Mac client continuously syncing with no file changes

[cgnerd]

For the past couple of weeks I've noticed that the Dropbox client is continuously syncing, even though there are no new files to sync. I can confirm that no files have been updated and need to be re-synced by looking at the sync history. This by itself wouldn't be a problem, I don't really care if the system tray icon continuously shows the sync in progress icon, but when it's happening, Dropbox is using up a hell of a lot of CPU power. On average, it idles around 100%, sometimes it drops lower, but often it goes past 200%. It causes the laptop to heat up, the fans to spin and is definitely shortening the battery life if I'm not plugged in. See the screenshot below of my activity monitor while I was typing this up. Dropbox has absolutely nothing to do right now, but it's using up 260% CPU.

This has been an issue on macOS 12.2. I updated to 12.3 today and the issue remains.

I could understand this happening now and then as maybe some sort of background maintenance/housekeeping, but it's pretty much constant. I'm having this issue on an intel MacBook Pro and an M1 Mac mini.

[cgnerd]

Completely get where you're coming from Tomboo, I also have issues with the dropbox options not showing up on a right click (I usually have to right click three or four times before the Dropbox options appear) and the client generally being slow. I closed this issue because the problem didn't seem to be my use of the Dropbox client, it seems to be that the client is just hogging more resources than needed. I doubt a Dropbox developer will jump into this thread and assure us that improvements are on the way (look at how long we had to wait for native Apple silicon support). This is why I've been trialing Nextcloud 😔

[rmundell]

I am also seeing Dropbox using around 70% of my CPU resources pretty continually, and it keeps eating up disk space even after designating a lot of files as online only. The dropbox folder takes up half of the total storage on the Macbook (500Gb), even after I used selective synch to reduce the folders I need to keep offline. I am advised by tech support that I can no longer designate my dropbox folder to an external drive, and this version of Macbook cannot increase the drive storage internally.

[TomBoo]

Dear rmundell,

As for the Dropbox taking up space: to our experience, this is a "virtual" problem, and Dropbox has a "solution" for it.

In your Settings on the Dropbox website, you can find a settings at the bottom of the first tab, called "Smart Sync update for Mac". The subtitle is the following "With this update, online-only files will no longer appear to take up hard drive space."

This solved the problem for us about Dropbox "using" a lot of storage space while it was actually not (because many files are online-only).

Hope that works for you!

(As for the CPU usage: still no actual solution, but switching off a series of folders via Selective Sync seems to tuned down the issue. To be monitored and confirmed...)

[rmundell]

Thanks.

Yes I turned off a lot of folders to not synch on the Mac and by the following morning had regained 115GB. I'd still prefer to be able to synch all of my files to an external USB drive that I can have with me when I am out of Internet range. (I like to work from the boat, which is often offline.)

[IanJUSyd]

I would like to add that I am experiencing exactly the same problems with dropbox too. I have a new MacBookPro, running MacOS 12.3.1. My subscription is via my institution and is a business package.

I use online-only storage options heavily to preserve hard drive space.

Constant background syncing yet no files are being synced in the activity menu, high impact on battery life, high impact on CPU performance.

When this occurs, the dropbox menu items in the right-click context menu do not appear, meaning I cannot pull online only files back onto the hard drive.

I frequently just turn off syncing to preserve battery life and then let it sync when the laptop is idle.

I am interested in seeing if a solution can be found to this as well.

[cgnerd]

I’ve removed the accepted solution as it’s only a partial solution and others are having the same issue.

[CRWM]

Just wanted to chime in here to say I'm experiencing the exact same issues as others have mentioned in this thread.

Running a 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Intel i5 3.3GHz processor, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) on macOS 12.3.1 

Dropbox keeps fluctuating anywhere from 75% to 100% to 230% CPU usage, even with no file changes whatsoever.

The Dropbox sync could be completely finished, and yet the CPU usage is still off the charts. My MacBook fans are constantly spinning, and even if I close the lid on my MacBook Pro, it will go to sleep, but then I will hear the fans spin up again and continue to run for hours. I have to literally shut down my MacBook Pro to stop the fans & excessive CPU usage from Dropbox. 

I've tried all of the suggestions offered in the Dropbox Community, everything from the basics like restarting the Mac, to Force Quitting all Dropbox tasks in Activity Monitor, re-installing the Dropbox app, etc. Nothing seems to help.

Truly hope that Dropbox dev team will make fixing this a priority, as my team & I rely on using Dropbox every day, and it's causing a huge headache for all of us with Dropbox's excessive CPU usage slowing everything else down. The only "workaround" I can think of would be to completely quit the Dropbox app and not use it to sync files in the background, then turn it on at the end of the day to let Dropbox sync... but that completely defeats the purpose of paying the huge monthly fees that we do for Dropbox Advanced, and eliminates any possibility of collaborating on files, plus risks file sync conflicts / corruption if two people were to work on the same file while sync is disabled, etc. 

Please Dropbox do whatever you can to fix this issue asap.

In the meantime, the very least you could do is please have someone from your customer support team reach out to everyone in this thread and give us regular updates on your progress, so that we know how much longer we're going to have to wait for a resolution.

Otherwise we're likely going to have to look into taking our business elsewhere, and that would be a shame for everyone.

[Megan]

Hey everyone, Happy Friday! 

In order for the team to be able to look into this and investigate, I'm going to need from you to contact them directly.

You should be able to do so by visiting this page here. If any of you face any issues, let me know so I can chime in and help.

Once you have your ticket numbers, reply back to me here so I can locate them on my system.

Thanks a bunch! 

[TomBoo]

Dear Megan,

We reported the issue to Dropbox Support, as recommended by you.

Ticket #16986333.

Kinds regards,

Tom.

[Megan]

Hi @TomBoo, I hope you're doing well!

Awesome! I just located the ticket and passed my comments there. Hold tight, and an agent will be with you shortly. 

Thank you!