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Wietse V.'s avatar
Wietse V.
Helpful | Level 5
8 years ago
Solved

Dropbox keeps (re)indexing and syncing after activating smart sync

I've recently activated the smart sync functionality for my teams account. When I did, Dropbox started indexing and syncing a huge number of files which made sense to me because it needed to download all shortcuts to online files (the ones y had previously saved online only using selective sync). However, after finishing the whole process (after a day or so of syncing), and restarted my laptop, Dropbox seems to have started the process all over again. And today again. When hovering over the dropbox icon in the taskbar, the pop up message mentions hundreds of thousands of files to be indexed and uploading/downloading tens of thousands of files too. These numbers go down slowly (syncing in progress) but then go up again as if the whole process starts all over. 

 

Is this a know issue? Normal behaviour? Any suggestions about what I could do to solve this?

 

I'm running Windows 7 and Dropbox v47.4.74

 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

  • Hi Minato, 

     

    Thanks for your reply. I decided to reinstall the Dropbox desktop application yesterday. After I did, I waited another couple of hours for a full sync, but once that was done the issue seems to have disappeared. The Dropbox app now reports that it's fully up to date and seems to stay that way (except for normal syncing behaviour when a file is changed).

     

    I propose I wait to see if the problem reoccurs, and if it does I will create a ticket at the support page as per your suggestion. 

     

    Kind regards, Wietse 

23 Replies

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  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    7 years ago

    Thanks for keeping me in the loop, glad to hear that it's resolved for one of your devices, MrV. :relieved:

    Also, thanks for taking the time to share what did the trick for you, DragonLover - awesome work! :slight_smile:

    maffye and Hitch, if you're still having trouble, could you send me a screenshot (without personal info) of what your Dropbox icon shows when you hover over it?

    Let me know of any updates, peeps!

  • sidejo's avatar
    sidejo
    New member | Level 2
    7 years ago

    I have the same issue since updating to Catalina. Shows syncing 320k, uploading 208k with no real changes on my end.

    I'm pretty sure I don't have that many files there in Selective Sync.Screen Shot 2019-12-03 at 4.35.39 PM.png

  • Lusil's avatar
    Lusil
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    7 years ago

    Hey sidejo, thanks for the screenshot! Definitely helps me understand what you're seeing. 

    In general, if you have a lot of files in your Dropbox folder, it's recommended that you selectively sync folders to help improve the performance of the desktop app

    Also, I can see from your screenshot that you have the beta version (xx.3.xx) installed. Could you try installing the stable version (xx.4.xx), to see if that helps, by:

    1. Going to your General tab
    2. Unchecking the option to Include me in early releases.
    3. Downloading and installing the latest version.

    Let me know how it goes!

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