High CPU usage even when not syncing or indexing

Yes, we're simply reinstalling it while it's installed, just to repair any potential issues in the program itself. All settings will remain the same.

Hi, I looked at all my DB settings, uninstalled, re-installed.  It's still consuming a lot of RAM ~500MB just to keep 20k files in sync:

After existing, opening and leaving 2 hours:

What on earth is it doing with that much memory?!  Outlook which has been open for days is 'only' using 160MB and that's far more sophisticated than Dropbox.

I have the same question.  I've tried the recommended steps above and Dropbox still uses 550+ MB of system memory when it's not syncing, I'm not using any of the files I have stored, etc.  I love Dropbox and have used it for years.  But the system memory issue hasn't been touched since it began awhile ago.  And this isn't the first thread about it.  Will there ever be a fix?  Or is this something that can only be solved by switching to an alternative?

aljortonwhat OS are you running?

Windows 11, but it also happened with my last laptop with Windows 10

Clearly unlikely to do with the OS then.

How many files do you have in your Dropbox folder?  For me, 20,759 files, 2665 folders totalling 21.6GB.  Considering the same app deals with quotas up to 5,000GB, my current usage profile should be no sweat.

I have 62,586 files.  It's mostly personal (lower quality) photos and scanned 1-2 page documents (both .jpg and .pdf) for my work.  So they aren't huge files and it's built up gradually since 2015.  Total space is around 170 GB.  I could go through and delete some older stuff.  But I'm far from my 2TB limit, so I didn't think it was necessary. 

If you leave Task Manager open do you see Dropbox going crazy consuming one of your CPU cores for 10 minutes plus once or twice per day?  I have 4 cores and 8 logical processors, Dropbox is consuming 20% of that right now.  There's no associated disk activity which there would be if it was hashing files or whatever.

I wonder if they're mining crypto on my computer...  The graphs are showing 4 minutes of history on the low update speed setting in Task Manager.  All that CPU is Dropbox as I was away from the computer.  That would explain RAM usage as well!

dbox_ so what's the deal with why your software consumes so much RAM and CPU?

Also, have you considered how much extra CO2 emissions the processing issue is causing by millions of computers worldwide using 40W extra due to your software pinning the CPU for significant time on a daily basis, for no valid reason?  This needs fixing.  (Also something for Microsoft to think about with their heavyweight Windows Updates and ComPatTelRunner.exe nonsense that goes on every day.)

I will give this a try to see.  I'll be traveling for a month or so, but will check when I'm back at my desk regularly and can keep an eye on it.  This is an interesting thought. 

dbox_ 

Friendly, but also very seriously......the Dropbox Client on Windows OS (any) is broken in many, many ways.

Ever since Windows intruced changes into the explorer with the icon handeling the Dropbox client is killing the users CPUs. So far, there was no update that solved this issue.

Now, with the most recent changes in file indexing, anti-malware protection of Windows....but also with the integration of Dropbox into Office the issues got worse.

I have about 220k files on my computer and it can run FOR DAYS with dropbox maxing out my cpu. It's either one of the Dropbox processes or like here, the tray process. My system is currently running for a couple of hours, no file added, changed or any sort of syncing.

Well......

now to the point why I say the client is broken in MANY ways:

It's a interference of Dropbox Client, Windows Explorer, Antimalware and Windows Indexer. They cycle through the files, each time triggering the other processes to look at the files again.....and after that dropbox client decides to look at the files again, sometimes changing the cloud-status icon and the cycle repeats.

Don't argue with MS has to fix the problem, they won't. They decided to change the way Win10 and W11 are working and they won't go back because of one 3rd party software issue. It would be nice if for instance you could turn off the dropbox icons on folders and files as this would remove the issues with the win explorer.

And no, this is not an issue with the number of files. In 2019 my laptop, the very same machine I'm using right now had 4.8 MILLION frequently changed files to sync and did it with ease.

Edit:

 (reinstalled this week)

dbox_ 

Okay.....so I had the chance for a little experiment and it ended pretty devistating for you/your client.

I tracked down the cpu usage caused by dropbox-only processes as well as my average cpu load during working and private hours. The last 3 days I completely turned off dropbox as I had to work with another group that uses MS teams and onedrive for file syncing.

