Desktop App - Selective Sync not showing all folders

[Contoured_TL]

We have a lot of files on our company Dropbox account.  So much that we absolutely can't have our entire library indexed let alone synced.  For this reason, the 'Selective Sync' tool in the desktop app is our primary means to add new project folders, and remove old ones from our local systems.  To be clear, we do not avoid indexing our library for space-saving reasons - we are fully aware that an indexed file (set to online-only) takes up no hard drive space.  We avoid indexing because we currently hold ~100TB of data and the indexing for this quantity of data is a multi-hour process every time the Dropbox app is restarted.  When the app is first installed this indexing process takes several days with 1GB download speeds.  As this posts Subject suggests, our selective sync window is now missing MANY folders that are visible in Dropbox web, and this is a major issue.  Dropbox support staff has provided the following steps for resolution, but the issue persists.

- Ensure the Dropbox Desktop application is running.

- Ensure the Dropbox Desktop application syncing status is 'up to date'.

- Ensure there are no special characters in the affected files.

- Quit the application and restart the device.

They provided one additional possible fix, which I'll include shortly...  But to reiterate, we have ~100TB of data, and to index our entire library takes several hours after restarting the Dropbox Desktop application, and SEVERAL DAYS from a fresh installation of the application.

Dropbox Support's final solution was to 'unlink', then 'relink' our Dropbox account to our computers.  This sounded like a solution that would have our team losing hours (if not days) of productivity due to indexing.  I expressed this concern to Dropbox Support staff, and the assured me (multiple times) that this would just be a quick process in which the Desktop Dropbox application would take a look at all the files in our Dropbox account and likely be able to find (and add) the missing folders to our selective sync list.  Dropbox Support staff said, "this will not affect any of your selective sync folders."

We had a single team member test this final possible solution, because I suspected the Dropbox Support staff was just reading a script and didn't have the experience dealing with this quantity of data that we've been maneuvering for years.  So it came as little shock that Dropbox Support staff in fact WAS NOT able to fix the problem, and in fact made it hundreds of times worse by suggesting a solution that (contrary to their assurances) essentially reinstalled the Dropbox Desktop application and has one of our team members in the midst of a multi-day index. 

Bravo Dropbox Support.  Some knowledgeable advice would be appreciated moving forward.

If any community members have found a viable solution to this, we would greatly appreciate advice.  If Dropbox Support is able to find a solution in the meantime, I will repost.

[RoniDMC]

Hi Megan,

I attempted signing out and then signing in again and this unfortunately just made my situation worse as previous folders that were listed under Selective Sync are now missing. I hope this is a high priority bug Dropbox is looking at fixing as this will impact productivity for me and my team until functionality is restored.

[NYCTech12345]

We have the same issue, though a smaller set of files. There are older threads on these 'missing folders in Selective Sync' over the years on this community forum -- but I am thinking something is up with their servers right now (it's 3/18/24). This just started happening to us yesterday on two systems[!]

I've used Dropbox for years, but this issue of not seeing folders when setting up Selective Sync is serious. Wish we'd get a straight answer and some transparency here if it's actually a wider issue.

I have a small startup (and am co-founder / CTO). This kind of thing should not happen in a cloud backup solution. We're backing up to AWS just in case -- slow, but we will not lose data.

Un-installing / re-installing doesn't work, btw.

Any help for a recognized solution -- and an explanation from Dropbox support -- would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[mesch]

I totally agree - I'm losing confidence in the Dropbox backup system. I too have thought about backing everything up to OneDrive "just in case" but like you said it's so time consuming. I'll give it a little time but if an update/fix doesn't come in the near future I will be forced to find a different workflow. Which is a shame because I really like Dropbox!

[MattMc]

My company has to much to use the web version. the selective sync is how we keep our projects organized. Most folders show, but of course the ones we need to sync are not. 

[Jay]

Hi @MattMc, just for clarification, are you using a Windows or Mac device? 

Could you give an example of a folder that isn't appearing in the selective sync window? A screenshot of this (while hiding any sensitive details) would be great.

[Contoured_TL]

Everyone here seems to be having the same issue and no meaningful advice has come from Dropbox.  This is causing major workflow disruption for our company.  It's now been over a week since I first reached out and I'm still in the dark.  The only suggestions any of Dropbox's staff has made have been (1) Delink/Relink Dropbox, and (2) use the web version.  These are not solutions.  We have over 100TB with your company and the inability to resolve this issue is forcing us to consider other options for storage.

[MattMc]

It is Windows 10 and 11 computers. Current version of the desktop app. In the picture you can see in Selective sync the Wave folder is missing but it shows in the online verson

[Hannah]

Hey @MattMc, can you also confirm that the naming criteria are met?

[RoniDMC]

That's the same problem I'm having and will confirm, at least on my end, that naming criteria are met. These are folders that I've not had issue in the past showing in Selective Sync now suddenly not appearing.

[mesch]

Same issue on Mac computers - missing folders in the selective sync window vs. what is actually on DropBox. Naming criteria met, no special characters.