Dropbox is stuck syncing after an update, what can I do?

[Shawn B.14]

I have the "Dropbox Plus" subscription and I run the client on 4 computers.

Yesterday (Monday, 13-Jan-2020) I signed onto my desktop (which is always on) and has a full local sync of my dropbox that a number of new files added Saturday had big red Xs on them -- JPEGs I had scanned Saturday and which were in sync to my laptop on Sunday morning.

I checked my other workstation (also always on) and Dropbox wasn't even running.  I launched it, and it pretty immediately ran a "one time update".   Once this completed, it appeared to go into a full-on sync mode, indexing thousands of files and downloading thousands more (my total dropbox footprint is ~17k files, 600 GB of data).  This has been running for 24 hours without making any apparent progress, despite the drive being materially in sync with my first workstation (using BeyondCompare to check).  Plus not enough system activity to indicate any actual indexing or download was taking place.

I paused workstation 2, uninstalled dropbox on workstation 1 and reinstalled it.  Just prior to this, workstation 1 was "stuck" uploading 2 files and downloading 7 files, which it had been on since last night.

Workstation 1 now shows "indexing" for around 8k files and "downloading" for 9k files.  Trouble is, Resource Monitor doesn't show disk activity or network activity for that kind of activity.

What's going on?  I was perfectly in sync as of Saturday morning and over the last 24 hours it's gotten bad.

Oddly, my laptop ("laptop 1") is apparently fine, showing more or less normal sync status as far as I can tell (and is on build 88.4.172).

[Matt F.16]

Not only is it buggy... but it's not nearly as tolerant, reliable, etc. The old engine worked well for YEARS. Now this new one is full of hidden surprises (things it doesn't like or doesn't want to support). But to top it all off -- it's much more resource hungry. My dropbox process is constantly eating more CPU and memory; at least double or triple what it used to, and it's fully sync'd. 100% CPU on one core and 50% system memory when everything is sync'd and quiet. What a great upgrade!

[rheilmann15]

Tried all the fixes suggested by @Daphne and still not working.  This is clearly a widespread issue.  I have 3 machines that are having the same stuck on connecting/synching issue.

[PlsFixSyncing]

Thanks, S34W0LF! Uninstalling Boxifier solved my syncing issue. (It's not enough to just exit Boxifier.)

[EmilyJ]

Just to add that I also have the problems described in this thread. My support ticket is #10211177

I'm on an iMac with High Sierra. I've been trying to fix the problems for about 2 weeks now, including uninstalling and reinstalling more than once. Support has so far recommended I try things I've already told them I've done.

I've now completely turned off "Smart Sync" on my account to see if that might help, and I'm selectively syncing just the one (large) folder which I really need to be functional.

It's no longer stuck, and if syncing takes ages I can live with that. However Dropbox is not displaying any sync icons (or contextual menu choices) in my finder window.

The whole process has made me look into alternative otpions; I'm still hoping Dropbox will settle and work well again, but I'm losing trust, especially with all the support references to Dropbox not working as well with larger numbers of files. If that's the case, I don;t see the point in offering 2TB+ options as anyone with anything near that size of a storage requirement is guaranteed to have a large number of files...

Anyway, I hope the syncing issues will resolve for everyone soon.

[Server_Align]

Hello all, I earlier supplied what I thought was a complete solution to this syning issue.

It revolved around using the cloud online-only files system of comerical level accounts *1, unlinking, moving content to a save location, syning using cloud only files, stopping the app, moving content back in over the cloud files, then restarting the app, and havbing it worj its way through the change in files from cloud to real, for the most part this works or did on our system of 700K+ files @ 2+TB size.

However one of the machines syncing that lot does a few more folders than the others. It stores a backups folder that is Selectively Synced to only sync to that machine this is so Dropbox holds a additional backup (of the backups) of these files. I noticed today while still doing its job anbd syning active changes it was never able to complete syning like the other machines had days before. So I ran up my trusty OpenFileView app to see what files its accessing and I found it reading its way through 4 files (it does this as it reindex/compares the content to its checksum lists & it processes multiple files at once doing this) each one of the files was over 4GB, and when it reached the end of one, it just started reading the same file again, this repeated over and over again with out end (hours later still the same files).

