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Forum Discussion
Dropbox sync stalling on Big Sur
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 li...
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.]
Hi Lori, these generic/generalized suggestions/fixes (the same ones I was given in the support email trail) did not lead me to the answer and yes I tried different WiFi networks and including a Personal Hotspot with no change. However, I found an article elsewhere that mentioned that in Big Sur, under System Preferences --> Network --> WiFi --> Advanced ---> Proxies ... that if you uncheck the box labeled Web Proxy (HTTP) and the box labeled Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS) that it sometimes fixes the problem. For whatever reason, the first time I did this there was no change. I was ready to give up but tried a second time and when I did and tried to reopen the newly installed Dropbox App, it then completed installation and synced properly. It is possible, for others reading this, that my Dashlane App may have used the VPN once (I don't recall using it) but that is only thing that I can think of that would have checked those Proxies boxes outside of my control. I think I've used VPN on my Mac Desktop and that has never impacted Dropbox, but that is running Catalina due to its age. I hope this helps others and I would suggest Dropbox Support send a notice out to all techs. I spent hours trying to figure this out and it seems it could have been a quicker response/fix if this was better known. Thanks.
OK, so I have been fixing computers for decades and I will tell you that it is super important to be HYPER aggressive about stubborn problems on a macOS. It is ALWAYS good to have a great external drive backing up your stuff, but I digress.
You always need to weigh out time lost vs aggressive actions. Wiping the entire OS and reinstalling the app, creating a user account, and then just wiping and reinstalling the entire OS and placing applications and folders back on the machine is way faster than working with support to diagnose an unusual problem. These are hyper aggressive actions, but the last I mention will resolve the issue for SURE if the first two options don't work. And for me this always happens usually on a deadline when I don't have time to fix things. But I force the repair this way to get beyond the BS as quickly as possible. I prefer a known quantity instead of an unknown quantity. I used to toy with the idea of switching to SugarSync for an option over Box, but really I just stick with Dropbox.
I am sitting in front of five machines as you read this. :-)))
I had this corruption happen of not synching and my Internet simply stopped working. When my Internet was repaired, dropbox was getting stuck synching, even after I 'fixed permissions' and 'reset links'. It was stuck on 19,900 files down to 18,700.. then back up again to 19,490 and back down. When it comes down to it, it is easier for me to just remove and then reinstall the app cleanly. The next step would be to dump the entire user account on the computer so I have a fresh user account, after removing dropbox from the machine. But I never went that far with this issue.
Internet issue: This problem hit me when my VPN protected app I use to scrape video was no longer turning off its proxies when the program was closed. So the first step was for me to get the Internet connected again. I had to do this by closing all the open apps (as indicated by the black dot below the Dock program icons), except finder. This allows the machine to recapture RAM and CPU power, that otherwise are CONSTANTLY leaking resources in both OSX and macOS. It is ALWAYS good practice to choose the upper left menu option for each and every program and QUIT the program. Firefox --> Quit. Mail--> Quit. Google Chrome --> Quit.
Then I headed over to System Preferences -_> Network, and selected each connection type I use - here it was Ethernet via Firewire. I choose advanced and then make sure under Proxies, there are NO check marks.
Once I was back on the Internet, I then grabbed the latest copy of AppCleaner, at freemacsoft [dot] net that will act kinda like those utilities that seek out all the dependencies in the program throughout the machine for any program you delete and delete the excess program files. Then I go into the dropbox preferences and Unlink the computer from the Dropbox mothership.
Next I begin removing the Dropbox files.
YOU HAVE to TURN OFF THE PROGRAM ENTIRELY before dragging your dropbox.app into the AppCleaner window, to allow AppCleaner to take it away from macOS. (Also if you have never done this before you MAY get a popup option that allows you to control program deletion protection, with a middle option presenting a slider switch that needs to be turned on, to turn off the protection - yes, double negative)
Once the program has been deleted entirely I will remove the files from the machine, I have a backup on an external drive anyway, but then I choose to reinstall the dropbox.app, and adjust the system gatekeeper permissions again. Also in this process, I tell the dropbox program to download them to NOT leave them in the cloud online only, but instead Local, then choose ADVANCED in the dropbox installer, and select the check box to "Start Online" This makes it go really quickly for 2TB of stuff.
Once that is complete, I choose the folders one by one, those I truly need, by RIGHT clicking them and choosing the Dropbox extension re: Selective Sync to Local those folders I really need. The rest I leave on cloud until I need them.
Hope this helps someone.
Dropbox can be awesome, but support is somewhat lacking due to training. Always remember that hyper aggressive actions are way quicker than slow support.
