High CPU usage even when not syncing or indexing

[fort]

For the past couple of days, Dropbox has been consistently using around 30% of my CPU, when not syncing or indexing anything (i.e., the menu bar drop down says `Up to date`). Any idea why this might be happening, and what I can do to get Dropbox to idle properly?

I'm on a MacBook Air, running macOS 10.13.6 and Dropbox 58.4.92.

Thanks.

[EvilBolzen]

@dropbox 

Friendly, but also very seriously......the Dropbox Client on Windows OS (any) is broken in many, many ways.

Ever since Windows intruced changes into the explorer with the icon handeling the Dropbox client is killing the users CPUs. So far, there was no update that solved this issue.

Now, with the most recent changes in file indexing, anti-malware protection of Windows....but also with the integration of Dropbox into Office the issues got worse.

I have about 220k files on my computer and it can run FOR DAYS with dropbox maxing out my cpu. It's either one of the Dropbox processes or like here, the tray process. My system is currently running for a couple of hours, no file added, changed or any sort of syncing.

Well......

now to the point why I say the client is broken in MANY ways:

It's a interference of Dropbox Client, Windows Explorer, Antimalware and Windows Indexer. They cycle through the files, each time triggering the other processes to look at the files again.....and after that dropbox client decides to look at the files again, sometimes changing the cloud-status icon and the cycle repeats.

Don't argue with MS has to fix the problem, they won't. They decided to change the way Win10 and W11 are working and they won't go back because of one 3rd party software issue. It would be nice if for instance you could turn off the dropbox icons on folders and files as this would remove the issues with the win explorer.

And no, this is not an issue with the number of files. In 2019 my laptop, the very same machine I'm using right now had 4.8 MILLION frequently changed files to sync and did it with ease.

Edit:

 (reinstalled this week)

[megawhite]

@dropbox so the questions get hard and so you ignore them, because the problems are not resolved with an uninstall and reinstall of your software.

We're in a climate emergency and your software is essentially turning millions of computers into mini fan heaters.  It's about time you got with the times and resolve this excessive number crunching, resulting in unnecessary carbon emissions.  Dropbox worked fine 15 years ago on single core processors running much slower clock speeds, why 15 years later doing exactly the same thing (keeping files in sync) does it require so much more CPU cycles?

[EvilBolzen]

@dropbox 

Okay.....so I had the chance for a little experiment and it ended pretty devistating for you/your client.

I tracked down the cpu usage caused by dropbox-only processes as well as my average cpu load during working and private hours. The last 3 days I completely turned off dropbox as I had to work with another group that uses MS teams and onedrive for file syncing.

(edit: average loads and reformatted the table)

Cloud service -//- load (work)-//- load (private) -//- cloud load (work) -//- cloud load (private)

Dropbox         -//-  83 +/- 7% -//- 64+/- 19%     -//- 47%                       -//- 42%

OneDrive       -//-  66 +/- 8% -//- 30 +/- 16%   -//- 22%                       -//- <1%

Just to clarify, after my working hours no files have been added, modified or accessed on any of the cloud services.

Working hours were ~8-9h per day and on average I worked with 3-4 people on a shared drive. The funny part is, that teams and onedrive don't cause the rattle snake loop of indexing, antivirus checking and updating the cloud information. 

So I checked the idle CPU load with only dropbox and with only teams/onedrive activated. A total of 5 hours, all syncing processes were finished and I waited a total of 3 hours before measuring the idle load.

Idle w. Dropbox ~17% CPU

Idle w. Onedrive ~2% CPU

Seriously....HOW can this be. Both clients are supposed to do nothing. No files are being accessed, synced or anything and yet the dropbox client causes a high cpu load? And if it is not one of the dropbox processes, it is one of the file-inspection services from windows which than will trigger dropbox again. This loop needs to be stopped!

[Walter]

Hi there @EvilBolzen, sorry to hear about this.

Have you taken a look at this Help Center article for possible reasons why this might be happening and how to tackle it? 

[EvilBolzen]

Hi @Walter 

Everything that is mentioned in that article is not the case for me (and most others). Also, by the answers just in this thread all off the discussed "problems" can be outruled.

But just to summarize it again:

1. Dropbox is syncing a large number of files
   Simply.....NO! I have way fewer files in my Dropbox than compared to 2019 for instance. Also, I'm only synchronizing the absolute bare minimum with my computer. Right now due to cooperation works around 223k files. At peak times in 2019 I synced my whole Dropbox to my PC, resulting in way over 4 Million files. Never caused any trouble back than.
   I do get high CPU and RAM loads while Dropbox is idlying (according to the client, but not according to the windows task manager). But the truth is, since Windows 10 got the update on the Explorer and the usage of symbols in the explorer, Dropbox Client goes mayham and is battling with the search indexer, MS antivirus etc.
   
   How do I know? Well....as soon as the Dropbox client is "idlying" one of the mentioned MS processes checks on what Dropbox has done to the files and updates the symbols. Once they are finished, Dropboxs' cpu and ram load skyrockets and from the task manager I can see my hard drive is being actively used by dropbox processes. Once the dropbox processes calm down, the MS processes take over again and the cycle starts all over again. I watched this circle for a total of 4 days straight! The computer was running round the clock, I haven't touched the mouse or keyboard once in that time!
   
