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Dropbox keeps trying to download and sync files set to online only
I had this same issue with a particular folder when I first set up my new Windows 10 laptop, but closing and restarting Dropbox seemed to fix it. (Derp.) Today it randomly started trying to downl...
Well, I thought deselecting the folders in question for indexing had solved the problem since it hasn't recurred since then, plus the endless indexing stopped (indicating a potential conflict between Windows indexing and Dropbox online-only files)...but today, the three zipped files have randomly started trying to download again. :/ I marked them as online only yet again, closed and restarted Dropbox, and after a few minutes it AGAIN tried downloading one and I again had to change it to online only. Something keeps changing the setting, but I don't know what.
Rich "File backups, antivirus/malware scans, browsing a folder in applications with file previews enabled, etc. ANY process that touches a file can cause it."
I checked to see if Windows was again indexing at the time this happened; it didn't seem to be. (For the record, there's no option for me to deselect these particular items for indexing, since they aren't in a folder, but I experienced the same issue previously with items that ARE in a folder, and I excluded that folder from indexing. That folder hasn't tried downloading anything today--yet. I'm wondering if I should try putting these zipped files in an excluded folder, though I don't want it to try downloading them again.)
I wasn't backing up any files, just doing some unrelated things on a website. There was no antivirus scan going on (plus I've never experienced this issue while doing a virus scan), and I wasn't viewing or browsing the files, not even previews or file properties. I didn't even have File Explorer open; Dropbox was running, but I didn't have its folder or app open, either. There's absolutely nothing I'm aware of that could have been trying to access the files, unless Windows was randomly trying to index them, which didn't seem to be the case.
(For the record, the notification I keep getting when this happens is some variant of "Dropbox downloaded this file" or "Dropbox failed to download this file," something like that, with the file name. I think it sometimes also says it's trying to sync those files. I don't know if the "failed" notification is because it's actually failing to download or because I keep switching it back to online only while it's attempting to download.)
I have no idea what could be causing this. :/
Happens to me too! I first complained about this like last year or the year before. Dropbox officers twice responded to me with a similar message as the one given here - that I must have some programme running which would access that folder, so DB automatically switched it back to local. But really, I don't have anything to do with that particular folder, and yet it started downloading / syncing! Unless it's the Trend Micro antivirus programme - does it trigger folders?
- Megan
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi valtham, how are you today?
Yes, it could be the antivirus program. Many processes on your machine look at files that you may have not manually opened, and in order to fulfill these requests Dropbox syncs the files locally.
I'd suggest you to test that, by temporarily quitting or disabling applications systematically, and in your case feel free to start with your antivirus, until you see that the issue is resolved. The last application that you closed when the issue no longer occurred, may be the one performing this action.
I hope this clarifies!
Hi valtham and Rachel L.
I too have experienced the same frustrating autodownloading of online only smartsynced files to my local hard drive.
I also discovered that the autodownloading was occurring at a regular day and time of the week, althought the time seemed to shift by about half an hour each week. I run a desktop PC and a laptop on Windows 10 and both were experiencing the same autodownload but at different days and times of the week.
After I noticed the pattern of the day/time that the autodownloading was being triggered I started setting calendar reminders to confirm the occurrence. Knowing approximately when it was going to occur allowed me to start and run Process Monitor and collect a log of what was happening on my systems at that time. The logs from Process Monitor (ProcMon) are extensive and build to a large (gigabyte) filesize quite quickly so its not really practical to have it running in continuously in the background, but it is possible.
Another observation I had made with regards to the DropBox autodownload from smartsync was that the download appeared to always start with the top file in my folder structure. My DropBox folder naming conventions all start with a 3 digit numeric followed by a folder name in characters. For example: 000_ImagesSo, once I had the ProcMon logs, that covered the period of time when the autodownload was triggered, i was able to filter the log for which processes were accessing the filepath for the top file in my folder heirachy.
Following this approach on both my PC and laptop I was able to identify a process file called Inspect.exe was the being activated immediately before the Dropbox.exe was actiated to download the file. Inspect.exe is a Trend Micro (antivirus) process.
Uninstalling Trend Micro does appear to stop the autodownloading of smartsync.
I contacted Trend Micro about this issue over a period of a couple of months. At first they denied that inspect.exe was their process and then they didn't undertand how the online only function of DropBoc SmartSync worked with an 'image' of the local file. However, after many emails and sharing logs they acknowledged the problem and offered to make some file registry changes to see if that stopped it from happening. I wasn't too keen on someone poking around in my file registry and didn't want to rely on this in the future if I was to change devices so I didn't proceed with it.
You might be surpirsed to hear that I actually 'learned' to live with the problem for the past year or more. I got into the habit of always loggng out of DropBox when I left my PC or laptop on and unattended for any extended period of time and on the occassions when the autodownload was triggered again I usually lucky enough to see it happening and reset all the folders to online only and restart DropBox. This was still annoying and I never intended to persist with tolerating the problem. I had always intended on changing to another Anti-Virus software but never got around to it.
However, last weekend I forgotto log out of DropBox and sure enough when I returned to my PC on Monday monring the harddrive was full and all my DropBox folders set to local.
Hence, my motivation to check some blogs to see if anyone alse had experienced anything similar, which brings me here.
Even though I have been a long term user of DropBox I was frustrated by the lack of proactive advice from the techs. Yes, they said it could be my Antivirus but without any further guidance I didn't know and still don't if changing to another Anti Virus software will not incur the same triggering of the DropBox SmartSync function. I would have preferred the DropBox techs to say "Trend Micro will trigger files to be synced to your local drive if you are using the online only SmartSync setting. I was actually more inclined to change my cloud storage from DropBox to say OneDrive or GoogleDrive than I was my Anti Virus because I did not feel genuinely supported by DropBox when trying to resolve this issue.
I hope my response is of some help/comfort to you.
Oh thank you! Yes, that is such a comfort to hear exactly the same issue!
And you clearly are a techy person, so you know what you're talking about. I am so glad you tried all that techy stuff (haha) to find out the problem.
Trend Micro! Yes! I'm a Trend Micro user! So Trend Micro is at least one antivirus program that is a problem.
I was so disappointed you didn't follow up with TM. Then hopefully TM would do something, and the rest of us non-techy people could breathe a sigh of relief.
And yes, as you said, I have learned over the years to "live with this issue". I replied to rachel above that I just "Online only" my WHOLE Dropbox folder whenever the downloading issue starts up again.
And I've just replied to a Dropboxer in an earlier post, (who told me to check my antivirus), that "so what if it is my antivirus? What is the solution? Does Dropbox have a solution? Because surely I can't be expected to deactivate my antivirus all the time when using Dropbox?"
I hope techy people will find a solution for this. I'm just helpless.
And yes, I have considered switching to One Note several times (after all, I get 1TB free with Microsoft 365!) But I haven't mastered One Note yet, hence I haven't abandoned Dropbox. Sigh.
Yes, but I'm a bit frustrated with that solution / answer.
So if it's the antivirus (I say "IF" because I haven't tried it yet - honestly - it's been going on for years I've just resigned myself to non-stop frustration)... so if it's the antivirus, what is Dropbox's solution to that? Surely we can't deactivate our antivirus program? Is there a solution?
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