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Bert M.'s avatar
Bert M.
New member | Level 1
11 years ago
Solved

Desktop app is stuck 'Starting' when it loads up and doesn't sync

I am a paying customer and very frustrated with Dropbox. I am ready to drop DropBox and look for other alternatives. Since Friday of last week it has been trying to sync 100Gb in files and it is ta...
desktop
Mac
sync
  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    8 years ago
    Reading through this thread, everyone seems to be experiencing similar and yet slightly different issues, so I’ll go through the general troubleshooting steps to fix all of them. 
     
    Feel free to stop whenever your app begins to sync normally, not all steps are needed.
     
    Install the stable version:

    The first thing we need is to be sure you’re running the stable version of the Dropbox desktop application, and not the beta.
     
    To do so uncheck the box next to "Early releases" here. Then, do an advanced reinstall to ensure that all beta functions are removed fully. 
     
    Instead of the download link on that page, I recommend using the offline installers for this purpose:

     

    Confirm there are no symlinks

     
    Secondly, if your app is fine, but it’s still starting, then it could be stuck in a loop trying to parse your symlinks. 
     
    What are these? Long story short for those not in the know, these are files or folder that refer to another file or folder in your Dropbox account, or even outside the Dropbox folder.
     
    This can include, but is not limited to, iPhoto/Photos library on Mac, system folders such as Documents/Pictures/Music/Downloads, databases, programming code, and many more.
     
    Removing these symlinks is vital since they can cause these issues, high CPU usage, and permissions problems.
     
    Follow step 7 on this article in order to detect the symlinks in your computer and remove any from your Dropbox folder. Generally, moving the specific files or folders to another location should remove the links.
     
    Check your internet connection

    Hilariously, this is more common than you think. You have a stable WiFi/ethernet connection to the web, other sites work, and yet the app isn’t connecting.
     
    If multiple users are having this problem on the same network, there is a possibility that a proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router issues that could be restricting traffic to the Dropbox domains. 
     
    We can’t really narrow things down for you, since you need to check this out yourself as there are so many programs out there.
     
    We’ve had cases more often than not about built in security software on routers for home internet users, meant to protect users and children, but in doing so preventing the Dropbox desktop application from loading.
     
    Using a remote login

    Getting a black or white screen on the Dropbox app when you’re trying to sign in is a different issue.
     
    This usually occurs when using a remote login or even a virtual machine to another device. The graphics for remote logins are usually reduced in quality, and since the Dropbox desktop application connects to the Dropbox site to sign you in, it won’t render the login page in the app while on a remote login.
     
    Best thing to do would be to access the machine directly to login from there.
     
     
    ---
     
    Overall, there are many reasons for this cause, however hopefully this post should help in resolving most of the issues!
     
     

     

     

    [This thread is now closed. If you have a similar or new question, you can ask here.]

Walter's avatar
Walter
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
8 years ago

Hey there spike1968 - Happy Monday and apologies for any inconvenience this might have caused so far. 

From what I understand you're running our desktop app and you got stuck at "Starting" - correct?

The solution to this problem usually comes from the user's end as we don't have a way to tamper with your connection in this way whatsoever. Simply put, there's nothing to fix on our end as these problems are almost always caused by security settings or setup on the user's computer(s), symlinks within the Dropbox Folder or a corrupt installation of our software. 

For more clarity now, note that when you're having connection problems like this, they're usually caused by an antivirus or security program (or even Firewalls, proxy settings and VPNs) on your computer(s). Have you made sure that this is not what's causing this? 

In addition, symlinks were never supported and we always recommend removing them since they can be the cause of various syncing issues and discrepancies. 

Finally, another thing that comes to mind in this case, is the number of the files in your account. It could take a while to move from the "Starting" stage to the syncing one as the performance of the Dropbox application starts to decline after reaching about 300,000 files as mentioned in this Help Center article. You should be able to tackle this by utilizing our Selective sync feature. 

I hope this helps clear this up to some extent and let me know what you find.

PS: This also might be caused due to your particular setup and configuration so if you're still having this issue after going through this thread, I'd suggest that you logged a ticket with our support team and let them know about this.

mr c.1's avatar
mr c.1
Helpful | Level 7
6 years ago

I find it hard to accept that there is a file limit - i.e. that I need to start selectively syncing folders if I start to actually utilise my dropbox space.  It is strange that you are forcing users onto a 2TB plan, when your system obviously cannot  handle large file collections.

As with other users I completely fed up with this after many years; I actually changed my dropbox habits due to this -but now that you are forcing the new features and 2TB pricing tier onto me = I may as well leave. 

Dropbox has become a joke.  

 

This thread is closed due to inactivity. Please feel free to create a new topic here. 

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