Hidden .dropbox_bi folder storing 87GB of files locally!

[UBG]

Hi, I've just recently set up a new Dropbox Professional account. After installing the desktop app on my Mac I also set up a backup of my external SSD, which completed successfully yesterday.

Standard Dropbox file sync seems to be working fine, and the Dropbox app says everything is up to date, but for some reason I now have a new hidden folder under my Mac user folder called .dropbox_bi. That folder is storing 87GB of files on my primary SSD, apparently related to the 220GB of data backed up from the external SSD.

Is this my life now? Or is there some way to recover that massive waste of precious primary SSD storage space?

[Charlie J.1]

I am having the same issue with Windows 10Pro operating system.  

I have an external hard drive automatically backed up via Dropbox, but for some reason a hidden folder "Dropbox_BI " has been created and is utilizing 349GB of hard drive space on the machine that the external hard drive is connected to.  

I found the hard drive space being utilized via TreeSize disk space manager app.

I contacted Dropbox support, via chat, regarding this issue.  They let me know that Dropbox engineers are aware of the problem and are working on a solution, and that I would be contacted by Dropbox support staff soon.

[Anwick]

Another update on this. The dropbox_bi folder on a Mac other than the one the large external drive is attached to now has over 500Gb of files under the label of the external drive attached to another computer!

Come on Dropbox, this is going on too long whilst waiting for a decent solution. And it's a solution the Dropbox engineers need to resolve as the first and second line customer service staff don't have a clue (not their fault).

[bagofchips]

I have the same issue, Win10Pro, My internal C: is completely full thx to the external drive rebound through the internal Dropbox apparently tries to do in the course of backups and this is actually a dangerous situation.  Support told me today to update the desktop app and it will fix (a little skeptical, but let's see).

As others have mentioned, I had to use that TreeSize utility to even find on my own that Dropbox was the culprit to my storage woes, because Windows disk utility doesn't show it and you pull your hair wondering where all the storage went.  That .dropbox_bi folder is hidden beyond hidden - even if you browse your directories to see "hidden" files it doesn't show up.  Which feels downright sneaky but maybe there's a reason - I can find the individual files in the .dropbox_bi by searching for them, it's just the stuff doesn't show up through normal windows explorer browsing.  I thought my internal hard drive was corrupted!!

[Hannah]

Hey @Anwick and @bagofchips, sorry to see you're having an issue with this.

Can we actually reach out to you via email, so we can look further into this?

[Anwick]

Hi @Hannah, 

With respect, unless you're a Dropbox backend developer who understands the workings behind the scene then no, there's no point, it's a waste of my time and yours and I've wasted too much time on this problem so far. I've had email communications on this for a while now with various customer service personnel and all the suggested options are either not connected with this folder or they were actually guess work with 'wait and see'. 

[bagofchips]

@Hannah you can, but know I’ve already spent an hour +/- on this w/ tech support. I explained above how I’m told the software update should fix (too soon to say).

[Megan]

Hi @bagofchips, how are you today?

Can you share your ticket number reference with me, in order to locate it on the system? 

Thank you!

[bagofchips]

@Megan - 20218665

[Jean-Marc P]

I had the same problem than you all and posted a previous message in this flow.

4 weeks later, I had several contacts with Dropbox.

They advised me to restart the backup, then restart the software, then reinstall the whole Dropbox software.

I did it and tried to restart the backup.

1. No link was done with the previous backup. That means that the program planned to restart from zero and upload 1.2 TB from zero. 😞 😞

2. After several days trying to restart the process, the software is still analyzing the hard disk and found the third. In the meanwhile, it haven't started to upload anything and so, is still blocked to 0%

This is a BETA version of the program and we understand why. It's not working correctly and causes a lot of problems.

Hannah replied "I'm glad the issue got resolved" although I only succeeded to use my computer correctly. Never the software was working correctly.

As Anwick wrote : "Come on Dropbox, this is going on too long whilst waiting for a decent solution."...

It's a pity to have the "Dropbox" name stuck to it because the standard software is working so well that I haven't thought that I was going to encounter so many problems with this Backup functionality.

[Nancy]

Hello from me as well, @bagofchips. 

I’ve located your ticket in our system, and I can see that it’s been closed in the meantime due to inactivity. 

If you’re still having trouble with this, please feel free to reply back to the same ticket and the system should open a new one. This way, our team can continue assisting you.