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Forum Discussion

WillHermann's avatar
WillHermann
Explorer | Level 3
5 years ago

Hundreds of background processes, new windows opened

Dropbox seems to be stuck in a loop, and opening hundreds of background processes. This consumes all my CPU capacity, then eats at my memory and disk space. See attached pics. There also seem to be w...
Desktop and Web
Setting up the apps
Third party apps
Windows OS
  • UnableToUse's avatar
    UnableToUse
    5 years ago

    I appear to have resolved this, by uninstalling, removing my local dropbox folder and re-installing (and allowing the subsequent download). Now I only see 4 Dropbox related processes, and system performance is normal.

    It appears that the issue was actually related to firewall changes in my network. Apparently Dropbox was spawning processes that would then wind up waiting indefinitely, instead of completing and exiting. Apparently there is no check for system load, number of child processes, etc. And the question remains as to why the Dropbox servers are now showing up on my block list.

    While this fix worked for me, if folks have a significant amount of data in their Dropbox, they may be more reluctant to try it.

StuBell's avatar
StuBell
New member | Level 2

Hi

 

I have the same problem - no tray icon - multiple processes, but I have the added issue of not being able uninstall dropbox!

 

What's the next step?

 

Lusil's avatar
Lusil
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
5 years ago

Hey StuBell, thanks for reaching out to us and sorry to hear that you're having trouble uninstalling the desktop app. 

 

Since you mention that you have a lot of processes running in the background, could you follow the steps below:

  1. Open your Task Manager.
  2. Go to the Processes tab (you may need to click on "Show processes from all users" to check all processes).
  3. If you find items that refer to Dropbox or apps that you've linked to Dropbox, click on them and select End Process.
  4. Once you've done this, try following the uninstall instructions one more time.

Let me know how it goes and I'll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks!

  • StuBell's avatar
    StuBell
    New member | Level 2
    5 years ago
    Hi.

    Tried but there were too many and the computer was to slow to do even this.

    So booted into safe mode and was then able to complete the uninstall process.

    Computer is working like dream again!

    Will get around to reinstalling sometime.

    Thanks for getting back to me

    Stay safe

    Stuart

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