(edit: average loads and reformatted the table)

Cloud service -//- load (work)-//- load (private) -//- cloud load (work) -//- cloud load (private)

Dropbox         -//-  83 +/- 7% -//- 64+/- 19%     -//- 47%                       -//- 42%

OneDrive       -//-  66 +/- 8% -//- 30 +/- 16%   -//- 22%                       -//- <1%

Just to clarify, after my working hours no files have been added, modified or accessed on any of the cloud services.

Working hours were ~8-9h per day and on average I worked with 3-4 people on a shared drive. The funny part is, that teams and onedrive don't cause the rattle snake loop of indexing, antivirus checking and updating the cloud information. 

So I checked the idle CPU load with only dropbox and with only teams/onedrive activated. A total of 5 hours, all syncing processes were finished and I waited a total of 3 hours before measuring the idle load.

Idle w. Dropbox ~17% CPU

Idle w. Onedrive ~2% CPU

Seriously....HOW can this be. Both clients are supposed to do nothing. No files are being accessed, synced or anything and yet the dropbox client causes a high cpu load? And if it is not one of the dropbox processes, it is one of the file-inspection services from windows which than will trigger dropbox again. This loop needs to be stopped!

Hi there EvilBolzen, sorry to hear about this.

Have you taken a look at this Help Center article for possible reasons why this might be happening and how to tackle it? 

Hi Walter 

Everything that is mentioned in that article is not the case for me (and most others). Also, by the answers just in this thread all off the discussed "problems" can be outruled.

But just to summarize it again:

1. Dropbox is syncing a large number of files
   Simply.....NO! I have way fewer files in my Dropbox than compared to 2019 for instance. Also, I'm only synchronizing the absolute bare minimum with my computer. Right now due to cooperation works around 223k files. At peak times in 2019 I synced my whole Dropbox to my PC, resulting in way over 4 Million files. Never caused any trouble back than.
   I do get high CPU and RAM loads while Dropbox is idlying (according to the client, but not according to the windows task manager). But the truth is, since Windows 10 got the update on the Explorer and the usage of symbols in the explorer, Dropbox Client goes mayham and is battling with the search indexer, MS antivirus etc.
   
   How do I know? Well....as soon as the Dropbox client is "idlying" one of the mentioned MS processes checks on what Dropbox has done to the files and updates the symbols. Once they are finished, Dropboxs' cpu and ram load skyrockets and from the task manager I can see my hard drive is being actively used by dropbox processes. Once the dropbox processes calm down, the MS processes take over again and the cycle starts all over again. I watched this circle for a total of 4 days straight! The computer was running round the clock, I haven't touched the mouse or keyboard once in that time!
   
   I already tried anything I could find in this forum, this includes re-installing the dropbox client, reducing the number of files, deactivating the MS indexer (which is a nightmare when you need to access files frequently) and antivirus (if I have to explain to you why this is bad I'll immediately cancel my dropbox subscription).
   
   So for fun and giggle.....I did some experiments. W10 in a virtual machine, Linux Mint on a second hard drive with own Dropbox folder (not official client I believe). And well.....Linux Client works like a charm, after syncing 0% CPU load....as it should be. But the CLEAN freshly installed W10 in the VM......after syncing the CPU loads are still trash. Exactly like on my regular W10 installation.  
2. Other apps interfere with sync
   The only other "PROGRAM" that is connected to dropbox is Microsoft Office. But even this is not running for the majority of time. because....you guess it: It causes high cpu loads. Currently....I CAN'T work with Dropbox client running and MS Office....because when the Dropbox Client is gulping on my CPU my Office completely freezes, typing only 1 letter every ~10seconds. I reinstalled Dropbox Client and Office already....nothing helped.
   I also turned off my Phone to prevent a secondary device causing trouble...again, nothing changed.
   
   And final note to that point: I don't run any programs that are being installed in Dropbox, so no temporary files causing issues. Everything is just data files of various types.
3. Files in your Dropbox folder have the wrong permissions
   Windows file permission handling might be a mess, but this is one thing that hasn't changed in W10 at all if I remember correctly. The dropbox client (and my windows user account on the local machine) have full access to the dropbox files that are synced to my drive. No permission violations or anything, not even an entry in the event-manager about wrong permissions.
4. The Dropbox folder is installed on a NAS device
   Nope. Regular SSD in my computer.
5. Your device doesn’t support extended attributes
   Nope. Since I'm running the regular client on my Windows installation, the file system is NTFS as requested. 

So.....after this is answered back to the topic:

The issues came with the Windows explorer update and symbol handling. Ever since the dropbox client is running in circles with the MS processes.

