blue circle syncing icon not showing

[Ripples88]

The blue circle icon that indicates my file is syncing doesn't display at all in the Dropbox desktop app.  The green sync completed icons do appear, however.   

I tried uploading a 1.5Mb file.  Dropbox indicates that it will take one hour to upload and sync.  

To test whether upload/syncing is working at all, I tried uploading a 17Kb file.  It was fine.

Since I had experienced very slow upload/syncing speeds a few days ago, I had done the following:

1. Reinstalled Dropbox.

2. Ensured that the Bandwidth preferences, Upload Rate is set to Don't Limit.

I also re-tried uploading the file via the Dropbox web site.  The blue circle sync icon does display in the web site version.  The View Details of the file sync keeps showing varying time durations of how long the upload will take as well as what percentage of the file has been uploaded.  The file got to 50 per cent uploaded and showed that it would take less than 10 seconds left to complete uploading.  Now the file has gone back to 25 percent uploaded and has 9 minutes left.  

Interestingly, it only took less than 1 minute to upload the same file into Google Drive.

I am running Windows 10.  Using Dropbox version 44.4.58

Please help me figure out why blue circle syncing icon doesn't display in the Dropbox desktop app for Windows 10.

[Lusil]

Hey @rishi1, thanks for the detailed screenshots - much appreciated! 

I can see in one of your screenshots that the folder that you’re looking at doesn’t end in Dropbox, so could you just confirm for me if it’s indeed the Dropbox folder? Also, is it under your quick access list? Finally, do you see this newly-added file uploaded via the website too?

Thanks in advance!

[rishi1]

Hi,

Yes it is the dropbox folder.

No its not on quick access. Its on the desktop.

Yes if I add it on the desktop folder, it appears online straight away and if I delete it online, it deletes from the folder straight away so its all working fine. Just the file would not show the blue sync icon.

And the dropbox icon on the taskbar doesn't show the green tick once all synced.

Rgds.

[Lusil]

Thanks for the detailed description, @rishi1!

Initially, please note that when syncing is complete, the Dropbox icon will just read up to date - it won’t have a green tick on it. However, when files are syncing, they should show you a blue syncing icon on them, as you also mention. 

As an initial troubleshoot step, could you please have a look at this Help Center article? It provides some suggestions and steps in cases where you don’t see the syncing icons, along with some other additional info.

Let me know how it goes! 

[gearshift]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7kirwtq9ofrv7hx/Screenshot%202018-09-18%2008.51.38.png?dl=0

Is this an update or an error?  The blue "selective sync" icon has disappeared on folders that have selective files making it hard to see which of my folders are partially shared/selected.  It doesn't seem like Dropbox Customer Support is understanding the issue.

[rishi1]

Nothing works!!! Same problem as already explained.

[Lusil]

Hey, @gearshift. 

Initially, please bear in mind that the blue syncing icon illustrates when a file is syncing. Selectively synced folders (as this feature is folder-specific) should not appear in your Dropbox folder, as they are chosen to not sync. 

Could you be referring to Smart Sync instead by any chance? If this is the case, could you please check that you’ve toggled on the Dropbox system extension from your General tab?

If this is not the case and you’re facing a similar issue like @rishi1, as a first step, please make sure to have a look at this link. At the bottom of the article, please select the relevant OS and see if any of the steps do the trick for you. 

If they don’t, the issue you and @rishi1 are seeing may be related to an incorrect level of permissions when the Dropbox app was installed. Before following the steps outlined below, please ensure to take a note/screenshot of any selective sync settings you may have applied in case you need to re-apply them upon re-install. 

1. Verify that the Windows UAC levels are set to default levels.
2. Uninstall the desktop app. Please remember that you don’t need to remove the Dropbox folder or any files from it. 
3. Download the newest version of the desktop app.
4. Once you have downloaded the installation file, double-click on to run it. Please do not launch the installer by right-clicking on the file and selecting Run as admin as this will lead to incorrect install permissions.
5. During the installation process, you may be prompted for the Admin username/password of your computer. Please be sure and provide the username/password of your Admin user account on your device. 
6. When prompted, enter the email address of the Dropbox account you’re using on this computer and, if needed, check the advanced preferences to apply any selective sync settings.

If the issue persists after this, I’d kindly suggest contacting our Support team as account-specific and sensitive info may be required to further investigate on the matter. In this case, you can either submit a request here or I can contact you to the email address associated with your Forum profile. 

Let me know how it goes and I’ll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your patience and cooperation on this, @rishi1 and @gearshift! 

[gearshift]

You are correct that it is the SmartSync icon, white with green border (not blue like I previously mentioned). That is what was there a few days ago and is gone now.  I havent adjusted any settings.  

[Lusil]

Thanks for confirming that for me, @gearshift!

Were you able to check out or carry out any of the steps above that I mention in my previous post? 

Let me know of any update!

[gearshift]

The only step is for me to uninstall/reinstall dropbox?  This is happening on both of my workstations.  Is it a Windows 10 update?

[Lusil]

If you've got this behavior on two devices, @gearshift, you could try out the reinstallation process (as also mentioned on the third step in my previous post) on one of them, and see if that makes a difference.  Let me know!