Won't stop indexing on Mac

[msheppard]

I installed the mac dropbox update and the application began indexing my files. It has now been stuck for the last few days. I can only access some files. Many are now only available through dropbox.com and not in my app. If I add files to dropbox.com they are added to the indexing queue of the desktop app, but no progress is made regarding indexing. I've tried signing out, quitting, uninstalling, and reinstalling. I've seen similar threads, but no solutions have worked for me. Any help is much appreciated.

[Megan]

Hey @OceanSunrise, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Can you please let us know the exact sync status and version of the Dropbox app on your computer?

You can hover over the Dropbox icon on your menu bar, to see this info.

And also, if you click on the Dropbox icon, then on your initials/profile pic and then on "view sync issues", do you see anything reported there?

Keep me posted.

[OceanSunrise]

Hi its saying constantly syncing.   It should only take a second to sync everything but the syncing wheel keeps going and not syncing my files.   

[Teddy73]

Hello again fellow sufferers,

Something that I suspected was confirmed to me by Dropbox support, where if you were previously using File Provider prior to upgrading to Sonoma, this stuck indexing or frozen syncing problem can arise.

See the email I received below. 

Now the bad news. I have tried this "fix" previously and it didn't work. I tried it again and it didn't work, my Dropbox is doing what it loves to do, being stuck "indexing". But it may work for someone. We are over a month into this mess, so trying anything is worthwhile.

One last tidbit about File Provider. Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive work perfectly with it from my own experience and there does not seem to be any problems like Dropbox is having with File Provider.

*****

I can see you are experiencing a Frozen Sync issue in relation to Sonoma, just to inform you that this is a known issue when users have File Provider set up prior to upgrading to MacOS 14. Normally the issue does resolve itself after a couple of hours but I can see this is not the case with your device.
 
I would recommend relinking your device, which should give your Dropbox a quick server kick, however before taking the following steps, please ensure the following:
 

• Save any files you recently worked on locally that are attempting to sync to Dropbox
• Depending on your set-up, you may see two Dropbox locations after relinking (You may see a folder like Dropbox - xx-xx-xx), this is due to Dropbox preserving recent files as a safeguard while recreating the location
• You may see conflicted files, this is due to relinking, which will downgrade you from File Provider back to the normal Dropbox FSS

 
In order to help you with the syncing issue, can you please relink your account? This is to ensure to refresh the data on your device.
 
1. Sign in to dropbox.com (Via Web)
2. Click your avatar (profile picture or initials).
3. Click Settings.
4. Click the Security tab.
5. Your devices are listed under Devices.
6. Click the trash can icon next to the devices you'd like to sign out of remotely.
7. Click Unlink.
8. The desktop app will then prompt you to re-enter your account information.

[cloudres]

@Teddy73 I'm not quite clear on this File Provider matter. Could you please explain what it entails and how it might impact our installation? I'm asking because I'm not even sure what File Provider refers to. Is it something like the Finder? Thanks a lot.

[OceanSunrise]

I too am also confused at what they mean to File Provider. If you can explain would be very helpful

[Konigi]

FileProvider is the system put in place by Apple: "An extension other apps use to access files and folders managed by your app and synced with a remote storage."

Source: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/FileProvider

Nowadays any cloud storage applications have to go through Apple's FileProvider.

As someone as realized though, there seems to be no issue with OneDrive or Google Drive. Dropbox is clearly failing something here.

[cloudres]

@Konigi your analysis is spot on. Unbelievable. Truly incredible.

[OceanSunrise]

Thanks for explaining! Is there any temporary workaround anyone has found? I restarted my Mac and it seems to have done the sync then but I don’t want to keep restarting my Mac every time. Is there any other trick or workaround anyone has found?

[manuauh]

Be caution doing the above step

1: I have fixed this sync or indexing issue with the help of the above article.

2: Please backup the currently unindexed file on your Mac before doing this procedure.

3: Dropbox only imports or syncs the current files/data that are available on the web.

4: There is no option to choose a previous Dropbox location while linking dropbox again (it was under the library/Cloudstorage)

5: Now i have to manually copy check unsynced files fro my mac to newly synced dropbox folder

[Josephus F.]

This thread is no several miles long.  Please finish the topic - it is a waist of time