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pdiseris's avatar
pdiseris
New member | Level 2
6 years ago
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:

    1. Click the Dropbox icon in your menu bar/system tray.
    2. Click the profile pic/initials icon in the top right of the window.
    3. Choose "Preferences..."
    4. Go to the "Account" tab.
    5. While holding the Option/Alt key (Mac) or the Space bar Alt+H keys (Windows), click "Fix Hardlinks".
    6. 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.

48 Replies

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  • tai11354's avatar
    tai11354
    Explorer | Level 3
    6 years ago

    Hi Walter,

     

    It is always in this state. Even though I have added and deleted files from the website, none of the changes are synced to the PC. Could there be a lock file that needs to be removed? I also reinstalled the app, but it is still like this.

    Dropbox always showing "Syncing..." but never syncing any changes.

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

    Thanks for the quick update on this one tai11354

     

    If this still persists after reinstalling the app, may I have you try unlinking your account from the app's preferences (under the Account tab) and re-link it to see if it improves matters at all?

     

    Keep me posted! 

  • tai11354's avatar
    tai11354
    Explorer | Level 3
    6 years ago

    I've tried that before and now again after reinstalling, but it's still not syncing.

  • Muzza's avatar
    Muzza
    Explorer | Level 4
    6 years ago

    Hi Walter,

     
    It's still not working. It gets caught on specific files. Currently it is "BuildVersionHistory.plist", but I have many files of that generic name associated with Pages. 
    I daren't delete them all!!
     
    Thanks

     

     
    Murray
  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    6 years ago

    Thanks for the update on this Murray.

     

    Can you clarify if you've already used the hardlinks and/or the permissions fix as mentioned in this discussion?

     

    If you did and still get stuck at syncing, please send me the status of the app as shown within your system tray/menu bar so I can have a visual too.

     

    Thanks! 

  • tai11354's avatar
    tai11354
    Explorer | Level 3
    6 years ago

    I've whitelisted Dropbox in the antivirus apps (and even turned them off), but Dropbox still does not sync.

     

  • Sonnelein's avatar
    Sonnelein
    Explorer | Level 3
    6 years ago

    I had the same issue, even after reinstalling the app as per request (all 6TB). It didn't work. 
    Later I found that the issue was caused by just a few files. Some of them had characters that weren't admitted as namefiles by Win (but were created by a Mac user). So I identified all of them, and simply changed their names. Problem solved!  Hope it works

     

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