On-line only folders start syncing out of nowhere

[Squick55]

Hey there, I don't know what board this should be placed under because none of them seem fitting for the issue I'm having. So I just installed a new SSD and did a clean install of all my main programs I use. I installed Dropbox and went through and synced only certain files and folders with selective sync. Most of the folders I did sync I made online only so I could still see the contents if I needed something. After everything did its initial sync and everything was complete It was fine for about a week. Then out of nowhere Dropbox started syncing folders and files that I know I had previously set to online only. So I went back through and did it all again and changed a bunch of folders to online only and yet again a few days later all those folders started to sync again. I tried changing them to online only one more time and it just happened again tonight. 

When I reached out to support about this, I was told to try turning off my antivirus and firewall systems and see if the issue continues but the problem I have with that is I don't know how long it's going to take before this issue starts happening again and I'm not going to go days and days without antivirus or firewall set up. Plus that just doesn't really make sense to me. What would the AV or Firewall have to do with it? I set the folders and files to online only, they should stay that way. How are they getting changed? Has anyone else experienced this and/or figured out a solution? I'm half tempted to uninstall Dropbox because every time this happens it ends up using a lot of Internet data. This is crazy!

This wasn't happening before I changed the SSD but I don't see how it could be something with the SSD itself. I've been using Dropbox for a very long time, 10 plus years probably and have never experienced this. I've also been using the same antivirus for probably 5 plus years as well. This issue is driving me up a wall. I hope somebody knows something about this issue.

Thanks

[Walter]

Hi there @Squick55, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you please let us know your computer's exact OS and the version and status of the desktop app as shown in your system tray/menu bar?

Also, since you've already reached out to our support team about this, could you share your ticket ID in order to look it up in our system?

As for the reason why your files might be becoming available offline after you've set them to be online only, note that it might be indeed due to 3rd party apps like antivirus programs or other syncing or backup apps/services that might be monitoring your Dropbox folder. 

I hope this helps a tad and please keep me posted. 

[Squick55]

The original ticket ID is 21211135. I shut down the computer last night and after rebooting today the status says up to date. Now in a few days it will start automatically syncing a lot of folders on it's own.

I'm using Win 10 

Version 10.0.19045 Build 19045

I have Trend Micro antivirus and Malware bytes pro for antivirus. I've been using both for a while with no problems until recently.

[Jay]

Hi @Squick55, are these folders that you might have work files in them?

When you try to open a document, do you open it from Explorer/Finder, or by navigating via the app itself?

[Squick55]

It's all personal files. Like I said, this has never happened before. If I set something to nonline only, it stayed that way. But now it's about once a week and seems to be the same folders each time I think. And it's not all the folders either, seems to just be a certain few. I don't do a whole lot lately either. The main thing I do is save screenshots of my trading for journaling but that's really about it. I may have to use selective sync and un-sync a lot of the stuff that it's happening to. Problem is, I shouldn't have to. When I set it to Online only it should stay that way.

[Squick55]

Sorry about not answering the other question, I use file explorer. If I click the dropbox icon in the start menu it just opens explorer anyways so not sure what you mean by opening it in the app itself. There's either the option to use the website in m browser or use file explorer. The only app I'm aware of is the mobile app. What other app is there?

[Walter]

Hey @Squick55, thanks for the additional information you provided us.

Now, just to rule out this possibility, could you temporarily disable the antivirus programs you have running on your computer and let us know if the issue happens again? 

[Squick55]

Ok, this is ridiculous. I thought everything had settled down, I did not turn off the anti-virus but the issues seemed to have stopped. This morning after booting up the syncing started again. Online-only folders changed and started syncing. What really boggles me is even after changing a folder back to online-only, getting the greyed out icon on the folder, within less than 5 minutes it switches and starts syncing again. It did this several times until it attempted to sync every file within that folder and I kept having to change it back. So then it moved to the next folder and started syncing that one so again, I changed it to online only but again, same thing after a few minutes starts trying to sync again. The way to finally get it to stop is reboot the computer then check to make sure things I want to stay online only are still set as that and it holds for about a week. Think it's been happening every Wed. 

I'll see if I can just turn the AV off, last time I checked it seemed I have to uninstall it all together which seemed ridiculous. The reason I'm so hesitant about turning it off for a long period is because of an issue I had last October with hacking. Mainly my email but I did find Malware, just can't recall exactly which device so I've got things locked down pretty tight at the moment.

It's just very strange that even after changing a folder to online-only, even after it started trying to sync, it changes again within minutes and continues on. But it will stop if I reboot the computer.

[Squick55]

Ok, I turned off Trend Micro a couple days ago and just now DB started syncing folders again that weren't supposed to so it's not that. Will try turning off Malware bytes next. Happens every Wed.

[Squick55]

I just realized that Trend Micro is actually turned back on, I will try uninstalling it next week to make sure.