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Forum Discussion
I need to disable syncing in order to save changes in Photoshop.
There seems to be a change in the behavour in file sync. Now Dropbox interupt the saving process of an application (Planimate from InterDynamics). When the software saves it's file, I understand it does this to a temp file with ending .$$$. When the save process is done, and the file is verified, it replaces the orginal file with the new one and change the file ending the the appropriate. This has worked fine with Dropbox for many years. But lately Dropbox interrupt this and "lock" the temp file, making the software fail to save its files. Not very nice. I have to turn off Dropbox every time I do development nowadays. Please revert to a sync method less intrusive.
My issues have been solved without me doing any active part. My guess is some background update has fixed it.
(edit: the issues WAS solved for a time, but no longer)
That's correct. I need to disable syncing in order to save changes in Photoshop.
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hi Mattias3 & u_kadru; I'm sorry for the late reply.
Based on your desription, I believe you are seeing an issue with file locks - correct me if I'm wrong please.
As you noticed, our desktop application is unable to sync some types of files left open by certain applications. When this happens, Dropbox will report that the "file is in use" from the Dropbox desktop application menu.
Some 3rd party apps/services place locks on files while they are being edited. The feature avoids conflicts that can occur if the file is changed by another computer. This lock also prevents Dropbox from accessing and syncing the file.
To allow Dropbox to sync these files, you'll need to save and quit any applications where the file is open. Once you do, Dropbox will fully sync the files.
For more information on file locks, see the Dropbox Help Center article:
https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/stuck-syncing
If you are sharing the data between computers you must NOT run the application on more than one computer at a time as you will generate file conflicts and other problems.
Thus, the pattern needs to be:
- Let files sync
- Start application
- Save files
- Quit application
- Repeat on different computers.
Let me know if this helps!
This issue is driving me insane. I work with large files all day. The previous functionality of Dropbox was simply perfect, I could save a file any time, and it would restart syncing when the file changed. Now Dropbox locks the file and I can't save the file again until it's finished, or if I pause Dropbox, click save, then unpause Dropbox. I work with 500MB files routinely in Blender and Photoshop, waiting for syncing to finish isn't an option, and pausing/unpausing Dropbox every 5 minutes is driving me up the wall. If this behaviour isn't reverted back soon I will have no choice but to stop using Dropbox as this issue is now distracting me from my work. Dropbox should be something I can ignore, that runs in the background, not something I have to micromanage every 5 minutes!
Im having the same issue.
Well, I solved this problem by switching to mac because this is actually a Windows problem. It works without issue, no matter how many temp files I have open because the mac file system (APFS) doesn't have the file sharing problems NTFS does.
I know this isn't a solution for everybody but if you've been on the fence lately, the new M1 macs are beyond fast.
But I have encountered similar problems on my macOS too, and it is truly frustrating. As a result, the Dropbox application is almost always paused on all of my systems (Windows, Linux, macOS). Only when I am away for hours, I restart Dropbox to sync. I do not mean that the competitions are better, as I have not tried them. But the current state of Dropbox really sucks and with every update, it becomes more expensive, slower, and less useful.
That's a shame. I've tested well over 10,000 files on both Intel and M1 mac, and Windows 10 on 4 different computers. Only the Windows systems give me trouble.
