Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

Minion1212's avatar
Minion1212
Explorer | Level 3
5 years ago

Dropbox using too much RAM memory - macOS Monterey

I use Dropbox in OS Monterey. I am not a heavy user in terms of number of files and usage complexity. I just use to sync files. My DB account has 3.8 Gb in files. Despite this simple usage, DB app i...
desktop
Mac
sync
Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago

Hi Miklos P.1, do you have any files or backups currently syncing on your device in the Dropbox app?

 

How many files do you have on your account approximately?

cjbruce3's avatar
cjbruce3
Explorer | Level 4
3 years ago

I am seeing similar problems on MacOS Big Sur.  Dropbox ram usage will grow and grow, consuming all available ram until the computer crashes.

 

I have an older MacBook air with 8 GB of ram.  My computer had slown to a standstill over the past few days.  Activity monitor reported that Dropbox was taking 5.61 GB out of 8 GB.  Restarting the computer reduced ram usage down to 2.4 GB, which gradually started creeping up again at a few MB per minute.

 

I then adjusted selective sync settings to minimize the number of folders being synced to just those folders I use regularly.  After waiting a few hours for activity to cease, Dropbox ram usage dropped to 700 MB on a clean restart.  The ram usage is again creeping up as I leave the computer running.  It is now at 720 MB after about 3 hours.

 

A competitor app on the same computer is running steadily at 35 MB and does not grow over time.  It has significantly more files and and folders being synced.

 

Sounds like a memory leak somewhere in the Dropbox app.

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!