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Dropbox is stuck at indexing ever since I installed the app on my new MacBook Pro.
I got a new MacBook Pro and installed Dropbox. It worked for a while but suddenly stopped working without me realizing. It seems to be stuck at "Indexing...". Now I have many files locally on the com...
Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorThanks for the additional information Dan68
If the app is still stuck at 'indexing' your files, could you try fixing your hardlinks and permissions and let us know how it goes?
If it gets stuck at the same message again, please send us a screenshot so that we can have a visual too.
Thanks for the suggestions Walter . However, "Fix hardlinks" had no effect and for "Fix permissions" I got a message that Dropbox could not fix permissions.
A screenshot of what exactly? The text in the Dropbox menu saying "Indexing..."?
I still hope someone can help me figure out how to get my Dropbox working again.
I just did a test by creating a new user account on the Mac and installing Dropbox there. Everything seems to be fine. Except, of course, for the not yet synced files from my other account missing....
Daniel
Hi again,
I don't know how to add a screenshot to a reply. I tried the "Insert/edit image" button but I cannot choose any image from my computer there. Maybe you can give me further instructions?
But I guess I can also just post the version and folder location:
macOS version: Sonoma 14.5
Dropbox folder location: /Users/XYZ/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox
(Where "XYZ" stands for the user name.)
Daniel
- Nancy
Thanks Daniel! Appreciate it. What I’d suggest, as the next step, is to unlink - relink your Dropbox app (basically, log out and back in again).
However, before doing so, please make a copy outside of Dropbox of any files that haven’t synced to your account online in the meantime.
Thanks, Nancy!
A problem with the suggestion is that copying the content of the Dropbox fails due to "permissions". It took a while until I realized that my files where not syncing to the cloud properly. By now I have many files all over my Dropbox folder that are not synced yet. So, I don't know how to accomplish the backup copy...
Thank you for your reply Walter . I still don't know how to upload a screenshot here but I can send the text:
"Åtgärden kan inte fullföljas eftersom ett oväntat fel inträffade (felkod -8062)."
which translates to
"The operation cannot be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8062)."
Daniel
- Nancy
Hey Daniel! It’s a bit odd that moving the files works, while copying doesn’t, since you’re basically moving the original file to another location rather than creating a new copy there.
If you were able to move all the files you wanted successfully, I’d still suggest continuing with the unlink - relink as the next step.
Thanks, Nancy!
So far I have only tried to move an unimportant folders that failed to copy.
About the unlink - relink step, I would like to see a bit better how the procedure will work.
So, I move all my files from the Dropbox folder on my Mac to a new location. That will empty my local Dropbox. Then I do the unlink - relink. Now, what will happen next? The files that are currently in the Dropbox cloud will hopefully be unaffected and will start syncing to my computer, right? But what then? I need the files that I created recently in my local Dropbox in the cloud. But how can I do so without changing any of the other files? For example, I have many shared folders where people have changed files. Since these were not synced, my local files will be outdated. So, I cannot just overwrite them with my local files. So, how can I proceed in order to only get the files I newly created/updated to the cloud?
Daniel
- Hannah
Hi again, Dan!
The shared files didn't sync to your computer, right?
Did they sync to your actual account, though? Can you see the updated files on dropbox.com?
- Hannah
Thanks for the update, Dan.
So, if you unlink your computer, then completely delete your Dropbox folder and then relink, the app will sync to the computer whatever is currently saved in your account on dropbox.com.
You can then manually add the updated files to your Dropbox folder, so they can sync to your account online.
Otherwise, you can update the files now, manually, directly from dropbox.com, to make sure your updates are saved there and then move forward with the unlink-relink process.
I hope that makes sense, but do let me know if you still have questions; I understand this can be pretty complicated.
- Hannah,
Just to be sure whether we think of the same thing when it comes to being complicated. My worry is that it will be pretty hard to find out which files are new or updated or not. I took it that one of dropbox's features is that it takes care of this. But the idea is that I manually look at all my files (which are a lot) and try to find out which needs to be added manually to Dropbox and which not? - Hannah
That's basically right, Dan.
Since there's a syncing issue and your updates never synced to the account, you need to either update the files manually through the web, or make a copy of the files to a different location, so you can sync them later, once the issue has been fixed, which is what was initially suggested.
The idea is to make sure that no files are lost during this troubleshooting process.
- Hannah
There's no specific reason why syncing issues occur, to be honest.
It could be a temporary connection issue, and because of that, the app may not update, etc.
If you come across syncing issues in the future, you can always take a look at this article with some fixes.
One more question before I go down this route. Maybe I should first unlink (but not re-link) before emptying the Dropbox folder? I am just worried that when I move the files Dropbox will start working again and think that all files should be removed from the cloud. Or is that no issue?
ps. And one more thing: Should I maybe try to copy the files back into the Dropbox before re-linking? Maybe the moving will fix problems with the syncing so that my files will then be checked correctly against the cloud files? Or is there too much of a risk of losing files that way?
Daniel
- Walter
You should first un-link your account and then delete your Dropbox folder before re-linking it, Daniel.
As for your second concern, you could give it a go with a copy of the files just to be safe. If you end with missing files from Dropbox somehow though, you'll be able to restore them from your deleted files page or the events page.
Keep us posted!
Okay, now I found the time to get started. I did a backup, unlined and re-installed Dropbox. But now I am facing the next problem. During the install it asked me whether I want all files offline available and I affirmed. But when I switched to file-provider as the app suggested, many folders became offline-only. I next tried to choose the "Make available offline" menu entry from the context-menu the Dropbox sidebar icon in the finder. Dropbox started syncing again and green circles with a check-mark appeared next to all folders and icons (independently of whether they were actually available offline or online-only. Though I did not recognise a change in the cloud-icon with arrow down in Finder that seems to indicate that files are available online-only. The physical size of the Dropbox folder started to increase. But now it stopped half way through the total size and does not do anything further. This is all quite confusing. How do I get Dropbox to make all files available offline?
Thanks for your help!
