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.

[DanielSivo]

Sonoma 14.5 - Macbook M1

I tried everything, but nothing.

I cannot copy files from the computer. I will not log off and on because I cannot lose any files.

[Nancy]

@DanielSivo, what’s the app version of the Dropbox app you’re using? 

Can you also describe the steps you’ve taken so far to see what we can try next?

[Lionade]

Hi Ben,

with a basic plan i cannot contact support. Can you help me out on this? I'm stuck in Indexing after a macOS upgrade and can't get out of it.

Best,

Lionade

[Megan]

Hey @Lionade, welcome to our Community! 

Would you mind sharing some additional info with us, in order to have a precise idea of what's happening? 

How long is this happening, and what have you tried on your end? Your exact OS, and Dropbox version would also help a lot. 

I'll be waiting for your reply!

[Lionade]

Hi Megan,

thanks for your fast reply!

I upgraded from macOS Monterey via Ventura to Sonoma 14.5 more or less in one go.

Before, I already had Dropbox installed using the File Provider (Folder stored under ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox instead of ~/Dropbox)

Then the sync got stuck for several hours on a 4 kb text file.

Then I logged out and logged in again as suggested in the thread above, leading to a new sync, firstly at the old location. Everything was fine there.

When asked to relocate to the File Provider location, I confirmed and got stuck with indexing, including the missing many of the files that were there before the relocation.

Now I started over (log out, login in, sync to old location) but am afraid to start the relocation process again.

Is that sufficient for the beginning?

Best,

Lion

[Lionade]

Oh and the Dropbox Version is v201.4.5552

[Jay]

Hi @Lionade, could you clarify where you saw that files were missing? Were they from random locations in your Dropbox folder, or from a specific folder?

[Lionade]

Hi Jay,

There were several folders where there were just no files inside across the whole dropbox. Some top-level folders were missing, too.

It looked like the transfer from ~/Dropbox to ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox was still in progress, but there were no visible changes over hours. Furthermore, the Dropbox app told me the moving was successfully completed. And also the previous location ~/Dropbox was replaced by a Link to the new location.

[Jay]

Were the folders that didn't transfer over private or shared folders?

Are they shown as deleted files on the Dropbox site via the events page or deleted files page?

[Lionade]

they were private folders. I didn't check wether there were also shared ones in the group.

and no, nothing changed in the dropbox site

maybe some more info for clarification:

by now i logged out again and logged in again, making dropbox download all folders again to the old standard location: ~/Dropbox

Here everything is present and no folders of files are missing as far as i can see. 

Also, no indexing problems exist.

However, I would like to activate the File Provider and use the new location ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

The only thing I fear now is to run into indexing problems again, since this is what happened the last 2 times i tried it.

I hope I could clarify the problem 🙂