Dropbox was running), or the folders containing them. I'm not sure this is universally the case though.

I'll try making all files available offline and see if the lag goes away.

[Walter]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop @grossdpg 

Please let us know of any updates!