View dropbox sync activity

[Noah C.2]

How do I see what files dropbox is attempting to sync? 

Dropbox is consistently the highest CPU consuming app on my mac and I'd like to look at if there are files failing, file permission issues, syncing of any files regularly bc of apps touching them, etc.  How many files are getting sync over a period of time, the size of the files, etc.  Is there like a file activity log that can be viewed? ... when viewing the "Recents" on dropbox.com it only shows me successful updates (and it's not real-time), not all the micro syncs that are happening in the background.  thanks -Noah

[Noah C.2]

Hello, I see there are dropbox log files stored at ~/.dropbox/logs ... but appear in binary format.  How does one decode the logs?  I'd like to see what files the dropbox client has been syncing.

[Hannah]

Hi @Noah C.2, thanks for reaching out!

You can always check the syncing status of the Dropbox application by hovering your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar. 

Also, you can check your Sync queue, for some more info.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

[Walter]

And when it comes to those log files, I'm afraid those files aren't viewable from your end @Noah C.2. They're needed by our Support team only on some exceptional cases for troubleshooting purposes. 

When it comes to your concern, apart from my colleague @Hannah mentioned, have you tried looking at your Dropbox folder when the syncing process takes place? 

In that case, you'd be able to tell which files are fully synced or still syncing by their syncing icons. 

I hope this helps and please let us know if you have any other questions.

[Noah C.2]

Thank you both!  The sync history helps.  I have ~50,000 files in my dropbox under 1000s of folders, so the only way to see what's happening is looking at some kind of sync log, and the "History" section under the "Sync Queue" worked for that.  So what I'm finding is DropBox hasn't sync'd a file in days, but it's still the largest power consumer on my mac by over 4x the next runner up, Google Chrome, which I am using all-day long.  Why is this?  Why is Dropbox using so much power? @Walter @Hannah. Is there any way to diagnose or reduce the power consumption?

[Walter]

Glad we could help with that @Noah C.2.

Regarding your concern, you can start with this Help Center article.

Let us know of any updates!

[Noah C.2]

@Walter, thank you but I’ve been through that article and none of those factors appear to apply. Is there a way to check w Dropbox itself what it’s activity is related to?

1. I have 1/6th the number of files it says where’d you’d notice performance degradation. (I monitor my file counts in Dropbox)
2. My data is in Dropbox and symlinks are only on the outside pointing in.
3. I can see from my “recently synced” list that it’s been days since a file has been uploaded, but that entire time Dropbox is still using several times more energy than anything else (that I actually am using). (addresses permissions, other apps touching files, etc)

Aka Dropbox is not syncing files, at least that I can see, so why is it still using so much energy?

[Noah C.2]

Well surprisingly over the last 48 hrs the power consumption has dropped to 'normal' background app levels and is at ~1/10th of what it has been.  Thankfully.  But why?  How does someone diagnose why that is?

[Walter]

Glad to hear that @Noah C.2. 

As to what might have happened to cause this, I'd hate to speculate as it can be caused by several factors, not necessarily associated with Dropbox. 

Would it be OK if I reached out via email to have a further look into this with account and device specific information?

[Noah C.2]

Yes please do @Walter! Happy to provide logs or whatever else I can.