The Dropbox desktop app is slow when navigating my Dropbox folder or viewing files on Windows 11

Hey there radicaledward - thanks for bringing this to our attention and I appreciate all the details you've shared with us.

Since you've already done some troubleshooting, could you try an advanced reinstall and let me know how it goes?

Otherwise, you could also try creating a new OS profile on your computer and trying to install and run the Dropbox desktop app there to see if you get the same behavior.

In any case, please keep us posted!

I tried the advanced reinstall, did not help. It's 1am so I might try doing the other profile tomorrow when i get a chance. Is there no logging for dropbox for errors?

We'd need to revert to email for that radicaledward 

Let me know how it goes on a new OS profile when you get the chance.

PS: If you have any 3rd party apps running on your computer that might be monitoring, syncing or backing up your files, you may want to try shutting them down temporarily too. 

Ok, so I gave it a shot and it definitely works properly in the new profile. I don't have anything syncing or backing up files though. The only things I have running in the background are:

1. Malwarebytes v5.3.5.204
   2. NVIDIA App v11.0.4.526
   3. CyberPower PowerPanel Personal v2.6.1
   4. PowerToys v0.92.1
   5. Bluetooth Devices
   6. Windows Security
   7. Canon MF Network Scan Utility v1.03
   8. Macrium Reflect UI Watcher
   9. Dropbox v229.4.5197
   10. FortiClient VPN v7.4.3.1790

Nothing I can think of that would interfere with Dropbox, or am i wrong?

Thanks for the update, radicaledward, I'm glad to see it works on your new user profile.

To find out what could be causing this, can you turn off any third party apps, like Walter recommended (including your security apps, antivirus etc.) to see if that makes any difference?

I tried, no dice. I disabled Malwarebytes, CyberPower, PowerToys, Canon, and FortiClient. I saw ExpressVPN had some services running in the background too so i uninstalled that. Not sure what else could be interfering. But even so, if i create a new profile those should be running by default in the background too.

Did you see any difference after temporarily disabling, quitting or uninstalling those 3rd party apps on your original OS profile radicaledward?

I'm having the same issue which seems to be 100% related to the move to the new version linked to the new Windows Cloud Based API as per drobox article here.... "https://help.dropbox.com/installs/dropbox-for-windows" which is dated 23 July 25 which seems to coincide with my issues.... 

I no longer have any options to select that a folder is fully "offline" and it seems that every time you open a folder it goes to the Cloud to get the next levels rather than just taking what is local.   This change to cloud syncing every time makes things incredibly slow especially when you have many folder trees with many depths as we do...

Please help as it is now painfully slow and is taking over 5 minutes to go down 4 levels of folders if clicking on the folders within the file view pane.

Interestingly, if I just expanded the folder lists on the left and go into each level from there then it as reacting as normal, meaning that this is a workaround but a definite negative change of behavior.

System details are

Processor          12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1260P (2.10 GHz)

Installed RAM   16.0 GB (15.6 GB usable)

System type      64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Edition Windows 11 Pro

Version 24H2

Installed on       ‎22/‎11/‎2024

OS build              26100.4770

Experience        Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.197.0

Dropbox App     230.3.8648

Thanks

Mark

Hey MarkDawes - thanks for your detailed report. 

I noticed that you're using a beta version of the Dropbox desktop app on your computer. Could you try the latest stable one from this page directly and let us know if the issue persists? 

Just make sure to toggle off the 'early releases' from your account settings first. 

OK, I'll try that but I did remove the desktop app this week and then downloaded a new one from Dropbox.com and this is the default version provided as standard.  Wasn't aware that we were on any beta programs.

Anyway will load the stable version and let you know that results.