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.

[Sam DBX]

Hi all,

Sam from Community here ✋🏽

Just to let you know that we've brought this to our team's attention, and we are aware of this issue: If a Dropbox user using File Provider upgrades to macOS 14.0, they might experience a one-time file resync, which could take several hours, at the very least. If it takes long enough, it might appear as if you are "stuck syncing."

So far, the indications are that this only affects users who were on File Provider at some point while on macOS 12.5 to macOS 13.2 and have now updated to macOS 14.0. Unfortunately, this isn't something within Dropbox's control to fix, but we'll update you once we have news.

What can you do for now?

• If you find yourself stuck syncing for more than 4 hours (and don't have over 300K files), please consider restarting your computer.
• If you're still experiencing the issue a couple of hours after the restart, you can open a support ticket so that we can investigate further.

Thank you,

Sam

[cloudres]

Dear @Sam DBX, I regret to inform you that I am encountering this very issue on my Mac after updating from Mac OS 13.6. I have tried to describe the problem on another thread.

[cloudres]

Hello @Jay, I've actually already come across a similar issue on other threads within this forum. Samantha's latest post seems to confirm that the development team is aware of this problem and, I presume, is working to understand its causes.

I must admit, I'm a bit surprised, given that Sonoma Betas have been around for months. Especially considering that almost all of us here use Dropbox with a paid account, in my case, nearly 200 euros per year.

Regarding your suggestion, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Have you read what I've already tried to do to resolve the issue? From what I've gathered in Samantha's comment, restarting the sync is the issue. It seems blocked in some way. But then again, if it hasn't been resolved by restarting the Mac multiple times, I don't see how this would have helped.

I'll repeat, the only thing I haven't tried is logging out and logging back in. Someone seems to have resolved the issue that way.

[elkcilb]

Hello! Having the same issue after updating to Mac OS 14.0, also Dropbox v183.4.7058. Dropbox badge stuck on indexing, sync no longer works...

[Tirion2K22]

I was on File Provider on Mac OS 13.6 as well, took longer than 4 hours with 280K files, restarts didn't help.

Support then told me to do a hard reinstall that involved terminal commands that didn't work, and telling me to reinstall dropbox but selecting the CloudStorage folder as file location... which the install doesn't allow. All in all it feels like Dropbox themselves also don't have a clue of their product.

So I gave up, removed my dropbox folder from cloudstorage, removed Dropbox, did a fresh install, synced all files to the default documents folder (not CloudStorage), and then did the move to CloudStorage all over again. 

All this including the removing of unlimited storage due to lame reasons... so disappointing 

[Hannah]

Thanks for the additional info here, @cloudres and @elkcilb, have you had the time to check Samantha's post here, for more info?

[elkcilb]

I believe it's not "stuck syncing" as described in the post by Samantha because it has been indexing for over 48 hours now. I have tried restarting my computer.

[agpsa]

I have just installed Somona on my Mac

Then saved a file to a shared dropbox folder on my computer. The unthinkable happened. was contacted by a colleague. EVERYTHING I have submitted to the shared folder since 2020 was deleted on their folders and the  dropbox website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Worse still, it had synced the same modified/ deleted dropbox folder to my Mac

EVERYTHING IS GONE!!!!!!! Not even in the deleted folder on Dropbox

Well done. 3 years collaborative work destroyed. Wow

[cloudres]

Sorry @Hannah, but it makes me smile a bit that you're suggesting I take a look at Samantha's post when I was the first to mention it above. Of course, I've seen it. And that's precisely why I'm concerned. It seems like none of you even know what's happening here.

[Hannah]

Hey @cloudres, that was actually for @elkcilb, sorry if that wasn't clear in my reply.

And everyone who is still having this issue, have you tried reaching out to our support team, like Sam suggested?