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Forum Discussion
Background activity iOS from the mobile app.
Hi,
Just notice that Dropbox keeps active in the background on iOS, even if i disable it in the settings from iOS. After some testing I found the problem, the integration with the files app causes this problem. If I disable Dropbox within the files app there is no longer background activity from Dropbox. Hope this can be fixed soon because it drains my battery.
- Background App Refresh is OFF, Locations is OFF in files app, Upload Photos is OFF but Dropbox continues to run Background Activity ALL DAY & DRAINS MY BATTERY!!! Why is this continuing to happen???? And why is there NO way to actually contact support??? What great customer service! SMFH!! I’m soooo frickin frustrated and about to delete the app! HELP PLEASE!!!!
- Reading this thread, it’s mental! I cannot get over how nobody from Dropbox has fixed this! Using your service for years now. I paid £80 for a new battery in my iPhone today. And the guy at the Genius Bar said it’s a Dropbox software issue. Low and behold, 6 months into it, still not resolved. Seriously! It doesn’t need to run in the background! Most other apps “allow only when using this app” 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
Cmon, please reach out with a solution!!! Not just one person with this issue. And probably several more without even realising!!!!Same issue! I just looked in the Battery tab under settings... changed over from "Last 24 Hours" to "Last 10 Days"... looked down at Dropbox... 97 HOURS 5 minutes of BACKGROUND usage!!! I really BARELY use DropBox, so this isn't because I'm a heavy user and the phone is staying in sync all the time... To be fair, LinkedIn also had a rediculous amount of usage too, so I suspect it may have something to do with an Apple update. But the fact that Dropbox isn't even acknowledgeing the problem (seems to be a common theme) is troubling. (I too have already verified that the "background app refresh" permission was turned off for Dropbox.
Me too experiencing the same issue, Thanks for the context of the integration with the file app and sharing the patch. It doesn't seem like Dropbox is ever going to fix this. They are getting worse and worst day by day in every single way possible.
- Same issue again and still not resolved. Regretting coming back to Dropbox.
I fail to see how any bug cannot be fixed after several years of existence, assuming they actually make the effort.
I have paid for a service that I have to turn off on my iOS devices. Pretty poor.
The dropbox app on IOS uses a lot of "screen off" battery. When I go to settings -- battery, every other app only uses battery when it is on screen, but dropbox used 11h 47m in the background in the last 24 hours, and 121h 16m in background in the last 10 days, compared to other apps using at most 10 minutes. I've reviewed my background app refresh settings and I've turned off the background app refresh for everything.
This amount of battery drain is unacceptable. Can someone tell me why this is happening, and how to fix it? I don't need dropbox to refresh my files all the time; I only need it to update when I startup the app.
Thanks to anyone who's able to help!
Same for me. I thought I was crazy that lately I've seen how my battery basically drains overnight for no reason. Last night I decided to unplug the phone overnight, after waiting for it to charge to 80%. When I woke up, I had only 62% battery. Guess what app drained it!
That's right, Dropbox.
My health battery is 100% and I actually freaked out that my battery is going down so fast with a new phone. 120 h in the background in 10 days is a lot! And background refresh was always off btw.
Fix your app Dropbox!
Seeing the same behavior.
iPad OS 13.6
iPad Pro 10.5"
Dropbox taking up a huge amount of time in the background, battery dropping from 80% to 0% overnight.
I do have Background Activity enabled for Dropbox the app, and it was enabled as a Files Provider in the Files app. I disabled Background Refresh for the app - no change, battery still drained overnight.
I did not try disabling the Files integration, but I DID delete the Dropbox app two days ago. Two nights have gone by with no drained battery. So removing the app definitely solved this problem.
I do not recall where the battery drain began, but I did delay upgrading from iOS 13.5 to 13.6 for a few months.
Dropbox iPhone APP uses a lot of battery despite "background APP refresh" is OFF. see pic.
