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Solved
Dropbox stopped syncing since update
Ever since Dropbox released their new update, my files have been stuck on the same few hundred files and haven't been able to sync or save anything new in over 4 months. All the while they keep charging me my monthly fee. I've reached out to support several times and none of the solutions have helped. I've unlinked and relinked my account, have used their terminal commands, which also didn't. They have literally broken the product with this update without being able to offer me any solutions.
I'm using an external drive for my dropbox folder, it's not a network drive. It has worked flawlessly via this setup for over 10 years. Now with all these new updates etc, Dropbox no longer works as it did. it's a real shame and a huge inconvenience for my productivity. I'm sure others feel the same.
Hey pdiseris, I hope you're well today!
The first thing I would suggest to check would be to correct the hardlinks and permissions within the Dropbox folder. You can do this with the below steps:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar/system tray.
- Click the profile pic/initials icon in the top right of the window.
- Choose "Preferences..."
- Go to the "Account" tab.
- While holding the Option/Alt key (Mac) or the
Space barAlt+H keys (Windows), click "Fix Hardlinks". - You might be prompted to enter your computer's username and password (not Dropbox's).
The app might need to sync for a while after doing this, so please just keep an eye out for any progress.
Let me know how it goes!
EDIT: Just updated the steps to reflect the new changes.
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- Daphne
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey pdiseris, I hope you're well today!
The first thing I would suggest to check would be to correct the hardlinks and permissions within the Dropbox folder. You can do this with the below steps:
- Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar/system tray.
- Click the profile pic/initials icon in the top right of the window.
- Choose "Preferences..."
- Go to the "Account" tab.
- While holding the Option/Alt key (Mac) or the
Space barAlt+H keys (Windows), click "Fix Hardlinks". - You might be prompted to enter your computer's username and password (not Dropbox's).
The app might need to sync for a while after doing this, so please just keep an eye out for any progress.
Let me know how it goes!
EDIT: Just updated the steps to reflect the new changes.
When I press the `Fix Hardlinks' button, nothing happens.
As it happens, after 30mins, I received a notification that the hard links were repaired. i've restarted Dropbox and will see now if the syncing will progress as it should. I'll leave it running all day and check back to see if my local changes upload to the Dropbox server. I have thousands of unsynced new files that need to upload.
- Daphne
Hey pdiseris, I'm very glad to hear that!
It can indeed take a little time for fixing the hardlinks and permissions to take effect, especially if you have a lot of files in your Dropbox folder.
I've made sure to pass this along to your open ticket with our Support team too, just to keep them in the loop.
Keep me posted on the progress, I'm looking forward to hearing back from you.
Cheers!
Hi Daphne, this seems to have solved my problem as far as I can tell. Uploads are progressing. I'll keep you posted.
Hi Daphe, it ended up resolving with your suggestions and my Dropbox is all up to date for the first time in 4 months. Thank you for your simple solution. I was in conversations with specialist help from Dropbox who were suggesting more complex suggestions such as terminal commands, which didn't work, so again, thank you.
Hi Daphne,
I found your reply on this one but the 'fix hardlinks' approach did not fix my same problem. None of the files I have changed on my windows 10 PC since Jan 1 have synced with dropbox version 87.4.172. Dropbox says sync in progress but nothing moves. Any ideas please? Thanks, Steve
P.S. I am a Plus subscriber.
- Daphne
Hey stevejhastings, thanks for joining us here!
Would you mind trying the steps again, but instead of clicking "Fix hardlinks" can you try the "Fix permissions" option?
There will be a short period after where you might see some small fluctuations in the sync status while this change is applied, so please allow a short time frame to see if there is any progress.
Let me know how it goes and we'll take it from there!