   I already tried anything I could find in this forum, this includes re-installing the dropbox client, reducing the number of files, deactivating the MS indexer (which is a nightmare when you need to access files frequently) and antivirus (if I have to explain to you why this is bad I'll immediately cancel my dropbox subscription).
   
   So for fun and giggle.....I did some experiments. W10 in a virtual machine, Linux Mint on a second hard drive with own Dropbox folder (not official client I believe). And well.....Linux Client works like a charm, after syncing 0% CPU load....as it should be. But the CLEAN freshly installed W10 in the VM......after syncing the CPU loads are still trash. Exactly like on my regular W10 installation.  
2. Other apps interfere with sync
   The only other "PROGRAM" that is connected to dropbox is Microsoft Office. But even this is not running for the majority of time. because....you guess it: It causes high cpu loads. Currently....I CAN'T work with Dropbox client running and MS Office....because when the Dropbox Client is gulping on my CPU my Office completely freezes, typing only 1 letter every ~10seconds. I reinstalled Dropbox Client and Office already....nothing helped.
   I also turned off my Phone to prevent a secondary device causing trouble...again, nothing changed.
   
   And final note to that point: I don't run any programs that are being installed in Dropbox, so no temporary files causing issues. Everything is just data files of various types.
3. Files in your Dropbox folder have the wrong permissions
   Windows file permission handling might be a mess, but this is one thing that hasn't changed in W10 at all if I remember correctly. The dropbox client (and my windows user account on the local machine) have full access to the dropbox files that are synced to my drive. No permission violations or anything, not even an entry in the event-manager about wrong permissions.
4. The Dropbox folder is installed on a NAS device
   Nope. Regular SSD in my computer.
5. Your device doesn’t support extended attributes
   Nope. Since I'm running the regular client on my Windows installation, the file system is NTFS as requested. 

So.....after this is answered back to the topic:

The issues came with the Windows explorer update and symbol handling. Ever since the dropbox client is running in circles with the MS processes.

I worked/work with many different cloud services, some with/without clients, some only available under Linux etc etc.....you get the point. But the dropbox windows client is without a doubt the most un-optimized and problem causing client I've ever used at this point. It has nothing to do anymore with it's previous glory from 2019 where it just worked and where you would only get CPU load when the client was actually syncing files. As I mentioned, the issues were caused by MSs changes in the explorer......but this is how W10 and W11 are now working, this won't change. What's missing is your adaption to the problem.

But I guess not enough users are complaining about this sh** because they just assume their PC is either not powerfull enough or they don't care about how well their PC is running. But honestly.....I don't see myself working with Dropbox in the future with these rising problems. 

[megawhite]

Hello @dropbox knock knock!  Anybody in??  KNOCK KNOCK Dropbox!

You've clearly got software problems to acknowledge and fix.  When is your stack of technical debt client application going to be fixed?

[Calvin2DBX]

Hi @megawhite,

Glad to help you here in the Community.

You'll see I moved your post to a larger thread where you can see what's been tried in similar circumstances.

Be sure to rule out everything here, first: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/high-cpu-usage

Let me know what you find!

[megawhite]

@dropbox

This thread:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/High-CPU-usage-even-when-not-syncing-or-inde...

How is it solved?

In the penultimate message before @Calvin2DBX unhelpfully locked the thread and set it to solved(??!!)

"Everything that is mentioned in that article is not the case for me (and most others). Also, by the answers just in this thread all off the discussed "problems" can be outruled."

Refers to this post which @Calvin2DBX provided for a second time in the last post:

 https://help.dropbox.com/installs/high-cpu-usage

PROBLEM IS NOT SOLVED.

NEEDS SOMEONE WITH SOME BRAIN TO FIX YOUR SOFTWARE.

WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT?

@EvilBolzen 

[Hannah]

Hey @megawhite and @EvilBolzen, we appreciate you taking the time to post about this and we will make sure that your feedback is heard.

I'd also like to suggest our Dropbox for Windows 10+ beta, which is focused on the changes introduced with Microsoft’s new sync API called Cloud Files.

We’ve been revamping our sync engine to make use of the Cloud Files API and we'd be happy to have you as contributors, if you're eligible.

To join the Dropbox for Windows 10+ beta, you’ll need to opt-in to the Dropbox early release program, which is currently available to a limited number of users.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[megawhite]

Hi @Hannah we are not after more potentially ropey beta software.  The existing client needs fixing.

@Walterclearly explains he installed Dropbox in a clean virtual machine and still the CPU issues persist.  There is absolutely no doubt the Windows Dropbox client needs urgently fixing to stop this behavioural madness.  I have just had to kill it multiple times today because it just keeps thrashing the CPU on my system for extended periods of time for absolutely no reason and I'm not having that.  This is clearly NOT an isolated incident and can be reproduced easily in a clean VM.