To avoid long disscusions with Dropbox-Support, I uninstalled Dropbox on my Phone. Just to let know, that even if "background APP refresh" is OFF, it uses the biggest part of background activity.
I have the same problem. On my iPhone SE 2 and iPad Air 4, Dropbox simply destroys the battery if I keep it open in the Files App.
- Daphne
Dropbox Staff
Hey there AndyVRD, thanks for sharing this with us here!
Can you just clarify for me exactly what setting it is that you disabled within the iOS settings? Was it the "background app refresh" option?
Out of curiosity, do you also have the location services enabled for Dropbox too, for the camera uploads "background uploading" feature?
Keep me posted!
- Hi Daphne,
I disabled the Dropbox app within the Apple files app, thats the only way to fix the background activity issue.
Camera upload is disabled so that is not the issue. Like i said, soon as i disable Dropbox inside the Apple files app the problem is fixed.
Anyway this problem is already known by Dropbox but in Januari they said to another user with the same problem that it’s not on there priority list. Strange thing because i think this is a serious problem...- Daphne
Thanks for the additional info AndyVRD!
I understand how this would be important for you so thanks for sharing this with us here.
If you have any other questions or issues in the meantime, please don't hesitate to get back to me here. I'd be more than happy to help.
I hope you have a great day ahead!
Your iPad iOS app keeps killing my iPad’s battery! I turned the background updates off, yet, it still says it runs in the background, according to the power usage graph. I even tried turning off ALL app background updates, the same behaviour happens.
I got told to try unlinking it from the Files app, the same thing has happened again.
This has happened many many times, and soon it will likely begin having detrimental side affects for my battery’s future.
I've had my iPad turn off completely because of this many times now. For a platform that has matured a lot, you'd think this kind of issue wouldn't ever happen...
- Walter
Hi AaronPowellDesign; thanks for joining our Community and reporting this.
Can you please clarify if you notice this happen after you've disconnected Dropbox from your Files app with our mobile app shut off on your iPad?
Could you perhaps try reinstalling the app and let me know if the power usage is the same?
Thanks!
Hi,
Yes, the same behaviour continued after unlinking it from the dropbox app, and reinstalling hasn't made a difference either....
Typically, when I've found my iPad "belly up" so to speak, after reviving it with my charger, it says that your app ran in the background for 3 - 4 hours, which was then followed by the graph showing red just before the point of battery exhaustion... There's clearly a bug that means it has complete disregard for my app background setting choice..
- Daphne
Thanks for your updates here!
Just to confirm, when you mentioned turning off all background updates etc, are you referring to "background app refresh"?
If you're not familiar with this, you can check it out by opening the device's Settings > General > Background app refresh.
Also, can you confirm for me the version of the Dropbox app installed, and the iOS version of your device?
Cheers!
Hi,
I would have thought that my many previous comments would've suggested that I am only referring to the only possible option available, which is of course "Background Update Refresh", at least you can feel sure that I am referring to what you thought it might be (answering the exact same questions many times in earlier comments has caused my patience to wane by the way)...
I took a long time to respond because I was convinced for a while that as long as the Dropbox App is closed when using the multi task screen, then that would stop this problem , but noo. This morning my iPad was on 5%, and the Dropbox App wasn't even open, yet, it says it ran in the background for nearly 8 HOURS!!! It feels like Dropbox are conspiring with Apple to kill off older devices, since when the battery goes bad, then the whole device becomes useless?
I'm running Dropbox 202.3 and iPadOS 13.6.1.
Please do NOT assume updating will somehow solve this (it only says new features for the latest app update anyway), I've already updated both MANY times during the time of having this problem, and unless dropbox get their act together, (and stop focusing on new features all the time and fix the problems), then MAYBE the problem will get fixed.
How do you not have background uploading of selected file images without having to upload all of my photos. Really annoying to keep having to log into my phone each time the screen goes dark to keep an upload happening.
- Walter