I worked/work with many different cloud services, some with/without clients, some only available under Linux etc etc.....you get the point. But the dropbox windows client is without a doubt the most un-optimized and problem causing client I've ever used at this point. It has nothing to do anymore with it's previous glory from 2019 where it just worked and where you would only get CPU load when the client was actually syncing files. As I mentioned, the issues were caused by MSs changes in the explorer......but this is how W10 and W11 are now working, this won't change. What's missing is your adaption to the problem.

But I guess not enough users are complaining about this sh** because they just assume their PC is either not powerfull enough or they don't care about how well their PC is running. But honestly.....I don't see myself working with Dropbox in the future with these rising problems. 

Hello dbox_ knock knock!  Anybody in??  KNOCK KNOCK Dropbox!

You've clearly got software problems to acknowledge and fix.  When is your stack of technical debt client application going to be fixed?

Hi megawhite,

Glad to help you here in the Community.

You'll see I moved your post to a larger thread where you can see what's been tried in similar circumstances.

Be sure to rule out everything here, first: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/high-cpu-usage

Let me know what you find!

dbox_

This thread:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/High-CPU-usage-even-when-not-syncing-or-indexing/m-p/706712#M73035

How is it solved?

In the penultimate message before Calvin2DBX unhelpfully locked the thread and set it to solved(??!!)

"Everything that is mentioned in that article is not the case for me (and most others). Also, by the answers just in this thread all off the discussed "problems" can be outruled."

Refers to this post which Calvin2DBX provided for a second time in the last post:

 https://help.dropbox.com/installs/high-cpu-usage

PROBLEM IS NOT SOLVED.

NEEDS SOMEONE WITH SOME BRAIN TO FIX YOUR SOFTWARE.

WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT?

EvilBolzen 

Hey megawhite and EvilBolzen, we appreciate you taking the time to post about this and we will make sure that your feedback is heard.

I'd also like to suggest our Dropbox for Windows 10+ beta, which is focused on the changes introduced with Microsoft’s new sync API called Cloud Files.

We’ve been revamping our sync engine to make use of the Cloud Files API and we'd be happy to have you as contributors, if you're eligible.

To join the Dropbox for Windows 10+ beta, you’ll need to opt-in to the Dropbox early release program, which is currently available to a limited number of users.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Hi Hannah we are not after more potentially ropey beta software.  The existing client needs fixing.

Walterclearly explains he installed Dropbox in a clean virtual machine and still the CPU issues persist.  There is absolutely no doubt the Windows Dropbox client needs urgently fixing to stop this behavioural madness.  I have just had to kill it multiple times today because it just keeps thrashing the CPU on my system for extended periods of time for absolutely no reason and I'm not having that.  This is clearly NOT an isolated incident and can be reproduced easily in a clean VM.

Hannah 

I can only totally agree with megawhite . The current release needs to get the fix asap.

I did test out the beta client, and to my surprise it really fixes the CPU issues, when nothing is being synced, the CPU load from Dropbox processes drops below 1% (usually less than 0.1% on an average of one hour) and also the Windows Processes seem to "ignore" changes once the Dropbox Client is done with syncing.

However, the beta client has some bugs and specifically drawbacks for me:

Bugs:

• randomly, the client just shuts down. No reason given, even in the windows eventmanager there is no entry other than the process was ended.
• I had to login a couple of times for some reasons, like it wasn't saving my credentials properly on the first few times.
• The task bar icon sometimes isf lickering on my screen when I launch the client (e.g. after it closed or rebooting the pc). Again, randomly and I can't enforce it

Drawbacks (totally personally, may not be the case for others):

• the regular client has no issues with my wifi/internet connection at work or at home, the beta client however is struggeling with my home connection. I don't think it's related to the wifi/router, but from my ISP (start.ca). Sometimes the connection to the servers is slow/delayed. E.g. if I add something from my phone via mobile data or a colleague uploads at work (100MB/s upload) it can take several hours before my beta client is syncing the changes. The file is immediately available on the web interface, as well as on my phone and the "regular release" client. 

Hi megawhite, in order to look into this matter in more detail, would it be possible to reach out to the email associated with your forum profile?

EvilBolzen, we appreciate feedback on the Windows 10+ beta app. If you wish, we can contact you via email for the issues you're experiencing, if you haven't contacted the support team already.

Hi Jay absolutely no problem making contact via email, help me to help you.  I am a programmer myself so hopefully on the same wavelength.

Andrew

Thanks, I've sent you an email, please could you reply to it when you get a chance.