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Dropbox has always worked well for me -- until I updated my (very new) iMac to macOS "Big Sur" (11.1) about a month ago.
The issue in a nutshell is that Dropbox will upload changed files for a little bit after starting, then stall entirely, or slow to a creep. It's a little tricky to characterize, because it's not consistent. A few times I quit Dropbix and restarted it and (judging from the "Recent" activity listing in the menubar dropdown) a few files would quickly upload, but then would stall and nothing else would upload, or a few items at random. The little wheel at the bottom of that dropdpwn is turning and says "Syncing XXX files", but nothing seems to happen, and the number of files just keeps going up ... and down ... and up ... it's very difficult to tell what's actually happening or what Dropbx is doing because there doesn't appear to be a sync log I can access. I've tried quitting and deleting the Dropbox app and re-installing. A couple of times when I've done that there would be a burst of upload activity, but then it would stall again, but I can't even get that to happen consistently. Of course Iv'e tried the usual things like restarting and so forth.
Another reason it's difficult to in down is that the behavior is so erratic. In one instance a file I put in a particualr Dropbox folder uploaded right away. But in that same folder are things I added WEEKS ago now that have yet to sync. If there's a pattern or characteristic common to things that are not uploading, or when or why Dropbox stalls, or how to kick-start those bursts of uploadeds, I can't identify it. (No clues in "View sync issues". Just a few Outlook emoji that won't upload because they have an emoji in the file name.)
I'm feeling stytmied. Suggestions as to things to try welcome, or tools to help figure out what Dropbox is doing or trying to do to help narrow down the issue. (I have about 1.6 TB worth of stuff in Dropbox, though, so solutions that involve re-uploading everything from scratch will not be particularly welcome.)
I've Googled around and not been able to identify others with similar issues.
Thanks.
NOT WORKING WITH ME. I CANNOT USE LINKS AND CANNOT SEE FILE PREVIEW AND/OR LOCAL FILES. I THINK I WILL UNISTALL . IMPOSSIBE TO DO USE IT FOR BUSINES. LOSS OF TIME AND MONESY. THIS IS INSANE
So I worked out there is and issue with Big Sur if you use RJ45 and not wi-fi. By using just Wif-Fi on a mac with Big Sur OS. Drop box works real fast.
ArielCT
Nope, not fixed @Emma . I've updated Dropbox on all of the machines on which I have it installed, and these options do not appear in the Accounts tab of preferences when I hold any combinaiton of modifier keys.
Nope, I'm afraid the stalling behavior has not changed, @Emma . You sure had my hopes up! I downloaded and re-installed Dropbox yesterday evening, then restarted my computer, but Dropbox still stalls after an initial bit of activity. The installer on your website installs Dropbox 114.4.426. There's no detectable improvement.
This situation has forced me to conclude that I can't count on Dropbox for reliable backup.
Daphne
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support
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Ok, time to summarize the situation. (Punchline: problem seems to be fixed! Here's how.)
Side issue: the steps to fix permissions now work with an update to the Dropbox app itself. (Namely, open Dropbox preferences, go to the Account tab, and hold the option key (on a Mac) to see the options to Fix Permissions or Fix Hardlinks. Be aware that when you click those buttons there's no visual feedback anything's happening, but if you wait a while you should get a message the operation has been successful (or presumably not, if not). That did not, however, fix my particular problem of Dropbox sync stalling after just a few files every time it restarted. But at least the option is now available on Big Sur if needed in the future.)
After being bumped to a couple of higher levels of support... [One of the lower levels, I kid you not, tried to argue that the issue I was having was because Dropbox was bad at what it does, and it was unreasonable of me to expect Dropbox to backup a lot of stuff. In spite of the fact that Dropbox tries to upsell me to a larger Dropbox every time I login. But anyway...] ... support suggested unlinking Dropbox online from the machine exhibiting the problem and then re-linking it. This worked! And it did not require re-uploading all of my stuff (somewhat less than 2TB), or an unreasonable amount of time, both of which I had feared. But since the only alternative was switching to another backup solution (my planned next step), I was willing to give it a try.
Here are the steps I took:
1) Login to Dropbox.com
2) Click on my avatar [top right] and choose Settings
3) Select the Security tab and scroll down to Devices
4) Find the device exhibiting the problem and click the trash bin icon to the far right. [Note: this was a bit scary -- I was concerned Dropbox might do something nutty like remove files on my home device. I proceeded after reading the information under "Learn more", which promises it won't do that. Still, if you're smart you'll have a complete backup before proceeding.]
5) Click "Unlink" in the resulting dialogue. [Do NOT tick the scary checkbox.]
6) Wait a few minutes while Dropbox on the affected machine spins around in confusion.
7) When a dialogue pops up asking to re-enter your account information on the affected machine, do so.
At that point Dropbox on the affected machine began furiously re-indexing my Dropbox (/not/ re-uploading everything, which I had been fearful of), and within an hour or two had completed re-indexing everything in my Dropbox, synced all the stuff that hadn't synced over the last couple of months (with the expected assortment of "conflicted copies" of some things, so be sure to check carefully which is the one you want to keep -- in my case, it was always the "conflicted copies"), and for the first time in months finally reported itself as "Up to date". It's been a few days and Dropbox has been humming along happily ever since, syncing my stuff more or less instantaneously as it always had up to the point this problem began (when I updated the machine in question to Big Sur).
So I'm going to report this as "solved" for now! Thank you for everyone's assistance. Even the nice person who said Dropbox was bad at what it does 😉
[If they want to be taken seriously -- and to keep taking people's money to provide, you know, a file backup and sync solution -- they really should stop saying that.]
I'm sorry to hear that. How long ago did you unlink it?
I'm not sure what you mean by uninstalled, because you said it was still indexing? So I'm confused by that part. After you unlinked, did Dropbox ask you to re-input you account details?
After I did that, Dropbox began re-indexing everything in my Dropbox folder. That's about 1.7TB worth of stuff, so that took a few hours, but as it worked through that process it synced everything that hadn't already, and after a few hours everything was (finally) up to date.
If Dropbox is re-indexing your stuff, perhaps you just have to wait like I did? If not that, it is of course possible that your problem is different from whatever mine was.
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