My resolve to this was to move the content out of dropbox it was looping on (i removed the whole backups folder which was full of these files) I am yet to reinsert them but suspect this will be fine as it wont bn a reindex/compare but arather a new file added index, which i hope will work fine. Once the files were removed the indexing moved on and is heading towards completing with the index count reapearing and dropping steadly.

While observing this now working through different files, I saw it a few times hit other 4GB files and seem to stutter on them repeatedly reading them at least once sometimes more, but then moving on.

It appears that it might be a edge event when  all 4 of the files it is processing are over 4GB the end result being a stuck here situation when it never leaves that spot.

I would again suggest the app OpenedFilesView http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/opened_files_view.html v1.86 x64 and target it to look at "dropbox" or files in your dropbox folder path, this will show you what files its processing at that time. Our Folder path ios F:\Dropbox by the way dont use that unless its yours also.

One thing to note, dropbox was designed to sync from the smallest to the largest files, so that it can have the largest number of files in sync as quick as possible, in the most cases it does this, however that means it needs to order all the files you have and that function seems to crash if you have to many files and at that time it then proceeds on with what ever the lists order is at the time, hence why it jumps up to 4GB+ files but then is doing 1GB+ files and is as i type doing some in the 100's of meg size, and some smaller but they are hard to spot as they dont always appear in the OpenedFileView as they take so little time to do they are gone before it refreshes. 

I will report again once it completes sync on what the result of reinsterting the BACKUPS folder is, this holds 55 files at 250GB ranging from <1mb to <16gb

(< 16gb as i had to split them to ensure OneDrive/SharePoint can also upload them)

I HOPE THIS INFO MAY HELP OTHERS WITH SYNING ISSUES.

Dave.

*1 if you have a free account and your stuck syning stop crying, simply uninstall the app and then reinstall. You dont have enough content for a real issue on syncing.

[AngstromZA]

So there are now at least 2 stealth updates since this thread was started.

FFS DropBox, how about some announcements?  You know we're all trying valiantly to work with your software and attempting to help with suggestions and advice.

I have a ticket logged but not once has anybody told me that there have been any silent updates.  This is appalling.

We *want* to use your software, that's why we're still here ... you're making it impossible.

Give us patch notes, please!?

[hoegge]

Also have problem here. This machine has been online uninterrupted on a 1GBit internet connectio, still, though, it says 65 files to sync, taking several days, suddenly says 45 files and 2 days and then changes back. What is going on? Dropbox is communicating over network at around 150 bps. There is no way to see what files are being synced and queued - and what direction. If the UI showed this, at least the user would be able to see if things seem to be right or not. Dropbox also restarted several times yesterday, doing 3 updates. So I removed it, cleared the cache and reinstalled. But is still syncing. Have checked for links and permission a month ago (running on Windows). Now it says 37 files +2 days - how is that possible? Something is clearly wrong with DropBox at the moment. In the past there were never such problems.

[Shawn599]

Ah, sweet relief.  Online file storage is working as it should now.  OneDrive is syncing like a Swiss watch and I canceled my Dropbox Plus account.  I have a big smile on my face.  

[Server_Align]

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@hoegge wrote:

... Now it says 37 files +2 days - how is that possible? ...

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It's say +2 days because its not getting anywhere with the syncing of these files.

If your down to 65 I would suggest this approach. (assuming windows but my understanding is mac has similar icons)

Open file explorer, enter the dropbox folder, look for the folder with the spinning icon of still syncing, and then enter that folder, and repeat until you find the files it is still syncing, and DOWNLOAD them if in ther cloud only and UPLOAD them if on the device only, and examine and make a choise if on both.

I just had a device that was stuck at 31 files and I found them all in one folder and a few subfolders, nothing looked special about the folder, I tried the making the cloud only then local again, no fix, so I just downloaded the folder then unpacked the zip over the local device copy, this synced to the cloud and the app dropped to "up to date" about 15 seconds later.

[marcoross83]

I removed boxifier and installed it again several times: dropbox is always stuck. I just opened a google drive account, and I'm going to close my dropbox plan soon, as I don't see any progress  in the solution of the problem. We gave you several weeks to fix, but we don't have an endless patience....